Miss Havisham

Miss Havisham is one of the most prominent characters from the Charles Dickens novel great expectations, in a way she is the link that ties the story together as an eccentric, bitter and slightly,  actually... very unhinged fifty something, who despises men after being jilted at the alter by the love of her life as a young woman. Unable to move on she endevours to make it her lifes mission to watch men suffer by breaking their hearts using her adopted daughter Estella as her tool of punishment. although slightly unbelievable due to her overly eccentric ways she is a fantastically interesting character to examine. Charles Dckens paints a fabulous picture with words, of a woman who is clearly psychologically damaged and can not let go of the past, as she hides herself away from the world greiving for the man who broke her heart and the life she once dreamed of which will now never become reality, still wearing the now tattered, torn and discouloured wedding dress she was wearing the day she was left.
it is in chapter Eight of the novel where pip first encounters Miss Havisham, his first statement being that she is he strangest woman he has ever seen or will ever see. Initially he describes the manor in which she is dressed, it is clear to him that she is wearing a bridal dress complete with a veil and flowers, although it takes a minute for the realization that something is not quite right, as she is in-fact an ageing woman rather than a youthful bride. It is at this point where he continues to describe her corpse like appearance, withered and white, like a wax work or skeleton.
"In an armchair, with an elbow resting on the table and her head leaning on that hand, sat the strangest lady I had ever seen, or shall ever see.
she was dressed in rich materials - satins, and lace, and silks - all of white. Her shoes were 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 sparkling on he table. Dresses, less splendid than the dress she wore, and half packed trunks, were scattered about. she had not quite finished dressing for she had but one shoe on - the other was on the table near her hand -  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 hankerchief, and gloves, and some flowers, and a prayer book, all confusedly heaped about the looking glass.
I saw that everything in my view which ought to be white, had had been white long ago, and had lost its lusture, 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. I saw that the dress had been put upon the rounded figure of a young woman, and that the figure upon which it now hung loose, had shrunk to skin and bone. Once I had been taken to see some ghastly waxwork at the fair, representing I know not what impossible personage lying in state. Once I had been taken to one of our old marsh Churches to see a skeleton in the ashes of a rich dress that had been dug out of a vault under the Church pavement. Now, waxwork and skeleton seemed to have dark eyes that moved and looked at me"
it was when I was stood before her, avoiding her eyes, that I took note of the surrounding objects in detail, and saw that her watch had stopped at Twenty minutes to Nine, and that the clock in the room had stopped at Twenty minutes to Nine.
 something interesting which Pip pints out in his description of the room is the fact that not only had Miss Havisham's watch stopped at Twenty minutes to Nine but the clock in the room had also stopped at the exact time. It would have been an extremely unlikely coincidence that this would have happened, so it must be assumed that Miss Havisham had manually stopped the time on both the clock and the watch at the same time herself. As it happen,s the Victorians had a number of bizarre rituals which they carried out upon mourning the death of a loved one One of which happened to be stopping all the clocks in the home at the time the exact time deceased had passed away. As we know Miss Havisham was never able to get over the shock and pain of being left at the alter was this her way of grieving for the lost relationship? Mourning for the man who left her as though he had died.

Bibliography

Anne Bancroft Photo (no date). Anne Bancroft as Mrs.Dinsmoor in Great Expectations Picture - Photo of Anne Bancroft - FanPix.Net. Available at: http://fanpix.famousfix.com/0019632/015086343/anne-bancroft-as-mrs-dinsmoor-in-great-expectations-picture.html (Accessed: 23 January 2015).

Dickens, C., Mitchell, C. and Trotter, D. (2003) Great expectations. United Kingdom: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated.

‘File:Miss Havisham film Martita Hunt.jpg’ (2012) Wikipedia. Wikipedia. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Miss_Havisham_film_Martita_Hunt.jpg (Accessed: 23 January 2015).

Friends of Oak Grove Cemetery (no date). Victorian Funeral Customs and Superstitions. Available at: http://friendsofoakgrovecemetery.org/victorian-funeral-customs-fears-and-superstitions/ (Accessed: 23 January 2015).

Global, I. (2011) Gillian Anderson, Helena Bonham Carter and Miss Havisham on film, Culture. 2011-11-22. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/8907506/Gillian-Anderson-Helena-Bonham-Carter-and-Miss-Havisham-on-film.html?image=12 (Accessed: 23 January 2015).

Havisham back story gives Dickens’s twisted jilted spinster a soul(no date). Havisham back story gives Dickens’s twisted jilted spinster a soul. Available at: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/havisham-back-story-gives-dickenss-twisted-jilted-spinster-a-soul/story-fn9n8gph-1226531465099?nk=c648e7ab0025c27680c47f89cc6747f4 (Accessed: 23 January 2015).

(no date a). Available at: http://moviespictures.org/movie/Great_Expectations_1934 (Accessed: 23 January 2015).

(no date b). Request Rejected. Available at: http://www.thecityreview.com/greatex.html (Accessed: 23 January 2015).

Citation

(Dickens, Mitchell and Trotter, 2003)

(Friends of Oak Grove Cemetery, no date)

(no date a)

(no date b)

(Global, 2011)

(Anne Bancroft Photo, no date)

(Havisham back story gives Dickens’s twisted jilted spinster a soul, no date)

(‘File:Miss Havisham film Martita Hunt.jpg’, 2012)