Ms Havisham essay
...ons and feelings provoked by the surroundings indicate that the state of the house is a reflection of the character of people living in it i.e. Ms Havisham. As Pip enters Ms. Havisham’s room he notices that “No glimpse of daylight was to be seen in it” The lack of light signifies the lack of hope, love and warmth, and an image of Ms. Havisham gradually starts to build up from this. From the description of Ms. Havisham’s physical appearance we are given the impression that she almost resembles a skeleton. Her shrunken, skinny figure reminds Pip of the “ghastly wax work at the fair”. We can see from the description of her that she has suffered immensely and that she has lost all hope and the desire to love. We almost feel scared of Ms. Havisham because of the dismal and death like way in which she is described-she is described as a “skeleton”. However, our true feelings towards Ms. Havisham only start to emerge when we observe the uncompassionate way in which she treats Pip and the way in which she orders Estella to treat Pip. Ms. Havisham orders Estella to treat Pip with great cruelty and inconsideration. She wants Estella to break Pip’s heart -just like hers was broken- to get revenge since her lover left her on their wedding day. “Well? You can break his heart.” From this we can see that Ms. Havisham is a highly selfish character who is only interested in her own needs. She does not care about anyone except for herself. Because of Ms. Havisham’s order to Estella to treat Pip with cruelty and to break his heart Estella becomes rather harsh towards Pip and is very inconsiderate of his feelings. This has a great effect on Pip as it can be seen that he quite admired Estella and it hurt him deeply whenever she insulted him “I had never thought of being ashamed of my hands before; but I began to consider them a very different pair. Her contempt for me was so strong that it became infectious, and I caught it”. As these actions carry on in the novel feelings of hatred start to accumulate towards Ms Havisham and we start to sympathise greatly with Pip. Our feelings for Ms Havisham stay largely negative for much of the remainder of the novel but these feelings start to shift towards the end. This significant change in feelings starts mainly in chapter 44. In this chapter of the novel Pip finally tells Estella he loves her, but she coldly replies that she never deceived him into thinking she shared his feelings. Estella then announces that she has decided to marry Drummle. Pip’s world seems to turn head over heels. He is upset beyond words and surprisingly, Miss Havisham seems to pity Pip. Ms. Havisham quietly observes Estella’s cold heartedness and Pip’s reaction to Estella’s news “Miss Havisham, her hand still covering her heart seemed all resolved into ghastly stare of pity and remorse” Ms. Havisham finally sees in Pip what she saw in herself a couple years ago-it is almost like she is looking in a mirror. Pip’s heart has been brutally broken and quite unusually Ms. Havisham seems to be moved by this and at the same time feels guilty- for it is she who has created Estella in this way. It is at this point when Ms. Havisham recognises what she has done to Pip and starts to show feelings of compassion towards him that our feelings towards Ms. Havisham start to change. We begin to see a different side to Ms Havisham- a side that we have never seen before and never expected to see. We observe a dramatic change in Ms. Havisham’s character in chapter 49 of the novel, in which Ms. Havisham proceeds in showing loving acts and later begs Pip to forgive her for her cruel actions. It is at this point in the novel where our entire perception of Ms. Havisham changes completely and we sympathise with her greatly. “I am not all stone” she says addressing Pip. Dickens creates sympathy for Ms. Havisham through these words. Later on in the chapter Ms. Havisham tries to act in a loving way towards Pip “She stretched out her tremulous right hand, as though she was going to touch me” But when she does this act Pip does not know how to react. From this action we can see that Ms Havisham is trying to show love and affection, but because she has never acted in a loving way towards anyone before Pip does not know how to react in this situation. This shows the reader a sign...