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How Did The Fire Symbolize Miss Havisham's House

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Charles Dickens Great Expectations had the incident of fire at Miss Havisham’s house in his novel to symbolize her home life force, to symbolize Miss Havisham's vindictive behavior, to symbolize the guilt and remorse..As like her the house was wasting away, there was a cold and damp feeling one felt when inside. Dickens wanted to give the house life and warmth he used the fire to symbolize this..Miss Havisham wanted someone to keep her company, she adopted an orphan girl who she named Estella. Her intentions were to save her from misery like she experienced, that changed, she turned her against men, ultimately fire caused her to pay the price. Since fire is a force of harm Dickens wanted the readers to know all of Miss Havisham’s cruel, and bitter vindictive actions did not go unpunished. …show more content…

The house was dark cold and damp,the fire symbolized life, extinguished fires symbolized no life. The fire seemed to make the room colder rather than warmer. There were many times when Miss Havisham would stare into the fire looking for passion and comfort, that she never got, ultimately the fire caused her great pain.The fire was used because she made everything around cold.
Miss Havisham is an example of a single minded vengeful woman whose life consisted of being cold hearted with a grudge against all men. Dickens could have been drawing a comparison between the destructive nature of fire to Miss Havisham’s cold cruel mind.Another twist could be Dickens use the fire to also represent the real effect of the warmth from fire, she was always cold towards the few people that entered her gates. Fire is reluctant, as Miss Havisham is reluctant to have people in her home. Though they were allowed she was not at all warm towards them, accepted them under false

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