Great Expectations: Miss H.
A great many readers would characterize Miss Havisham as a puppetmaster. It is plain to see that she is manipulating and brainwashing her adopted daughter Estella in order to live vicariously through her, since her physically and evidently emotionally withered body and mind will not allow her to take action herself. Estella becomes an extension of her pervading bitterness towards men, and the vulnerable social neophyte Pip serves as the perfect target, even from his boyhood days. Pip is subjected to many atrocities at Miss Havisham's will. He lives a life that is an emotional roller coaster and eventually turns out to be a lie. But as shadows from the past, namely Magwitch and Compeyson, resurface, the truth unravels right in Pip and Miss Havisham's faces. It is at this juncture that Miss Havisham realizes the grievous error of her ways. In the climactic chapter, when Pip meets her for the last time, Miss Havisham realizes her wrongs, shows heartfelt sorrow, and attempts to make amends, and her burning at the chapter's close symbolizes her purification. Pip returns to Satis House for the first time in a very long while. Along the trip he is struck by the morbid dreariness that seems to have fallen over the land since his last vi
Throughout the entire exchange, Miss Havisham is seen as a physical and emotional wreck. Her eyes are pained and at times vacant, her face worn by something more than age, and her appearance overall is described as more haggard and withered than ever. One can discern a great deal about one's sincerity simply by the way they look and act, because there is only a certain degree to which one can "play it up". Through Dickens' descriptive characterization of Miss Havisham in this scene, it is beyond any doubt that her guilt is genuine and her sorrow heartfelt. She then goes to an extreme by begging forgiveness on her knees, the last thing one would ever expect the cold, callous, stone-hearted Miss Havisham we've seen up to this point to do. Even Pip is indeed taken very off-guard by this gesture, which he views with a mixture of amazement and shock. All Miss Havisham's remorse and grief pours out uninhibited then, as she wails repeatedly "What have I done?" It is now obvious to Pip and to the reader, as she lamentably moans over and over again "What have I done?", that spiteful and evil as her deeds may have been, no punishment anyone could possibly exact on her would be worthwhile or even justified. The state of utter ruin she now finds herself in, the result of decades of isolation and alienation from the real world that has rotted and diseased her mind even more than her body, is more vindication than she could possibly be put through by any other means. Pip, having accomplished his goal on behalf of Herbert and unable to find any way to comfort Miss Havisham, takes his leave. Even before Pip arrives, Miss Havisham claims she is aware that there is a favor Pip would like to ask of her. Pip thinks it a bit much to ask, but Miss Havisham agrees. She takes solace in the fact that providing for Herbert's partner
Some common words found in the essay are:
Miss Havisham, Miss Havisham's, Satis House, miss havisham, Apparently Pip, Magwitch Compeyson, Pip Pip, , miss havisham's, satis house, havisham realizes, miss havisham realizes, former self,
Approximate Word count = 1228
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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