How do the physical characteristics of Miss Havisham and Wemmick reflect their state of mind?

Great Expectations Essay

Mr Scott

Great Expectations Essay

How do the physical characteristics of Miss Havisham and Wemmick reflect their state of mind?

In great expectations the minds of Miss Havisham and Wemmick are portrayed thorough there physical state, and place of residence. Miss Havisham, a wealthy woman with the power to do anything and everything she or anyone else could ever aspire to do, And Wemmick, a man with the means to do anything and everything, are two total opposites. Miss Havisham has so much, and does nothing with it, instead she prefers to let her wealth waste away with her and rot in her ‘prison’ along with her, Wemmick on the other hand has so little, but makes the most of it nonetheless.

Upon Pips arrival at Miss Havisham’s house he notices how old and depressing the house was “…Old brick, and dismal…” instantly the reader gets and image of how this house might look, dark, dingy, and emitting a strange sense of foreboding much like Miss Havisham herself. He next notices the abundance of rusty iron bars and widows that had been walled up “……had a great many iron bars to it. Some of the windows had been walled up” this is the point where the house starts to seem more like a self-imposed prison, created by the painful memory off her wedding day, than a manor house. This prison she has created for herself cuts off from the rest of society, none can get in, perhaps she wishes it to be like this not only for the fact that she wont have to deal with the embarrassment but also, like her heart, she might not want to let anybody in because of the fear that they will hurt her. If you see Miss Havisham as being the house, her ‘prison’ could also be in her mind, she may be trapped in a cage of embarrassment and even shame, unable to break free as if time has stopped in her world.

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As Pip moves along he finds himself looking at an old neglected brewery with a little pathway leading there from the courtyard “the brewary had a little lane of communication” this quote I have made has a intergraded double meaning, it is one of the very few ways to get to the manor house, and the little lane of communication can also be seen as to be linked with Miss Havisham directly, Estella states “better not try and brew beer there anymore, or it would turn sour…” the same can be said about miss Havisham …but instead of brewing beer ...

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As Pip moves along he finds himself looking at an old neglected brewery with a little pathway leading there from the courtyard “the brewary had a little lane of communication” this quote I have made has a intergraded double meaning, it is one of the very few ways to get to the manor house, and the little lane of communication can also be seen as to be linked with Miss Havisham directly, Estella states “better not try and brew beer there anymore, or it would turn sour…” the same can be said about miss Havisham …but instead of brewing beer it could be replaced with giving love, and then she says “not that anyone means to try……..that’s done with……it will stand as idle as it is until it falls” this means that just as miss Havisham will…it will stand there idle, without a purpose or any means to go on, until the day it falls, or of course in Miss Havisham’s case until she dies.

“…and the first thing I noticed was that al the passages were dark…” the first thing pip realizes is that all the passages are dark, this could mean that like her house Miss Havisham’s mind is full of dark empty passages once light and often used, but now dark and hardly ever used by anyone, including herself, she never things about anything else apart from her wedding day. Pip then goes on to say that there were a candle lighting there way through the dark passages, this could show that Miss Havisham is ‘not up to’ looking after her huge property, maybe because of her mental state, maybe that’s not just there only light through the strange complexed passages of miss Havisham’s house, but also the last flicker of miss Havisham’s sanity or life. When Pip finally meets Miss Havisham he’s eyes are instantly pulled to the sight of her clothes

“…sat the strangest lady I have ever seen… in rich materials – satins, and lace, and silks, all of white. Her shoes were white, and she had a long white veil dependent from her hair…”

This shows that maybe not now, but in the past she shown that she was rich and powerful and took pride in doing so. As the immediate image of the room sets in Pip also notices other things about Miss Havisham and the room

“…a bridal flower in her hair, but her hair was white. Bright jewels sparkled on her neck and on her hands, and some other jewels lay sparkling on the table. Dresses, less splendid than the dress she wore, and half-packed trunks were scattered about…”

From this we can gather that Miss Havisham was once a bride, but something has kept her in that dress. This suggests that something happened on her wedding day that wasn’t planned, she could have bin jilted at the alter and after that….time just stopped. In those days it was usually the man who had all the power and money and as soon as they were married the money would immediately belong to the man, if you were rejected or ‘stood up’ then that would be devastating for the bride, it was one of the most embarrassing things in those days, and considering she was the most powerful and ‘well thought of’ people of the community the embarrassment would have been overwhelming. Miss Havisham has been trapped in a psychological cycle, she can not get past the moment in her life when she was jilted, and that is the reason why she can not and does not intend to go outside because she feels she would yet again be faced with the pain of the embarrassment. She is also constantly reminded of this by the things that have been left out, the cake, the dress, the veil. More pain, more bitterness, the more harder it is to get over it, it is a continual cycle.

By Jordan Dawson