Great Expectations- Miss Havisham

The first 200 words of this essay...

Compare how Dickens presents the character of Miss Havisham when we first see her in chapter 8 and 11 to her final appearance in chapter 49.

The novel, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, is written in the genre of a bildungsroman. Dickens presents the story of a young boy, named Pip. Pip lives with his sister and her husband, Joe. His life is soon changed as he is sent to go visit Miss Havisham, a bitter old spinster. Dickens depicts an eccentric character in Miss Havisham. The cold hearted spinster seems to both conform to and challenge society's expectations of unmarried women in the Victorian Age. Her appearance aligns her with common misconceptions of a spinster's appearance as unattractive, as well as outcasts from the Victorian society. Dickens intentions of creating Miss Havisham were to try and challenge the position and status of women in the Victorian period. Although she might only appear a few times in the novel, she is an iconic character in that she seems to have shaped the future ideas on the role of women.

Dickens uses Pip's narrative voice to present a marked shift in Miss Havisham's attitude and intentions towards him. As