Miss Havisham Analysis

Charles Dickens: Great Expectations

In Charles Dickens’s novel Great Expectations, two minor characters stand out as cornerstones to understand the main character Pip Gargery. The convict, a mysterious prisoner encountered by Pip in the first chapter of the novel, and Miss Havisham, a demented lady who invites Pip to play in her vast manor in chapter eight. Both of these have mysterious background and are very important in displaying motifs, developing theme, and helping our understanding of Pip the main character.

Both these entities have their own relation to Pip, but they strangely seem to be related in a complex manner. Both the characters Miss Havisham and the convict are linked closely with

their respective surroundings, as Dickens

employs imagery and pathetic
fallacy to illustrate this. The novel echoes
many of Dickens’s own life experiences, and the reader is given a
strong flavour of Victorian history and commonplace.

The novel begins with a seven-year-old young Pip visiting the graves of his parents and brothers, where he is surprised by the convict: “[a] fearful man, all in coarse gray, with a great iron on his leg. A man with no hat, and with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied round his head. A man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars; who limped and shivered, and glared and growled; and whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me by the chin.” (Dickens 4) Dickens describes the convict as a dirty, sloppy, and rude. He reinforces this idea of an unmannered convict by his aggressive attitude towards Pip and his way of eating “in a ravenous way that was very disagreeable, and all his actions were uncouth, noisy, and greedy.” (Dickens 8) The convict is introduced to Pip as a shock, at first he come across as
being manipulative and seems to be intimidating and oppressive. Murderous intentions are given by to the convict which are misleading. The way Dickens describes him shows us that he feels sorry for him. The convict only seems cruel because of his hardships. However, we get the first hint that he might be more than a criminal when he thanks Pip for bringing him food and “smears a rough sleeve over his eyes.” This proves that Pip’s kindness had a powerful effect on him that he is not going to forget soon.
A fearsome criminal, the convict is the first minor character encountered by Pip, and by far the most intimidating. Escaped from the Hulks, prison-ships where prisoners wait to be shipped to one of England’s penal colonies, he terrorizes pip in the cemetery, forcing him to bring him a file for his irons and some food. He tricks the seven-year-old boy into believing that he has an accomplice who is a terrible young man who would tear out and eat Pip's heart and liver if Pip did not help them. On his way back with the items, Pip encounters another escapee and tells his convict about it. Despite of his own fate, Pip’s convict decides to take the other one back to the Hulks with him. They are still struggling when the soldiers find them and seize them. Although he assures the soldiers of his good intentions, the convict could as well lie about his motives to not look guilty. However, Pip’s kindness seems to make a deep impression on him, as he later returns to pay Pip back with 2£, which is much more than the original price of the items and a fair amount of money for the time, suggesting that he made or has a lot of money for a veteran convict. The convict also doesn’t tell the soldiers that it was Pip who gave him the file and the food, but rather assumes the responsibility of the theft. This event shows a deep loyalty towards Pip, even if the boy just did what he was told to do.
The convict contributes to the display of the crime and criminality motif by being a convict. He also contributes to the development of the criminality, and loyalty themes. He helps us understand that Pip is a scarred little boy, but with a big heart and a naïve attitude. Pip is like this because he is young. The convict isn’t a direct influence on Pip’s development but he does influence him to be a better person and leaves an indelible mark on Pip’s mind and social advancement is the only way to not finish like the convict. The convict seems very mysterious, and will surely play a bigger part in the next chapters of the novel.

Pip encounters Miss Havisham for the first time in chapter eight, after honoring the invitation she sent him. As Pip describes Miss Havisham, she is "(…) dressed in rich materials- satins, and lace, and silks- all of white. And she had a long white veil dependent from her hair, and she had bridal flowers in her hair, but her hair was white. Some bright jewels sparkled on her neck and on her hands, and some other jewels lay sparkling on the table...She had not quite finished dressing, for she had but one shoe on...her veil was but half arranged, her watch and chain were not put on, and some lace for her bosom lay with those trinkets, and with her handkerchief, and gloves, and some flowers, and a prayer-book, all confusedly heaped about the looking glass...I saw that everything within my view which ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its lustre, and was faded and yellow. I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress, and like the flowers, and had no brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes... Now, wax-work and skeleton seemed to have dark eyes that moved and looked at me.” (Dickens 128-9)
The mad, vengeful Miss Havisham, a wealthy dowager who lives in a rotting mansion called Satis House or Enough House near Pip’s village.

She is manic and often seems insane, fitting around her house in a faded wedding dress, keeping a decaying feast on her table, wearing only one of her shoe, and surrounded herself with clocks stopped at twenty minutes to nine. With a kind of manic, obsessive cruelty, she adopts Estella and deliberately raises her as a weapon in order to break men’s heart. Miss Havisham is an example of single-minded vengeance pursued destructively: both Miss Havisham and the people in her life suffer greatly because of her quest for revenge. While Estella was still a child, Miss Havisham began casting about for boys who could be a testing ground for Estella's education in breaking the hearts of men as vicarious revenge for Miss Havisham's pain. Pip, the narrator, is the eventual victim; and Miss Havisham readily dresses Estella in jewels to enhance her beauty and to exemplify all the more the vast social gulf between her and Pip. When, as a young adult, Estella leaves for France to receive education, Miss Havisham eagerly asks him, "Do you feel you have lost her?” This quote shows that Miss Havisham takes a perverted pleasure in hurting Pip and that her desire for revenge still as strong as

ever.