How does Charles Dickens shape the readers first impression of Miss Havisham?

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Sophie Wong 11A

G.C.S.E Assignment coursework – Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

How does Charles Dickens shape the readers first impression of Miss Havisham?

Miss Havisham is an old lady living without a partner in a mansion with only her niece for company. She’s very wealthy and for a woman living in a society in which this was written it would have been frowned upon to be alone. Woman were to be married and to belong to their husbands, Miss Havisham is on your own because she was jilted on her wedding day which has broken her heart and has left her with a hatred for all men. In the course of the novel, Miss Havisham is deserted again, but this time by Estella, who, after many years being taught by Miss Havisham not to love men, has clandestinely gotten married without informing her aunt. After Estella has gone, Miss Havisham becomes even lonelier and ends her life by burning to death when the ends of her dress catch fire because she stands too near it.  

Miss Havisham’s presence in the story is very important, without her Pip’s world would not have changed and he would not have known any different. The grand ideas that she gives him would never have existed and there wouldn’t have been any storyline. Her relationship with Pip is dishonest; she leads him to think that he’s going to eventually marry Estella when in fact all she wants is for him to fall in love with her, so she can break his heart. Her relationship is also quite important to Pip as without her he feels he cannot pass through into another class, she opens doors into other worlds for him and this makes her important to him.

She teaches Estella that love is wrong and that all men deserve to be miss-treated and hated, that self-respect is non-existent and she should never love. She teaches her that money and power are the only things that are important, to forget honesty, truth and the values of family and love. Dickens wants us to feel disgraced about the values she represents and to feel she’s in the wrong. He wants is to feel against her, her ways and to under no circumstances feel sorry for her, even though what has happened to her is tragic.

When Pip first visits Miss Havisham’s house he is astounded by the dressing room and it’s ornaments, un-organisation and chaos. This is the first room he enters and it’s so new to him. He is amazed by what he’s seeing. There’s a whole element of contrast as he passes through the room for example he’s young and innocent and the room in which he stands is so old and tired. The long descriptive sentences also contrast the short ones. For Example “but prominent in it was a draped table with a gilded looking glass, and that I made out at first sight to be a fine lady’s dressing table.” And “no glimpse of daylight was to be seen in it”. The social classes are also a contrast, with Pip being a young working class boy and Miss Havisham an old middle class woman. Because he is a young working class boy, all his surroundings are brand new to him as he’s probably never sever seen anything like it before, for example “Quite unknown to me” gives evidence to support my statement. Pip feels scared and amazed when he first enters and looks around. He’s scared because he doesn’t know where he is or who’s there with him and the ornaments; the chaos and the amount of light in the room amaze him. As his overall feeling, he is scared. Evidence to back my statement is “sat the strangest lady I have ever seen or shall ever see.”

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His narration affects the reader by being in his position; we see everything new because he does, because it’s being told through Pip’s eyes. For example the very descriptive language, e.g. “found myself in pretty large room, well-lighted with wax candles. No glimpse of daylight was to be seen in it”. Lists of what lies on the table, “gloves and some flowers and a prayer book, all confusedly heaped about the looking glass.” If it weren’t all new to him, he wouldn’t take in every little detail and take pictures in his mind of all the brand new things ...

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