Dickens ‘Great Expectations’
Pip’s account of the events that took place after visiting Miss Havisham
My Uncle Pumblechook took me to the home of Miss Havisham. The initial image I had was of a dismal house made from old brick with the windows either bricked up or barred and with a disused brewery at the side of the property. Obviously once a luxurious house it was now beginning to crumble and decay.
A very beautiful young girl called Estella met me. Although only my age she seemed to delight in calling me ‘boy’. She told me the Manor house also had the name ‘Satis House’ which in Greek, Latin or Hebrew means ‘Enough house’ and she claimed that whoever had this house would want for nothing, I found this a curious fact. I went in through the side door as the great entrance had two bars across it. I followed Estella who was holding a single candle along dark passages, where all daylight was excluded.
Once Estella and I arrived at a door, she left me in pitch black telling me scornfully she didn’t want to go in. I was nervous and apprehensive, however given no other choice I knocked at the door. Once told to enter I found myself in a large dark room in which initially my eyes focused on a draped dressing table festooned with many objects. On further observations I spotted an armchair, sitting in which, I saw the strangest lady I had ever seen before and knew I ever would again. Dressed all in white the bridal dress she wore must have once been worn by a young woman, however now it was seen on an old women whose shrunken body was mere skin and bones. All I could conjure up was the comparison of Miss Havisham to a waxwork skeleton, now in ‘the ashes of a rich dress’. The bridal dresses luxurious ‘fabrics’ of satin, lace and silk were now yellow, faded and paper-thin, and added to this the flowers in her hair and veil gave me the uncomfortable feeling that the women was now dressed in her grave clothes. When Miss Havisham’s dark eyes turned to look at me I felt utter alarm and wanted to shout, but nothing came out.
