Explore how Charles Dickens presents Miss Havisham in chapter 8 and what the function of her character is.

The fire at Miss Havisham’s house is indeed very symbolic. It represents her passion. the house, very much like Miss Havisham herself is wasting away, theres nothing left not only of her, but also her house. The first thing that Pip has come to notice is that the fires are extinguished. There has become to be no life left at all. “I saw her pass among the extinguished fires, and ascend some light iron stairs, and go out by a gallery high overhead, as if she were going out into the sky.” (Chapter VIII, 45) This is shows that Pip was comparing Miss. Havisham to the smoke that was in her house when it was sent on fire.

Miss Havisham plays a major role in Great Expectations. She portrayed a depressed, mad woman full of anger and misery. Miss Havisham is one of the, if not the most selfish character throughout the novel. After she was jilted on her wedding day, she has remained “stuck” in that day. As an outcome of this, she has grown with hatred for all men and uses her adopted daughter, Estella to get revenge. Miss Havisham’s self-serving character shows when she takes control of Estella’s life and she becomes a victim of Miss Havisham’s teachings. She raises Estella with no knowledge of what love is or how to love. Instead, Miss Havisham teaches her to torture, hate and break the hearts of men, especially to Pip. "That girl is hard and haughty and capricious

Charles Dickens own experiences of growing up in poverty in Victorian Era London, are likely to have pushed him to pursue the themes in his novel A Christmas Carol. His father was sent to prison for not paying his debts, which left Dickens the job of producing the family income at the age of 12, giving him a firsthand view of poverty and the struggles that come with it. These events seemingly effected Dickens greatly, and Dickens novels were likely his form of charitable work, as the messages scribed within, brought to light the vast disparity between the rich and poor in this era. Dickens shows clearly that there is a definite class distinction between the poor and the rich through the uses of his characters and their characteristic throughout

The Presentation of Miss Havisham in Chapter 8 and in Chapter 49 of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Throughout Dickens journey through life, the poor laws of Great Britain were closely intertwined. The first major impact that his childhood experiences had on him was his exposure to the factory system. The Industrial Revolution created large urban areas with a central factory that employed most of the area’s people. The factory was full of lower-class people in unsanitary conditions. In the days of Dickens’ factory experience the old poor laws were in effect. This helped Dickens’ situation greatly. His father lived in a fairly nice and sanitary prison, and was given time to find the money he owed. The old poor law system of giving aid to the poor helped to save the Dickens family. When Dickens grew up and was a parliamentary reporter, the new poor laws were about to be passed. Dickens realized that the new poor laws would bring doom to many families. The new poor laws did not help the poor but worsened their condition in order to drive them to work.

To start off, the fire symbolizes Miss Havisham's wedding day. She feel in love with a man and thought that he loved her back but it was just a lie. On their wedding day they guy Compeyson decided to cancel the wedding and he ran off with all of Miss Havisham's money. That night has changed her forever and she will never be the same. The fire represents her wedding day because the old rotten dress symbolizes death and her past. Also as Pip tries to put out the fire they both lose pieces of clothing and that is supposed to represent the confetti at the wedding.

Dickens depicts an eccentric and rather malevolence women who has been jilted on her wedding day. therefore, she has stopped all clocks and sits in her yellowing wedding dress. Furthermore, leaving her in an agony. Consequently, that agony and misery turned into hatred towards men. When Miss Havisham employs Pip to play with Estella, Pip sees an " old brick and dismal " house which reflective the owner. Furthermore, this shows the reader that Dickens tried to give a hint on how Miss Havisham appearance might be or could be, Alternatively he wanted to show that Miss Havisham has stopped caring on her appearance as she has stopped time and rots within the house and the house within her.

One day Pip is taken to play at a large house, the house belongs to the character Miss Havisham who is portrayed as an extremely eccentric person. It is during these visits that the young Pip meets Miss Havisham’s daughter Estella, who never displays any form of affection for Pip and treats him contemptuously. Nevertheless, Pip falls in love and it his dream to become a gentleman and marry Estella.

Dickens depicts an eccentric and rather malevolence women who has been jilted on her wedding day. therefore, she has stopped all clocks and sits in her yellowing wedding dress. Furthermore, leaving her in an agony. Consequently, that agony and misery turned into hatred towards men. When Miss Havisham employs Pip to play with Estella, Pip sees an " old brick and dismal " house which reflective the owner. Furthermore, this shows the reader that Dickens tried to give a hint on how Miss Havisham appearance might be or could be, Alternatively he wanted to show that Miss Havisham has stopped caring on her appearance as she has stopped time and rots within the house and the house within her.

“It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of

Charles Dickens is one of the most renowned British writers with well-known and widespread work. Dickens was born in England in 1812 and died in 1870. During this time, Victorian England experienced an Industrial Revolution, which impacted his life tremendously. New factories and industrial machinery changed many lives of the lower class citizens. The family grew up impoverished and struggled to maintain a good lifestyle. The family’s financial situation was strained as John Dickens, Charles’s father, spent money that the family didn’t have. These societal factors were influential in Charles Dickens’s life, and the same themes present themselves in his works. When an author creates a work, frequently themes of their life events are incorporated into the theme of the book, consciously or unconsciously. Victorian Age industrial-influenced strife was a common theme in Dickens’s life and presented itself throughout Dickens’s books.

Question: How does Dickens in his portrayal of Miss Havisham explore the theme of isolation?

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.

Charles Dickens is one of the most influential writers in history and was “born in Landport, now part of Portsmouth, on February 7th, 1812”(Priestly 5). Despite being the successful writer that he was in life, Dickens had very humble beginnings and because his Father, John Huffman Dickens, “lacked the money to support his family adequetly” , Dickens lived in poverty through out most of his childhood (Collins). Matters only got worse, however, when Dickens’s Father had to “spen[d] time in prison for debt” causing Dickens to have to “work in a London factory pasting labels on bottles of shoe polish” (Collins). It was a horrible experience for him, but it also helped him to no doubt feel pity for the poor, which is

Dickens through his books wanted people to realise that children have needs, they need loving homes, not to be hit, gets a education and be allowed to think for themselves. He thought that if he wrote about poor children’s problems then maybe wealthy readers will do something about it.