The Comparison between the visits of Jem to Mrs Dubose in To Kill A Mockingbird with the visits of Pip to Miss Havishamin Great Expectations.

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The Comparison between the visits of Jem to Mrs Dubose in To Kill A Mockingbird with the visits of Pip to Miss Havisham in Great Expectations.

This essay is regarding the many similarities and differences found when comparing the scenes of Jem’s visits to Mrs Dubose in To Kill A Mockingbird and Pip’s visit to see Miss Havisham in Great Expectations.

Both Jem and Pip have been forced to go and visit the two old women. This is because Jem had ‘cut the tops of every camellia bush Mrs Dubose owned’ and Pip was forced by those who had brought him ‘up by hand’, especially his sister. However, Pip was very glad to have arrived at Miss Havisham’s, probably to get away from his sister, but on the other hand Jem didn’t want to visit Mrs Dubose because he had to read to her for a month and because her house is ‘dark and creepy’ from all of the ‘shadows and things on the ceiling’. The other reason for Jem visiting Mrs Dubose was because Atticus, Jem and Scout’s father, wanted Jem to help Mrs Dubose, learn from his experience and develop humanity. In contrast to this, Mr Pumblechook and Pip’s sister send Pip to Miss Havisham for her to ‘favour’ him and hand over some of her ‘fortune’ to Pip.

Miss Havisham is a well-known lady in her region as ‘everyone miles around’ had heard of her ‘up town’ as she ‘led a life of seclusion’ and was an ‘immensely grim and rich lady’ who lived in a ‘large dismal house, barricaded against robbers’. Similarly, Mrs Dubose is well known in Maycomb as it was almost ‘impossible to go to town without passing her house’. Mrs Dubose would always sit in her wheelchair on her porch gazing and interrogated the behaviour of Jem and Scout.

Miss Havisham is a quarter of an hour away from Pip’s home. She is situated by a ‘large brewery’ where ‘no brewing was going on in it’. On the other hand, Mrs Dubose is situated near to the ‘business section’ of an ‘old town’ called Maycomb, ‘two doors up the street’ from where Jem lives. This shows that Miss Havisham is isolated, whereas Mrs Dubose is living close to many people in a community.

Miss Havisham’s house was of ‘old brick’ and had ‘many iron bars to it. Some of the windows had been ‘walled up’ but those that remained were ‘rustily barred’. Furthermore, the courtyard in the front was also barred. This gives an impression that Miss Havisham is locked up n isolation. Likewise, Mrs Dubose had a front yard that had many camellia bushes. In addition, she also had had a front porch.

Miss Havisham’s courtyard was ‘paved and clean’ but grass was ‘growing in every crevice’, and the brewery edifice that stood open had a ‘little lane of communication’ with the courtyard.

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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’ ...

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