From the outside, there was also an initial reluctance to go into the house because of the ‘shrill’ and ‘howling’ noises made by the wind around Miss Havisham’s house and because of the ‘great front entrance’ that had ‘two chains across it outside’ and ‘all was dark’, so this made Pip a little unwilling to enter. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Jem and Scout climbed the ‘steep front steps’, which shows that it was hard and tiring to mount, which makes it feel like a lot of effort was needed.
On Pip’s first visit to the ‘Enough House’ he was seen to by Miss Havisham’s attendant, Estella. Although she was of the same age, she seemed much older than Pip, was ‘beautiful and self-possessed’ and also ‘scornful’ to Pip. Estella was also very rude to Pip as she addressed him rudely, criticised his ‘coarse hands’ and ‘thick boots’. She treated him like he was a ‘dog in disgrace’. She made him feel ‘humiliated, hurt, spurned, offended, angry’ and sorry. Unlike Scout who has always looked out for Jem and has been much more sensible at times, like when she told Jem to ‘Go’n back to bed’ when he wants to go back and retrieve his pants from the Radley’s fence. Scout is a harmless, kind and polite young girl, whereas Estella is the exact opposite. This shows that Pip is alone whereas Jem has some moral support.
In her ‘creepy’ house, Mrs Dubose lay ‘under a pile of quilts’. Unlike Miss Havisham, who was dressed immaculately but still the ‘strangest lady’ Pip ever saw. She was covered with ‘rich materials’ that were ‘all of white’. She had a ‘long white veil dependant form her hair’ and wore ‘some bright jewels’ that ‘sparkled on her neck’. However, her clothes were still ‘scattered about’ as she had ‘not quite finished’ dressing, as she only had one shoe on, some ‘lace for her bosom’ and gloves still ‘confusedly heaped about’ on the looking-glass. Dissimilar to Miss Havisham, Mrs Dubose was just ‘horrible’. Her face was ‘the colour of a dirty pillowcase’ and the corners of her mouth ‘glistened’ with ‘cords of saliva’, which creates an impression of slime and wetness, and then when it ‘inched like glaciers’ it gives a feeling that Mrs Dubose is cold and solid. There is also a comparison here between the two women. Mrs Dubose is portrayed to be poor, whereas Miss Havisham is visualised to be very rich and even though she has changed, the jewels are still immaculately ‘bright’ and shiny on her, which shows that she hasn’t faded away as much as Mrs Dubose.
From time to time, her tongue would ‘undulate faintly’ as her mouth seemed to have a ‘private existence of its own’. This makes it sound like Mrs Dubose is mentally lost, as she can’t control herself any longer seeing that she is near to her death. Equally, when Miss Havisham was inspected closer, Pip saw that everything that was white had now ‘lost its lustre’ and was ‘faded and yellow’. This gives a feeling old age, staleness and rotting. Miss Havisham had ‘withered like the dress’ and flowers, had ‘shrunk to skin and bone’ and no longer had any ‘brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes’. She was like a ‘waxwork and skeleton’. The impression created here is of Ms Havisham being very thin like a ‘skeleton’, which is associated with death and decay where the one thing that could be seen are her eyes because the rest of her body has faded away.
Pip’s first sight of Miss Havisham was in her dressing room. It was a very large room ‘lighted with was candles’ there was a ‘draped’ table with a ‘gilded looking-glass’ which was ‘made out’ to be a ‘fine lady’s dressing table’, whereas Scout and Jem were confronted with an ‘oppressive odour’ and at the corner of the room was a brass bed where Mrs Dubose lay looking vulnerable. Again, the comparison between Miss Havisham and Mrs Dubose’s wealth is seen. There was also a ‘marble-topped washstand’ by her bed. On it were a glass, a ‘red ear syringe’, cotton and a ‘steel’ alarm clock.
The room was also described to be dark because of the odour that was like ‘rain-rotted grey’ houses where there are ‘coal-oil lamps’. This gives a mental image of a cold and gloomy room. Like wise, Miss Havisham’s ‘passages were all dark’ and there wasn’t a ‘glimpse of daylight’ to be seen in her dressing room.
One main similarity in both of the rooms is the dirtiness. Mrs Dubose has a ‘soot-stained mantelpiece’ and Miss Havisham’s ‘heavily overhung’ cobwebs were ‘covered with dust and mould’. There seemed to be growing ‘black fungus’ and ‘speckled-legged spiders with ‘blotchy bodies’ and mice spread about. This tells the reader that the two women don’t value hygiene as they both live in filth.
Once inside the dressing room, Pip is automatically treated as a little boy as Miss Havisham doesn’t greet him welcomingly. Immediately she tells Pip to ‘come close’. She also seems very dismissive and ‘impatient’ and also wants ‘diversion’ so ‘directed’ Pip to ‘play’.
It soon becomes obvious what Miss Havisham’s plan is because she tells Estella that she can still break Pip’s heart even if he is a ‘common labouring boy’. However, unlike Mrs Dubose, Miss Havisham’s never insulting. On many occasions Mrs Dubose was ‘vicious’ as she ’shot’ Scout and Jem many messages about their family. They had both become ‘almost accustomed’ to hearing insults aimed at Atticus, as Mrs Dubose ‘attack was only routine’. Similarly, when Jem visited her, her insults were still common because one of the first things that Mrs Dubose said was abusive towards Jem’s ‘dirty little sister’.
In addition, Mrs Dubose was very quick to catch up on Jem’s reading mistakes. She would ‘catch him and make him spell’ it out to her.
Similarly, both of the boys, Jem and Pip, were frightened when they had arrived at the house they were visiting but were both reluctant to admit it. On Jem’s first visit, he started off defending his sister by telling Mrs Dubose that his ‘sister ain't dirty’ and then said ‘quietly’ ‘I ain’t scared of you’, although Scout ‘noticed his knees shaking’. Likewise, after Pip was asked whether he was ‘afraid of a woman who had never seen the sun’ since he was born, Pip was not fearful of telling the ‘enormous lie’, so he answered ‘no’.
To Kill A Mockingbird and Great Expectations both rely on time, as it is a very important factor for both Mrs Dubose and Miss Havisham. Pip could see that all the clocks in Miss Havisham’s house were stopped at twenty to nine, and like the clocks, ‘everything in the room had stopped a long time ago’, yet Mrs Dubose yearned for time to go faster as she set her alarm clock ‘a few minutes later everyday’. This shows that Mrs Dubose is brave, in contrast to Miss Havisham who is a coward. I think this because Mrs Dubose has ‘real courage’ as she was ‘licked’ before she began and saw it ‘through no matter what’ unlike Miss Havisham ‘who has never seen the sun’ for many years just because she was stood up at her wedding a long time ago. She is a coward as she is scared to go out into the real world and try to trust other men again. Miss Havisham has a negative attitude, yet Mrs Dubose is so positive even though she is very near to her death.
The two novels are very much associated with death and dying. Mrs Dubose has a syringe by her washstand and she is like a prisoner as she can only travel onto her porch in her wheelchair and spends ‘most of each day in bed’ and everyday at certain times she would have ‘one of her fits’. Her life was basically over, also like Miss Havisham’s. Miss Havisham’s clocks had stopped; she had lost a ‘rounded figure of a young woman’ and is living in filth. She has imprisoned herself from the rest of the world and doesn’t want to be happy, but wants to remain in sorrow. A big similarity is seen here as Miss Havisham chooses not to see the sun, whereas Mrs Dubose has no choice. This shows that Miss Havisham is arrogant as she can go out and explore but is a coward, so chooses not to, unlike Mrs Dubose who can’t go out because of her cancer.
Another important point is that both of the women have spread their misery. However, Miss Havisham intended for this to happen whereas Mrs Dubose probably didn’t want Jem to go through unhappiness. The two women both have pain; one by a man and similarly Mrs Dubose’s pain could be for her dead husband but also from her cancer.
Miss Havisham has her way of getting her revenge on mankind by employing Pip to come to her house so that Estella can ‘break his heart’ when he falls in love with her. Miss Havisham does this because her heart was ‘broken’ by her ex- lover so she wants Pip’s heart to be treated just the same as hers. Nonetheless, Miss Havisham and Mrs Dubose aren’t quite the same because even though Miss Havisham feeds Pip ‘bread, meat and a little mug of beer’, she intends in hurting him emotionally whereas Mrs Dubose later gives Atticus a candy box which inside, ‘surrounded by wads of damp cotton, was a white, waxy, perfect camellia’ to give to Jem. This shows that in the end Mrs Dubose did give a small but meaningful and loving reward.
The difference in wealth and communities is very much seen in the scenes where the women are visited as Mrs Dubose lives in a neighbourhood where people such as Atticus are supportive of her and show her respect by trying to help her for nothing in return. On the other hand, Miss Havisham had to pay for Pip to have ‘diversion’, so there was probably no one to help distract her, or to come to ‘play’ and perhaps fall in love with Estella for free.
Both novels are set at different times with To Kill A Mockingbird located in the southern parts of the United States of America, and Great Expectations in England. This links to the language used in the novels as To Kill A Mockingbird has a major influence from the ‘coloured folks’ such as the word ‘yawl’, where as Great Expectations is written much more formally.
After looking at the similarities and differences, I think that the major points made were the treatment towards Jem by Mrs Dubose and Pip by Miss Havisham, including Estella, the resemblance and comparisons regarding time and also their spread of misery.
I strongly believe that these three points are the most important as they show why Mrs Dubose and Miss Havisham are doing what they are doing, living how they are living and what they are going through.