"Great Expectations" is about a main character, Pip, Who expects great things from life. The book starts when Pip is a young boy who is an orphan, his older sister and her husband, Joe raised him. The family is in the lower social class and Pip has the expectation of growing into a higher social status this after he meets Misses Havisham, this is where he first encounters the eccentric old woman. Dickens describes her and her lifestyle; he uses imagery in the novel to help you see her character. Another effective way in which dickens portrays Miss Havisham is how he introduces her with mystery."will be the finished curse upon him"-Miss Havisham talks of her death, but never says who "he" is. ...view middle of the document...
Only later did it appear as a novel. Another reason that Miss Havisham is such an effective character is because Dickens based her on a woman he used to know in his youth.Miss Havisham is a bitter old woman. She wants to take revenge on all men for the wrong that was done to her by one man, Compeyson, who left her standing at the altar. A woman with a severely broken heart, she lives her life as if time stopped at twenty minutes to nine and daylight does not exist, she only wears her wedding dress and is surrounded by decaying food. Her only tender emotions she reserves for her adopted daughter Estella who she raises to break men's hearts. Pip becomes a toy to her and a boy for Estella to practice on. Miss Havisham delights in the way that Estella torments Pip and likes to keep her relatives guessing as to whom she is to leave her fortune to.Miss Havisham continues with her plan to use Estella as an instrument of revenge on the male sex until she comes to realise she has created a monster. Miss Havisham accuses her of being hard and ungrateful but Estella says she cannot give her love as she was never given it herself. She tries to undo some of the harm she has done by helping Pip with his plan for Herbert and she leaves her cousin Matthew a legacy on Pip's recommendation. At the end of her life she is distraught with guilt for what she has done to pip and Estella. Just before she died, she gave Pip some money to help Herbert, as she turned away her wedding dress caught alight on one of the candles used to light the darkened room but she died from the burns.Reasons that I feel this way about Miss Havisham is due to the way Dickens describes herself and her lifestyle, he uses imagery in the novel to help you see her character, like the chapters 8 and 11."I crossed the staircase landing, and entered the room she indicated. ...It's a great...