Great Expectations By Charles Dickens Miss Havisham Satis House Information from http://www.sparknotes.com Great Expectations Key Facts FULL TITLE • Great Expectations SETTING (TIME) • Mid-nineteenth century AUTHOR • Charles Dickens SETTINGS (PLACE) • Kent and London, England TYPE OF WORK • Novel POINT OF VIEW • First person GENRES • Bildungsroman, social criticism, autobiographical fiction TENSE • Past TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN • London, 1860-1861 TONE • Comic, cheerful, satirical, wry, critical, sentimental, dark, dramatic, foreboding, Gothic, sympathetic NARRATOR • Pip THEMES • Ambition and the desire for self-improvement (social, CLIMAX • A sequence of climactic events occurs from Chapter 51 economic, educational, and moral); guilt, criminality, and innocence; to Chapter 56: Miss Havisham’s burning in the fire, Orlick’s attempt maturation and the growth from childhood to adulthood; the to murder Pip, and Pip’s attempt to help Magwitch escape London. importance of affection, loyalty, and sympathy over social PROTAGONIST • Pip advancement and class superiority; social class; the difficulty of maintaining superficial moral and social categories in a constantly ANTAGONIST • Great Expectations does not contain a traditional changing world single antagonist. Various characters serve as figures against whom Pip must struggle at various times: Magwitch, Mrs. Joe, Miss SYMBOLS • The stopped clocks at Satis House symbolize Miss Havisham, Estella, Orlick, Bentley Drummle, and Compeyson. With Havisham’s attempt to stop time; Satis House represents the upper- the exception of the last three, each of the novel’s antagonists is class world to which Pip longs to belong redeemed before the end of the book. Information from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Expectations Great Expectations Synopsis On Christmas Eve, around 1812, Pip, 6 years old, encounters an escaped convict, who scares Pip into stealing food for him and a file to grind away his shackles, from the home he shares with his abusive older sister and her kind, passive husband Joe Gargery. The next day, soldiers recapture the convict and he is returned to the prison ships. Miss Havisham, a wealthy spinster, who wears an old wedding dress and lives in the dilapidated Satis House, asks Pip's "Uncle" to find a boy to play with her adopted daughter Estella. Pip begins to visit Miss Havisham and Estella, with whom he falls in love, with Miss Havisham's encouragement. Later, as a young apprentice at Joe Gargery's blacksmith shop, Pip is approached by a lawyer, Mr. Jaggers, who tells him he is to receive a large sum of money from an anonymous benefactor and must leave for London immediately where he is to become a gentleman. Concluding that Miss Havisham is his benefactress, he visits her and Estella. Years later, Pip has reached adulthood and is now heavily in debt. His benefactor is revealed to be Abel Magwitch, the convict he helped, who was transported to New South Wales where he eventually became wealthy. There is a warrant for Magwitch's arrest in England and he will be hanged if he is caught. A plan is therefore hatched for him to flee by boat. It is also revealed that Estella is the daughter of Magwitch. Pip confronts Miss Havisham with Estella's history. Miss Havisham stands too close to the fire which ignites her dress. Pip is burned while saving her, but she eventually dies from her injuries, lamenting her manipulation of Estella and Pip. A few days before the escape, Pip is attacked by Joe's journeyman, Orlick, who was responsible for the attack on Mrs. Joe. Pip is saved, and prepares for the escape. During the escape, Magwitch kills his enemy Compeyson. Magwitch is captured and sent to jail, where he dies shortly before his scheduled execution, while being told Estella is alive. Pip is about to be arrested for unpaid debts when he falls ill. Joe nurses him back to health and pays off his debts. At the end of the original version Pip meets Estella on the streets; she has remarried after her abusive husband has died. Pip says that he is glad she is a better girl from what she was before, the coldhearted girl Miss Havisham reared her to be and that "suffering had been stronger than Miss Havisham's teaching and had given her a heart to understand what my heart used to be." Pip remains single. Revised ending: Dickens rewrote the ending so that Pip now meets Estella in the ruins of Satis House after the death of her husband; it is ambiguous whether Pip and Estella marry or if Pip remains single. Miss Havisham Character Analysis Miss Havisham is a wealthy spinster who lives in a decaying mansion and wears her wedding dress. Her whole life is defined by a single tragic event, of being jilted by her would-be groom on what was to have been their wedding day. From that moment forth, Miss Havisham is unable to move beyond her heartbreak and in doing so freezes her house and her clothes in time. Stopping all the clocks in Satis House at twenty minutes to nine symbolizes the moment when she had her heart broken and first learned that she was not to be a married. She also wears only one shoe, as when she received the message that the wedding would not go ahead she was in the middle of dressing. Later within the novel Miss Havisham adopts a child, Estella, and raises her to break the hearts of men in order to achieve her own revenge. Her single-minded vengeance is pursued destructively and as a result both Miss Havisham and the people in her life suffer greatly because of her resolve. Initially, Miss Havisham is blind to the reality of the hurt she is causing Pip, and even to Estella. Miss Havisham is redeemed by the end of the novel when she realises that she has caused Pip’s heart to be broken in the same manner as her own, instead of seeking her revenge, she has only caused more pain. Miss Havisham begs for Pip’s forgiveness, reinforcing the theme that bad behaviour can be redeemed by penitence and empathy. At the end of the novel Miss Havisham’s dress catches on fire and she suffers severe burns, which she later dies from – Pip attempts to save her. Miss Havisham appears to be a mother-figure to Pip, but does taunt and abuse him – an imperfect fairy god-mother. Key words to describe Miss Havisham: vengeful, heartbroken, determined, mad, bewitching, an ‘unreal’ character, psychologically damaged, cruel, misunderstood. Quote from Miss Havisham about Estella on realisation of the pain and heart-break she has caused in seeking revenge: “...I stole her heart away and put ice in its place.” Portrayals of Miss Havisham Quotations from Chapter 8 and Chapter 11 of Great Expectations Miss Havisham Satis House Below are key quotations that describe Satis House; in particular Miss Havisham’s bedroom and the dining room - where she was to have her wedding. breakfast. The Entrance and Bedroom Miss Havisham’s Appearance “We went into the house by a side door - the great front entrance – Although not part of the room her appearance and clothing is what is reflected within the had two chains across it outside - and the first thing I noticed was, decaying house that the passages were all dark, and that she had left a candle “... dressed in rich materials - satins, and lace, and silks - all of white. Her shoes were burning there … I entered, therefore, and found myself in a pretty white. And she had a long white veil dependent from her hair, and she had bridal large room, well lighted with wax candles. No glimpse of daylight flowers in her hair, but her hair was white. Some bright jewels sparkled on her neck was to be seen in it. It was a dressing-room, as I supposed from and on her hands, and some other jewels lay sparkling on the table. Dresses, less the furniture, though much of it was of forms and uses then quite splendid than the dress she wore, and half-packed trunks, were scattered about. She unknown to me. But prominent in it was a draped table with a had not quite finished dressing, for she had but one shoe on - the other was on the table near her hand - her veil was but half arranged, her watch and chain were not put gilded looking-glass, and that I made out at first sight to be a fine on, and some lace for her bosom lay with those trinkets, and with her handkerchief, lady's dressing-table. Whether I should have made out this object and gloves, and some flowers, and a prayer-book, all confusedly heaped about the so soon, if there had been no fine lady sitting at it, I cannot say. In looking-glass.” an arm-chair , with an elbow resting on the table and her head “... which ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its lustre, and was leaning on that hand, sat the strangest lady I have ever seen, or faded and yellow. I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the shall ever see.” dress, and like the flowers” Dining Room - The Wedding Breakfast (Including the wedding cake) Miss Havisham’s Appearance and Clothing “I crossed the staircase landing, and entered the room she indicated. From that room, too, the - Comparing the room to the clothing daylight was completely excluded, and it had an airless smell that was oppressive. A fire had “It was then I began to understand that everything in been lately kindled in the damp old-fashioned grate, and it was more disposed to go out than the room had stopped, like the watch and the clock, a to burn up, and the reluctant smoke which hung in the room seemed colder than the clearer air - like our own marsh mist.