Miss Havisham House Analysis

In the story Great Expectations by Charles Dickens there was a fire at Miss Havisham's home. It was not a small home but a large one in today's standards. Her house was made up of bricks that seemed to be old. Her home also had rusted iron bars across most windows and some windows covered up with Sealed bricks. On the exterior of the house there was a large Brewery that seemed to have not been in use for a very long time. The Interior of her home was very dark, every hall Pip had turned all he saw was darkness. The only light source that Miss Havisham used were candles. Every hall and room around her home was dark and the only way to get any kind of light was from lighten candles that Miss Havisham had lit.

The Symbolic purpose of including this in his novel is to represent her Passion and the way she Lives. Miss Havisham's house is getting older and older, decaying away. For example Pip firsts notices that the fires are extinguished and that there is no life within the house or within herself. In Chapter 45 Pip says that "I saw her pass among the extinguished fires, and ascend some light iron stairs, and go out by a gallery high overhead, as if she were going out into the sky". However, on another day when their is an actual

fire lit, the fire is unwilling to go out Miss Havisham is unwilling to have people there. The day she has visitors is the say of her birthday. In chapter 59 Dickens writes that "A fire had been lately kindled in the damp old-fashioned grate, and it was more disposed to go out than to burn up". The more smoke there is in the room the colder it seems the fire seems to be making the room colder instead of getting hotter or warmer. This is also Symbolic because Miss Havisham who has enabled the people to come into her home but she really does not care for them and does not want them there because she believes there only there to get her money after she passes. But she accepts them on false pretences because they come for false pretences as they think they are only there for her money.
Dickens included this incident in his novel to make the reader understand how Miss Havisham lives life day to day, week by week and month by month.

Miss Havisham is a old lady that is dieing off and does not want people to just be there so when she dies they can get her money. People like that will make her uncomfortable and will make her not want to see anybody or talk to anyone. Miss Havisham talks to Pip and Estella because she knows that there no just their for the money there their because they actually care about her and what she is living through. The reason why Dickens included this incident into his novel is to clearly show Miss Havisham feelings throughout the story to show off how her character acts and why she acts a certain

way.