Great Expectations

Dickens was persuaded by a friend that he should change the ending: in the first version Pip and Estella, older and wiser, meet again only to separate permanently: in the second, Dickens leaves it open to the reader to believe whether they will be permanently united or not.

Miss Havisham is a wealthy, eccentric old woman who lives in a manor called Satis House near Pips village. She is manic and is often seen as insane, going around her house in a faded old wedding dress, keeping a decaying feast on her dining table and surrounding herself with clocks stopped at twenty minutes past nine. As a young woman, Miss Havisham was left by her fiancé minutes before her wedding and now she has a vendetta against all men.

On Pips first arrival he noticed the great front entrance, which had two chains across its outside, the iron bars in the windows of the house, the brewery at the side of the house and another thing he noticed was that the passages were all dark. The house is gloomy and mysterious and gives off the feeling of airiness. The name Satis House comes from the Latin for sufficient. Satis House reflects the corruption, decay and the fate of its owner which is Miss Havisham. The brewery next to the house symbolises the connection between commerce and wealth, the crumbling, old stones of the house, as well as the darkness and dust that invade it, symbolise the general decadence of Miss Havisham.

Miss Havisham's dressing room was large, well lighted with wax candles and there was no daylight. It was dusty, covered in cobwebs and it looked like everything had stopped, like the watch and the clocks. Everything that was once white was now yellow and there were pale decaying objects.

The images of her clothes are important because it has a connection to her feelings and what she has been through. For example the colour white represents pure which Miss Havisham had once been and now they were faded yellow which represent things that are no good which Miss Havisham is now.

The story being told from Pips childhood perspective is very good because it gives you an insight into how a little boy feels when he is faced with things and people like Miss Havisham. You can also relate to what he is thinking as well.

Miss Havisham's dining room had a fire light which looked like it was going to burn out, it was smokey, it was spacious and it had once been nice but it was now covered in dust and mould and dropping to pieces. The most prominent object in the dining room was a long table with a table cloth spread on it. There was a feast prepared on it and a centre-piece in the middle of the table, which was overhung in cobwebs, yellow and had a black fungus growing out of it. There were spiders and insects running to and from it and mice.

Dickens shows that Miss Havisham is vulnerable as she refuses to go outside and see daylight, she has made herself miserable because she could have moved on but chose not to for 26 years.

The significance of the wedding breakfast slowly decaying is good, it just gives you a better idea of how long she has just given up with life and she is slowly decaying like the breakfast.

I think that Miss Havisham only has herself to blame for why she is like that, although I think she would have been a nice person if she had got married. She is a living corpse, like the house and the dining table.

Dickens uses the location to reflect her character very well because as the house is getting older and decaying, Miss Havisham is too. She is basically a living corpse holding on to her last threads.

Laurisse Dottin 10W