Another theme he uses is deterioration. Ms. Havisham has turned to skin and bones and he uses the word ‘decayed’ to describe her. It’s saying that she is decaying and that she will carry on until she dies. ‘Shrunk to skin and bones’ is suggesting that she has turned into a living skeleton even though being jilted she was a fine young woman and wealthy. She has ‘shrunk’ which tells us that she must be more like a living corpse rather than a human. Ms. Havisham has ‘sunken eyes’. Dickens uses this because she is decaying everything about her is decomposing. Therefore her eyes have been buried right inside her. Dickens uses this to show that if we look at her you will find it hard to actually look her into her eyed because it has just sunken.
Dickens uses death as an extended metaphor as it gives an improved and clearer image of Ms. Havisham. He bombards the reader with images of death like ‘corpse-like’, ‘grave clothes’, ‘a dead lull upon her’, ‘dropped’ and many more. He does this to show us the devastating effect being jilted has upon her.
Dickens second technique is to make use of the environment. He uses this well to show Ms. Havisham and the circumstances living in there. Dickens tells us that Ms. Havisham’s house has ‘no glimpse of daylight’ in it. Even though she has an enormous house with massive windows. There is no light coming in! This is suggesting that she is shutting herself away from the outside world. The word ‘glimpse’ implies that she is so desperate to lock herself away, due to her depression, that she doesn’t want even the tiniest bit of natural light in her house. Therefore she uses candles instead which also suggests how wealthy she is. Ms. Havisham is a rich woman living in a huge house which earlier in her life have been sparkling, full of bright colours but we see the house from inside through Pip is in a horrible condition, as if it’s a haunted house. We know this because the objects around her have been decayed and still decaying exactly like Ms. Havisham. There is no glimpse of daylight to be seen anywhere because Ms. Havisham has no ‘light’ inside her. The phrases, ‘decayed’ and ‘no brightness left’ tell us this. The house feels haunted because Ms. Havisham looks like a living dead. The words ‘corpse-like’ tell us this. She is withered. She was ‘once white now yellow’ meaning she is not fresh and has dark ‘sunken eyes’ as if she is a vampire. ‘Daylight would turn her to dust’. This is showing that she is physically unfit and is in a terrible condition. The house is a reflection of Ms. Havisham. This is the state of mind. The house is also dark because she has no light shining in herself.
Dickens uses Ms. Havisham to influence Estella. In the beginning of the passage we see Ms. Havisham controlling Estella through bribery. She does this by giving her a necklace and saying ‘one day this will be yours dear’. This brainwashes and persuades Estella into making negative comments to Pip. This shows that Ms. Havisham is twisted. She is cruel. She will do anything to seek her revenge upon men. This means Ms. Havisham’s aim is to use Estella to gain revenge on men. The reader also notices that Estella’s behaviour and attitude has changed because of what Ms. Havisham wanted has taught her. Ms. Havisham makes Estella cold and cruel to young Pip as part of her revenge of men.
Similarly, Dickens uses the character of Estella to influence Pip by making her say horrible and cruel words to Pip which he doesn’t like and thinks is unreasonable to say and very cruel. Estella says to Pip that ‘he is a common labouring boy’. This is not acceptable to say as it is inappropriate to use words like that of his background. But Pip says nothing to her, Estella, how many times she offensives him such as she also says, ‘clumsy labouring- boy’. Of course Pip does not like this but he cannot really say things back to her because she, Estella, is a higher class than he is and because he likes her. Estella also attacks all Pip knows. ‘He calls the Knaves, Jacks, this boy!’ Estella uses language improperly to Pip. Pip does not say anything because Estella is a higher class than him so he can not really say anything back to her that his cruel, hard or harsh to her. Estella also started being abusive to Pip by cussing his appearance. ‘And what coarse hands he has! And what thick boots!’ Obviously Pip didn’t like this and when he did look at them he thought it was true. What rough hands he had and what thick boots he had. He still didn’t reply back to Estella. This shows us that Estella is very insulting. Dickens aim is to use Estella and make her be very atrocious to Pip. This would show the audience how upper classes behaved in front of lower classes and how one attacked whilst the other didn’t. The effects on Pip were he cried and kicked the wall. His feelings were so bitter that he took a hard twist on his hair. Pip was also humiliated, hurt, spurned, offended, angry and even sorry.
Dickens uses surrealism to present his characters in a better way. It highlights the effect the experience has on Pip. When Pip enters the huge house he expects to see a marvellous, luxurious, rich bright house but instead he was shocked by the condition and atmosphere of the house. It was dark and you couldn’t see many things. ‘Had no brightness left’. It had candles around the massive house. This shows the readers that Ms. Havisham is a rich person because then if you had candles at that time you were expected to be rich. It also shows that time had stopped as the house had enormous windows there were no glimpse of daylight was to be seen. ‘And that the clocks in the rooms had stopped’. So it tells that it was always dark with the candles on. Pip notes that all the clocks had stopped at the same time. From inside the house Pip had seen that the rooms were full of decayed rotten objects and cobwebs all over the furniture. The Satis house appears surreal at times because, as Pip enters he sees there are candles all over the house. He realizes the house is in darkness even though the mansion has large windows where light could travel through. There were curtains over the windows. It looked like time had stopped just like the clocks. It shows Pip that time has stopped and it’s going to stay like this. This compares to Ms. Havisham because she is also frozen and stopped in time like her house is and she also has no light inside her. Ms. Havisham is also surreal at times because she is described as a strange person. She has ‘sunken eyes’ and has ‘shrunk to skin and bones’. This shows us that she has deteriorated. Ms. Havisham is decomposing. The effects it has on Pip is that he realizes the clocks have been stopped at the same time which will be strange to him because he does not know that time has stopped. He would be a bit confused looking at Ms. Havisham because she is totally different. She looks as if she is dead.
The presentation of Ms. Havisham is influenced by society’s attitudes at the time and Dickens concern. Although Ms. Havisham seems like a monstrous character to the reader of today we must consider her in the context of 19th century Britain. Dickens describes her as a ‘ghastly waxwork’, which signifies a horrible, inhuman creature. In the 19th century upper class women were considered to be abnormal in some way if they were unmarried. This was because society expected upper class women to get married and to make marriage their main success in life. They did not have a formal education and so did not have career opportunities. When Ms. Havisham was jilted she had no choice but to lock herself away from the world. Furthermore, society viewed jilted women as odd and strange. So this would mean no-one of her class would want to marry her. The audience at the time would have some sympathy for Ms. Havisham but also feel that being jilted must have been in some way her fault.
It must also be remembered Dickens own personal life was in turmoil. He was separated from his wife and from his mistress. He then took revenge on both by creating a character based on them.
I believe that Dickens used these techniques very effectively. He presented his characters in a clear and easy way. My favourite technique was the extended metaphor. The reason being is it gave me a proper image of Ms. Havisham. The quote which I believe was the best was ‘daylight would turn her into dust’. This is because it shows how physically unfit Ms. Havisham is. She has turned to ‘skin and bones’. I can actually picture that in my mind because that’s how effective the phrase is.
