Miss Havisham Essay

Satis house, where Miss Havisham lives, is seen as gothic and strange. The house had all ‘the windows walled up’ symbolising that Miss Havisham is trapping herself from reality. Dickens also highlights her frailty as if the natural light could ‘struck her to dust’ suggesting that she’s almost vampiric or supernatural, adding to the Victorian audiences fascination. Additionally, the repetition of the house being ‘rustily barred’ can reflect the house as being a prison as Miss Havisham has imprisoned herself, Dickens could also be trying to represent her feelings of insecurity and decay. The first sight the reader gets of Miss Havisham is of her sitting ‘in an arm chair, with an elbow resting on the table’ this image is one of resignation and dejection as there is a sense that Miss Havisham has given up. She was wearing a wedding dress, symbolising that she is trying to preserve the identity as an expectant bride. It was made of ‘rich materials- satins, lace and silks’ emphasising her wealth, however these rich materials that were ‘once white’ are ‘now yellow’ The syntax shows that even though time has moved on, Miss Havisham is locked in a moment of stasis. Pips narrative voice explains her to ‘the strangest lady I have ever seen, or shall ever see’ The adjective ‘strange’ qualifies how odd and perverse Miss Havisham appears and the additional clause ‘or shall ever see’ further qualifies how her strangeness is extraordinary. Dickens, however, denies sympathy for Miss Havisham as his gothic depiction of her, causes her to become a freakish object of ridicule. She appears as a ‘skeleton in the ashes of a rich dress’ that has ‘shrunk to skin and bone’. Dickens shows that there is a physical and emotional decay that appears gothic and skeletal. She has become ‘withered’ making her ‘the complete realisation of the ghastly waxwork at the fair’. Dickens purposely states her as the waxwork at the fair as these freakish displays were shown as a form of popular Victorian entertainment. His physical description of Miss Havisham is seen as monstrous and grotesque embodying the form of a gothic monster, therefore making it difficult for the reader to sympathise with her. The language, Dickens uses, is associated with death as he is implying that love humanises and offers life and hope to people, whereas Miss Havisham has locked her heart away, therefore making it seem as though she is deathly. Furthermore, the image of Miss Havisham looking at herself in the mirror shows how she is uncertain of her identity, as she tries to fix herself as an expectant bride. The way she views herself is different to how she seems, ‘so new to him, so old to me: so strange to him, so familiar to me’ she has locked herself in the past and is unable to move on from a time she was happy. Pip forces Miss Havisham to think and look at herself differently. The syntax’s ‘new’-‘old’ and ‘strange’-‘familiar’ shows how she is moving in and out of different perspective. The use of the words as opposites shows how she has a completely misplaced view of herself. Alternatively, in chapter 49, Miss Havisham becomes humanised. Her appearance is acknowledged as Pip finds her sitting in a ‘ragged chair’ which presents a sense of decay and lost worth. There was a ‘new expression’ on her face, but her eyes pained, her face was worn by something more than age and her appearance overall is described as more haggard and withered than ever. She was staring at the ‘ashy fire†¦ lost in contemplation’, in this image Dickens appears to play on the myth of the phoenix as the ‘ashy fire’ implies that Miss Havisham, like the phoenix rising form the ashes, wishes to be reborn in order to atone her malice. Miss Havisham’s freakish appearance at the start of the novel changes as Dickens humanises her to point where she cries. She ‘dropped on her knees at my feet and held her hands out†¦ hung her head and wept’ showing the physical image of Miss Havisham’s repentance makes her seem vulnerable as it is the first time the reader sees her cry and showing her feelings, especially to a man. The crying humanises her as we see her real emotions, it also links to the myth of the phoenix as the tears are said to heal. In the process of Miss Havisham setting alight; Pip sees ‘her running at me, shrieking, with a whirl of fire blazing all about her’ Dickens in this image presents Miss Havisham as devilish as she runs towards Pip. However, it relates to the myth of the phoenix and shows that through the burning of her dress she is forgiven and extends the idea of being cleansed as it purges all evil. As Pip tries to distinguish the flames, he drags down the ‘great cloth from the table and with it dragged down the heap of rottenness and all the ugly things that sheltered there’ and wrapped it around Miss Havisham, showing his care and consideration that has grown for Miss Havisham. Whilst Pip cradles Miss Havisham on the floor, the ‘beetles and spiders were running away over the floor’ whereas before the spiders were nibbling at Miss Havisham, again a sense of purging, cleansing and healing. As they lay Miss Havisham on the table with a ‘white sheet loosely covering her’ suggests that she is finally at peace and furthermore gives a sense of purity and cleansing with the pure white sheet. ‘The phantom air of something that had been and was changed’ Dickens shows the reader that Miss Havisham has changed during this and has become reborn. To conclude, Dickens presents Miss Havisham as a challenge to Victorian society. He also shows that love is redemptive and necessary and without it, we are nothing. Within Miss Havisham’s reformation Dickens shows the strength of her character. His intentions in creating Miss Havisham were to try and show the hardship that women who were rejected by the Victorian society had to go through and how cruel the society have been in marginalising them. By doing so Dickens has cleverly began to deconstruct the stereotype of a spinster and questions expectations. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Great Expectations section.