Charles Dickens - Great Expectations

6. Miss Havisham

We are now going to consider how Dickens creates sympathy for Miss Havisham by concentrating on Chapter Eight.

And now we need to work on it...

Dickens's Character of Miss Havisham

In Great Expectations, Miss Havisham is not always nice. She is sarcastic and aggressive, and she sets about damaging both Estella and Pip - in many ways, she is a hateful person. YET - although I don't know whether Dickens tries to make us LIKE Miss Havisham - he certainly shows her as a sad, even psychologically damaged person for whom we feel sorry. If she is nasty in the story, it is because she has been terribly hurt herself.

To understand how Dickens creates sympathy for Miss Havisham, you need to think about the character of Miss Havisham at TWO levels:

FIRST, AT STORY LEVEL:

Look back at your cloze exercise notes on the Bookrags summary of Great Expectations.

make a list of all things that make you feel sorry for Miss Havisham as a person.

SECOND, AT TEXT LEVEL:

Study this short passage from Chapter Eight describing Miss Havisham:

Saving for the one weird smile at first, I should have felt almost sure that Miss Havisham's face could not smile. It had dropped into a watchful and brooding expression - most likely when all the things about her had become transfixed - and it looked as if nothing could ever lift it up again. Her chest had dropped, so that she stooped; and her voice had dropped, so that she spoke low, and with a dead lull upon her; altogether, she had the appearance of having dropped, body and soul, within and without, under the weight of a crushing blow.

Make a list of the best THREE ADJECTIVES that Dickens uses in the passage.

Make a note of the LIST that Dickens makes in the passage (can you find it).

What is the 'SETTING' of the action? (Check out also Dickens's description of the room)

Find the two best words which describe the 'FEEL' of the passage ('mood').

Finally, think about each of these to consider how Dickens uses them to affect the way we think about Miss Havisham.

You could draw up a table like this to help you organise your notes:

Literary device:

Examples/ notes

How this makes us feel about Miss Havisham

Five adjectives

a

→ a

a

→ a

c

→ c

List

→

Setting

→

Mood

a

→ a

b

→ b

OK, now write up your notes as the third section of your essay:

How does Dickens create sympathy for Miss Havisham in Great Expectations?

Start by writing a sentence something along the lines of:

"Dickens creates sympathy for Miss Havisham, first, by making her a sad person in the story..."

then write a paragraph about all the things about Miss Havisham and how they make you accept her

Then write a sentence something like:

"Dickens also creates sympathy for Miss Havisham, by the literary devices and techniques he uses..."

... and write four paragraphs dealing in turn with Dickens's use of:

● adjectives

● lists

● setting

● mood

... MAKING SURE FOR EACH ONE THAT YOU:

a. put quotes from Chapter Eight and explain them

b. explain how Dickens is using this device to make you feel sympathy for Miss Havisham.

(nb if you don't do this last thing, you have not answered the question and will get zero.)

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