Miss Havisham never lets any light shine into her dark neglected room, ‘No glimpse of daylight was to be seen in it.’ This shows that she must be living in a very dark room , where not even a glimpse of light shines through, this could also symbolise the darkness within Miss Havisham , and also that there is no glimpse of happiness within Miss Havisham, just like there is no glimpse of light in her room she lives in.
Also just as she does not let any light shine through her room, for a bit of light, that is exactly how she does not let any happiness into her heart, rather she keeps depression herself even more by locking all the things that at least could help her a little to get over the tragedy, away, and she does not make way for any physical or spiritual healing.
Another aspect which portrays the character of Miss Havisham is, the symbol of Decay, for example her withered white wedding dress, which has turned yellow with age. ‘But I saw that everything within my view which ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its lustre, and was faded and yellow.’ This shows that she must have been in her wedding dress, for a very long time, and she had been in there for so long , that the her white beautiful wedding dress had lost its nice and natural colour, I t had been yellow, but had decayed , and turned its colour to yellow.
However not only the dress of Miss Havisham, had decayed, and withered away, she also as a heart broken person, had decayed away too, she had lost every smile in her face, ‘…and it looked as if she was not able to smile,…’ this tells as that Miss Havisham, had absolutely lost every single glimpse of smile wiped from her face, so that she was not even able to smile a little. So jus like the brightness of her wedding dress had decayed away, that also how her smile had vanished, decayed from her face. Miss Havisham
Over all theses years, she as a person had lost her colour of personality, and had no more real life in her. ‘I saw that the bride within the bridal dress, and like the flowers, and had no brightness left, but the brightness of her sunken eyes’ This emphasises that she had no happiness left, and also the brightness of her white dress had decayed, just like she had too, and also like her flowers, that also had lost their brightness, and colour; all this symbolises the decaying of Miss Havisham herself, so basically Miss Havisham had no brightness, no happiness, no positive life left in her, but the only the brightness of her sunken eyes.
Another type of symbolism found in great expectations is the symbolism of imprisonment, for example the locked gates, for example the looked gates, and the barred windows, and also the barred courtyard. ‘Windows had been walled up, of these that remained all the lower were rustily barred. There was a courtyard in front of, and that was barred…’ This shows that Miss Havisham lives just like in a prison (only hers is more voluntary). All of her windows were barred up. An everything was locked up too, which again also symbolises Miss Havisham being locked up within her, only she cannot find the right solution, or doesn’t even want to find it, to escape her deep and painful depression she has been suffering from, for many years, it seems as if that is also the reason for her locking all her doors gates, and baring all her windows, so no light can shine into her room, she just carries on living in her own dark depressed world.
Another type of symbolism, identified in great expectations, is the pain of Miss Havisham. For example, the painful memories of her failed wedding that she doesn’t want to, and cannot forget at all, by keeping everything in the same place for many years, and also by still wearing everything she was also wearing on the day she was going to get married, for example her wedding dress, which by time had already lost its natural bright beautiful white colour to a yellow old looking decayed colour, and also she was still wearing shoe, …saw that the silk stocking on it, once white, now yellow, had been trodden ragged. 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 do like grave-clothes, or the long veil so like a shroud.’ Emphasises, that Miss Havisham is totally dead as a character, and there is no more life left in her, also that she just carries and wears everything that constantly reminds her of her tragedy, and she just does not let go. After so many years, she had not even taking all the jewellery for the wedding off, she is till wearing them after so many years, and has not taking anything off, some of the jewellery, that she was going to wear , are also still on the same place. ‘Some bright jewels sparkled on her neck and on her hands, and some other jewels lay sparkling on the table.’ This shows that Miss Havisham, has not got over her tragedy, and she may not ever get over it until she dies, because even just the jewellery which she could just taking off to get on with her life, she kept it on her, and it just kept sparkling just like on the day she was going to get married. Another way in which Miss Havisham keeps reminding herself, of her tragedy, is by also often looking into her looking-glass, which she always looks at her reflection in, in order for her to always see the day she was going to get married to the man she dearly loved. ‘…at on point, she stood up and went to her looking-mirror and looked at her reflection in the looking-mirror, I could see her eyes getting wet and, and her whole face expression seemed even darker than before…’ This shows that Miss Havisham is creating her own pain, and she is not even trying to move on from what happened so many years back, for her is just the worse thing that had ever had happened to her, and it basically ended her normal life there and then.
There is absolutely nothing in her room that would take her mind of her tragedy, and could help her to move on, absolutely everything in her room is like a little reminder of her tragedy, for example the dead flowers, ‘… and on the table with all her presents on, the flowers, were dead, and had even started to all fall apart.’
This is also a reminder of her tragedy, because, by just looking at those flowers, that used be very beautiful, she might be thinking of her herself, just like the flowers that used to be all nice and beautiful, they are now completely dead, out of colour, and have started to fall apart, she could see herself as the flowers, and now she is spiritually dead, is old and wrinkly and is not her normal state any more, this also symbolises the all the pain Miss Havisham is feeling, by having all those reminders there with her in one room, also she is still wearing the wedding
Dress, from the day she got left by the man she loved at the altar, which is the reminds her the most of the what happened on the day she was going to get married, that also creates more pain for her, an and what brings even more memories for her, is that she had not finished dressing up, she was only wearing one shoe, and a few of her jewellery, were still on the table.‘…some other jewels lay sparkling on the table.’ This tells us, that Miss Havisham, was still wearing the jewellery, from the day of her tragedy, and that she had not even finished putting them, some of the jewellery, were still lying on the table sparkling.
Up to this point, it shows that Miss Havisham, is a very depressed, and dark person, and everything she feels as a person, it’s symbolised around her, and on herself, and from that character of hers, it shows that Miss Havisham, is a not so sweet old woman, but more bitter vengeful old woman, and because of that, she tries to let all her anger out on other people, by being evil to them and by reacting very strangely and mysterious, quit scary ‘she mutter quietly to herself but it aimed at Estella’ this seems quite scary, because she looked like she was muttering to herself, but at the same time to Estella, and by muttering, a person would not know, what is happening, so if they are planning something, bad , Pip wouldn’t know, however the whole aim of Miss Havisham is, that because she is heart broken, she wants Estella break Pip’s heart as well. ‘Pip thinks that he over heard Miss Havisham say, “Well, you can break his heart” to Estella.’
This shows that Miss havisham, is really evil, and revengeful, she wants to break Pip’s, and wants Estella t o do u it for her, she is letting all her anger out on innocent people, because, she just cannot cope with her depression, she is in a world of her own-she seems a bit distracted, this creates a mysterious atmosphere. Miss Havisham, is testing the power to break men’s heart, which is the purpose of Estella’s training. It is only a social experiment to her. This clearly shows that her behaviour is nasty, cruel, mysterious and manipulative.
Dickens makes use of the past to add to our impression of Miss Havisham. “Everything in the room had stopped…along time ago.” The clock, the watch, the shoe upon the table-everything is exactly the same. Nothing has changed. When Miss Havisham moves something, she puts it back in exactly the same position. She “put down the jewel exactly on the spot from which she had taken it up.” Time has stood still in the room.
Dickens describes her clothes as “grave –clothes” associating her clothes with death, implying that they were dull, old and ghostly looking.
Miss Havisham is vengeful, (as already identified) towards men because she had her ‘heart broken’ by one when she was left at the altar. Her adopted daughter, Estella whom she gets to break Pip’s heart, carries out her revenge. She encourages Estella to do this with statements such as ‘Well you can break his heart’.
The way Miss Havisham tries to manipulate Pip and Estella also suggests her character is very strange. Miss Havisham subjugates and patronises Pip. She makes Pip admit his feelings towards Estella after Estella had made fun of him. Miss Havisham embarrasses him. She does this to make him feel small, stupid and unimportant as a man, and to increase Estella’s pride.
Up to this point, we can see how evil Miss Havisham is, and everything she has been through, she wants other people to feel her pain as well, maybe to perhaps make it a bit easier for her to cope with her depression and pain she is going through every single day and night….
THE END
