Pip describes Miss Havisham as a walking corpse. He describes the silk stocking on her foot as “ragged”, and says that “without this arrest of everything, this standing still of all the pale decayed objects, nor even the withered bridal dress on the collapsed form could have looked so like grave-clothes, or the long vale so like a shroud”. He also contrasts her “frillings and trimmings on her bridal dress” to “looking like earthly paper”, and compares her figure to that of a “ghastly waxwork at the fair”. This comparison of Miss Havisham to a waxwork and skeleton foreshadows her fate. He also mentions associated images of darkness and decay, such as “withered” and “sunken eyes”. He realises that Miss Havisham has frozen time after the emotional trauma of her inexistent wedding day. She has refused to move on and instead has devoted her life solely to something to disregard time. Miss Havisham has taken out her unhappiness and anger on the male race as a whole, even raising her adopted daughter Estella to break the hearts of men in the future. She is so wrapped up in her revenge, that she tells Estella that she can “break his heart”. This also shows that she can be quite manipulative and clever, as she is using Estella’s ultimate goal, to break all men’s hearts, to make her play with Pip, just for her amusement. Miss Havisham notices that Pip says nothing of Estella, whilst she insults him. She asks him why, saying, “You say nothing of her, she says many hard things of you, but you say nothing of her. What do you think of her?” Pip replies by answering, “I don't really like to say”, but he does tell her in her ear that he thinks Estella is “very proud”, “very pretty”, and “very insulting”. He adds that he “should like to go home”. The fact that Miss Havisham has asked him to speak in her ear shows that she is quite intelligent, and knows exactly what to say to Pip in order to make him trust her. Moreover, Miss Havisham seems to think that her adopted daughter is very attractive, and jumps to conclusions, as she adds “and never see her again, though she is so pretty?” Pip responds to this with “I am not sure that I shouldn't like to see her again, but I should like to go home now”. Miss Havisham, however, answers him by saying, “You shall go soon. Play the game out.” This demonstrates that she is in control, and has no consideration for his feelings. When she orders Pip to come again, she says “"There, there! I know nothing of days of the week; I know nothing of weeks of the year. Come again after six days. You hear?” This is successful in escalating the atmosphere of mystery around Miss Havisham, as the reader speculates on why she does not know the date or the day.
The repetition of the deceased theme throughout the chapter reminds the reader of Miss Havisham’s personality, and her creepy appearance. At the end of the chapter Pip describes his hallucination of Miss Havisham when he turned his “eyes - a little dimmed by looking up at the frosty light - towards a great wooden beam in a low nook of the building near me on my right hand, and I saw a figure hanging there by the neck. A figure all in yellow white, with but one shoe to the feet; and it hung so, that I could see that the faded trimmings of the dress were like earthy paper, and that the face was Miss Havisham's, with a movement going over the whole countenance as if she were trying to call to me. In the terror of seeing the figure, and in the terror of being certain that it had not been there a moment before, I at first ran from it, and then ran towards it. And my terror was greatest of all, when I found no figure there.” This hallucination illustrates how terrifying and ghostly Miss Havisham’s appearance is. In chapter 49, Pip meets Miss Havisham again. This Miss Havisham is very different to the Miss Havisham in chapter 8. In “Great Expectations”, the themes of Love, Isolation and Redemption are the structure that the other themes are based on. This chapter contains all three. The chapter begins with Pip coming to see Miss Havisham. He says that “there was an air or utter loneliness upon her”, which enforces the theme of isolation. As soon as Miss Havisham sees him, she stares, and says in a low voice, “Is it real?” This reveals that she is surprised he has answered her note. She does not have the same amount of control, and it seems that she cannot make her commands obligatory anymore. When he replies, “It is I, Pip. Mr. Jaggers gave me your note yesterday, and I have lost no time.” she says “Thank you. Thank you.” This level of politeness is much higher than that seen before in chapter 8, and reflects the amount of change that Miss Havisham has gone through. Pip also mentions that Miss Havisham has a new expression on her face, as if she were afraid of him. This is also a mark of the reformation of Miss Havisham’s character. She says that she wants to show him that she is “not all stone”; that she wants to show him that she is human. The old Miss Havisham would never even want to do a thing like that. She also asks him “But perhaps you can never believe, now, that there is anything human in my heart?” which is another contrast to the old Miss Havisham. Now Pip’s opinions matter, whereas they didn’t before. Pip also mentions Miss Havisham’s body language, saying, “When I said some reassuring words, she stretched out her tremulous right hand, as though she was going to touch me; but she recalled it again before I understood the action, or knew how to receive it.” This action reinforces the theme of loneliness, as she is trying to reach out to Pip.
She says that she wants to “do something useful and good” for Pip, which is very different to the old Miss Havisham, who was far too busy wallowing in self sympathy to help anyone or do anything constructive.
It seems that Pip is really important to Miss Havisham, as she says, “Do you break off because you hate me too much to bear to speak to me?” She thinks that everybody hates her, and thinks that she deserves to be hated. She says that she only wants forgiveness for her actions, which furthermore, is a main theme of the book, as she says, “My name is on the first leaf. If you can ever write under my name, “I forgive her,” though ever so long after my broken heart is dust – pray do it! ”
She calls Pip “my dear”, which shows that she cares about him, whereas she didn’t before, and speaks to him in a tone of sympathy. This is very different to the old Miss Havisham, who only had sympathy for herself. The theme of redemption is also present in the chapter when miss Havisham realises what she has done to Estella, and indirectly, to Pip. She says, ““What have I done! What have I done!” She wrung her hands, and crushed her white hair, and returned to this cry over and over again. "What have I done!”” Miss Havisham attains redemption when she humbles herself to ask Pip's forgiveness. Miss Havisham’s original intention differs from what she has achieved. Her original purpose for adopting Estella was to love her, but this intention changed to using her as a weapon for vengeance on all men. She then meant to raise Estella to hate and to break the hearts of all men, but her plan backfires, because in the process she has made Estella unable to love her too. After she explains this to Pip, her body language is again mentioned. Her arms were “on the ragged chair, and her head leaning on them”. This not only shows her remorse but also her shame. She answers all of his questions. When Miss Havisham catches fire, she is so badly burnt, that the doctor lays her out on the wedding feast table. This fulfils her death prophecy in chapter 11. The only thing she can think about is Pips forgiveness, which shows how she is truly sorry for her actions.
Overall, I think that Miss Havisham is one of Dickens most memorable characters, and Dickens presents her very effectively to the reader, giving her character a lot of depth. Lastly, Miss Havisham’s character leaves you wondering if people really can change long after you have finished reading the novel, which inevitably makes you remember the book.
