The Vengeful Miss Havisham - Great Expectations Essay

The Vengeful Miss Havisham - Great Expectations. In Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens, Miss Havisham is a complex character whose past remains a mystery. We know about her broken engagement, an event that changes her life forever. Miss Havisham desperately wants revenge, and Estella, her adopted daughter, is the perfect tool to carry out her motives. With her plan of revenge in mind, Miss Havisham deliberately raises Estella to avoid emotional attachment and treat those who love her with cruelty. A specific quote in the book, where Miss Havisham tells Pip that he must love Estella at all costs, sheds light on Miss Havishams vengeful character. One can draw parallels from the life of Miss Havisham to the life that she†¦show more content†¦Arthur wants to get back at his half-sister for being cheated out of the brewery business, and Miss Havisham and Estella want to seek revenge on all men who love Estella. Estella is being trained to ruin the lives of men, just as Miss Havishams fiancà © ruined hers. In Miss Havishams address to Pip, she tells him to love Estella even if she wounds him. Perhaps the reason that she stops the clocks, never changes out of her yellowing wedding gown, and keeps the rotting wedding cake is to perpetuate her hope that her fiancà © will return. This means that either Miss Havisham still loves Compeyson or that she is simply throwing a drastic temper tantrum. It is obvious that Miss Havisham is a deeply wounded woman: her outlook on life is dismal and desolate. She has not ventured out into the daylight for fifty years, shutting out the rest of the world. Time means nothing to her, for she has nothing to do and no friends to see. Her transformation from a passionate young woman in love to an old, hardened, and lonely woman is a great one. There is an obvious parallel between Miss Havisham and Pip in this regard: just as Miss Havisham was spurned by her fiancà ©, Estella has broken Pips heart. Miss Havisham, in trying to seek personal revenge, has only caused more pain and heartbreak. Next, Miss Havisham tells Pip to love Estella even if she tears his heart to pieces.Show MoreRelatedSymbolic References in Great Expectations by Charles Dickens1017 Words   |  5 PagesSatis House, the home of the wealthy dowager Miss Havisham, who is extremely eccentric: she wears an old wedding dress everywhere she goes and keeps all the clocks in her house stopped at the same time. During his visit, he meets a beautiful young girl named Estella, who treats him coldly and contemptuously. Nevertheless, he falls in love with her and dreams of becoming a wealthy gentleman so that he might be worthy of her. 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