Great Expectations

By Charles Dickens

Miss Havisham Satis House

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Great Expectations
Key Facts
FULL TITLE Great Expectations AUTHOR Charles Dickens TYPE OF WORK Novel GENRES Bildungsroman, social criticism, autobiographical fiction TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN London, 1860-1861 NARRATOR Pip CLIMAX A sequence of climactic events occurs from Chapter 51 to Chapter 56: Miss Havishams burning in the fire, Orlicks attempt to murder Pip, and Pips attempt to help Magwitch escape London. PROTAGONIST Pip ANTAGONIST Great Expectations does not contain a traditional SETTING (TIME) Mid-nineteenth century SETTINGS (PLACE) Kent and London, England POINT OF VIEW First person TENSE Past TONE Comic, cheerful, satirical, wry, critical, sentimental, dark, dramatic, foreboding, Gothic, sympathetic THEMES Ambition and the desire for self-improvement (social, economic, educational, and moral); guilt, criminality, and innocence; maturation and the growth from childhood to adulthood; the importance of affection, loyalty, and sympathy over social advancement and class superiority; social class; the difficulty of maintaining superficial moral and social categories in a constantly changing world SYMBOLS The stopped clocks at Satis House symbolize Miss Havishams attempt to stop time; Satis House represents the upperclass world to which Pip longs to belong

single antagonist. Various characters serve as figures against

whom Pip must struggle at various times: Magwitch, Mrs. Joe, Miss Havisham, Estella, Orlick, Bentley Drummle, and Compeyson. With the exception of the last three, each of the novels antagonists is redeemed before the end of the book.

Information from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Expectations

Great Expectations
Synopsis
On Christmas Eve, around 1812, Pip, 6 years old, encounters an escaped convict, who scares Pip into stealing food for him and a file to grind away his shackles, from the home he shares with his abusive older sister and her kind, passive husband Joe Gargery. The next day, soldiers recapture the convict and he is returned to the prison ships. Miss Havisham, a wealthy spinster, who wears an old wedding dress and lives in the dilapidated Satis House, asks Pip's "Uncle" to find a boy to play with her adopted daughter Estella. Pip begins to visit Miss Havisham and Estella, with whom he falls in love, with Miss Havisham's encouragement. Later, as a young apprentice at Joe Gargery's blacksmith shop, Pip is approached by a lawyer, Mr. Jaggers, who tells him he is to receive a large sum of money from an anonymous benefactor and must leave for London immediately where he is to become a gentleman. Concluding that Miss Havisham is his benefactress, he visits her and Estella. Years later, Pip has reached adulthood and is now heavily in debt. His benefactor is revealed to be Abel Magwitch, the convict he helped, who was transported to New South Wales where he eventually became wealthy. There is a warrant for Magwitch's arrest in England and he will be hanged if he is caught. A plan is therefore hatched for him to flee by boat. It is also revealed that Estella is the daughter of Magwitch. Pip confronts Miss Havisham with Estella's history. Miss Havisham stands too close to the fire which ignites her dress. Pip is burned while saving her, but she eventually dies from her injuries, lamenting her manipulation of Estella and Pip. A few days before the escape, Pip is attacked by Joe's journeyman, Orlick, who was responsible for the attack on Mrs. Joe. Pip is saved, and prepares for the escape. During the

escape, Magwitch kills his enemy Compeyson. Magwitch is captured and sent to jail, where he dies shortly before his scheduled execution, while being told Estella is alive. Pip is
about to be arrested for unpaid debts when he falls ill. Joe nurses him back to health and pays off his debts. At the end of the original version Pip meets Estella on the streets; she has remarried after her abusive husband has died. Pip says that he is glad she is a better girl from what she was before, the coldhearted girl Miss Havisham reared her to be and that "suffering had been stronger than Miss Havisham's teaching and had given her a heart to understand what my heart used to be." Pip remains single. Revised ending: Dickens rewrote the ending so that Pip now meets Estella in the ruins of Satis House after the death of her husband; it is ambiguous whether Pip and Estella marry or if Pip remains single.

Miss Havisham
Character Analysis
Miss Havisham is a wealthy spinster who lives in a decaying mansion and wears her wedding dress. Her whole life is defined by a single tragic event, of being jilted by her would-be groom on what was to have been their wedding day. From that moment forth, Miss Havisham is unable to move beyond her heartbreak and in doing so freezes her house and her clothes in time. Stopping all the clocks in Satis House at twenty minutes

to nine symbolizes the moment when she had her heart broken and first learned that she was not to be a married. She also wears only one shoe,
as when she received the message that the wedding would not go ahead she was in the middle of dressing. Later within the novel Miss Havisham adopts a child, Estella, and raises her to break the hearts of men in order to achieve her own revenge. Her single-minded vengeance is pursued destructively and as a result both Miss Havisham and the people in her life suffer greatly because of her resolve. Initially, Miss Havisham is blind to the reality of the hurt she is causing Pip, and even to Estella. Miss Havisham is redeemed by the end of the novel when she realises that she has caused Pips heart to be broken in the same manner as her own, instead of seeking her revenge, she has only caused more pain. Miss Havisham begs for Pips forgiveness, reinforcing the theme that bad behaviour can be redeemed by penitence and empathy. At the end of the novel Miss Havishams dress catches on fire and she suffers severe burns, which she later dies from Pip attempts to save her. Miss Havisham appears to be a mother-figure to Pip, but does taunt and abuse him an imperfect fairy god-mother. Key words to describe Miss Havisham: vengeful, heartbroken, determined, mad, bewitching, an unreal character, psychologically damaged, cruel, misunderstood. Quote from Miss Havisham about Estella on realisation of the pain and heart-break she has caused in seeking revenge:

...I stole her heart away and put ice in its place.

Portrayals of Miss Havisham

Quotations from Chapter 8 and Chapter 11 of Great Expectations

Miss Havisham
Satis House
Below are key quotations that describe Satis House; in particular Miss Havishams bedroom and the dining room - where she was to have her wedding. breakfast. The Entrance and Bedroom Miss Havishams Appearance
Although not part of the room her appearance and clothing is what is reflected within the decaying house

We went into the house by a side door - the great front entrance
had two chains across it outside - and the first thing I noticed was, that the passages were all dark, and that she had left a candle burning there I entered, therefore, and found myself in a pretty large room, well lighted with wax candles. No glimpse of daylight

... dressed in rich materials - satins, and lace, and silks - all of white. Her shoes were white. And she had a long white veil dependent from her hair, and she had bridal flowers in her hair, but her hair was white. Some bright jewels sparkled on her neck and on her hands, and some other jewels lay sparkling on the table. Dresses, less splendid than the dress she wore, and half-packed trunks, were scattered about. She had not quite finished dressing, for she had but one shoe on - the other was on the table near her hand - her veil was but half arranged, her watch and chain were not put on, and some lace for her bosom lay with those trinkets, and with her handkerchief, and gloves, and some flowers, and a prayer-book, all confusedly heaped about the looking-glass. ... which ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its lustre, and was faded and yellow. I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress, and like the flowers

was to be seen in it. It was a dressing-room, as I supposed from

the furniture, though much of it was of forms and uses then quite unknown to me. But prominent in it was a draped table with a gilded looking-glass, and that I made out at first sight to be a fine lady's dressing-table. Whether I should have made out this object so soon, if there had been no fine lady sitting at it, I cannot say. In an arm-chair, with an elbow resting on the table and her head leaning on that hand, sat the strangest lady I have ever seen, or shall ever see.

Dining Room - The Wedding Breakfast Miss Havishams Appearance and Clothing
Comparing the room to the clothing
(Including the wedding cake)

I crossed the staircase landing, and entered the room she indicated. From that room, too, the daylight was completely excluded, and it had an airless smell that was oppressive. A fire had been lately kindled in the damp old-fashioned grate, and it was more disposed to go out than to burn up, and the reluctant smoke which hung in the room seemed colder than the clearer air - like our own marsh mist. Certain wintry branches of candles on the high chimneypiece faintly lighted the chamber: or, it would be more expressive to say, faintly troubled its darkness. It was spacious, and I dare say had once been handsome, but every discernible thing in it was covered with dust and mould, and dropping to pieces. The most prominent object was a long table with a tablecloth spread on it, as if a feast had been in preparation when the house and the clocks all stopped together. An epergne or centrepiece of some kind was in the middle of this cloth; it was so heavily overhung with cobwebs that its form was quite undistinguishable; and, as I looked along the yellow expanse out of which I remember its

It was then I began to understand that everything in the room had stopped, like the watch and the clock, a long time ago. I noticed that Miss Havisham put down the jewel exactly on the spot from which she had taken it up. As Estella dealt the cards, I glanced at the dressing-table again, and saw that the shoe upon it, once white, now yellow, had never been worn. I glanced down at the foot from which the shoe was absent, and saw that the silk stocking on it, once white, now yellow, had been trodden ragged. Without this arrest of everything, this standing still of all the pale decayed objects, not even the withered bridal dress on the collapsed from could have looked so like graveclothes, or the long veil so like a shroud.

seeming to grow, like a black fungus, I saw speckled-legged spiders with blotchy bodies
running home to it, and running out from it, as if some circumstances of the greatest public importance had just transpired in the spider community. I heard the mice too, rattling behind the panels, as if the same occurrence were important to their interests. But, the black beetles took no notice of the agitation, and groped about the hearth in a ponderous elderly way, as if they were short-sighted and hard of hearing, and not on terms with one another. These crawling things had fascinated my attention and I was watching them from a distance, when Miss Havisham laid a hand upon my shoulder. In her other hand she had a crutch-headed stick on which she leaned, and she looked like the Witch of the place.

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Portrayals of Satis House

Ideas and Directions

Dining Room, Bedroom and Main Staircase
At the moment there are 3 separate environments I could design; the bedroom, dining room and the passages that connects the room with the decaying staircase. As much as Id like to design all three I think it would be more beneficial focusing on just one of these environments. Considering what set design would be more representative of the character, Miss Havisham, I think the dining room set up ready for the wedding breakfast is a stronger portrayal. Clearly the room will be covered in veils of cobwebs and decaying yellow, but what I am keen to highlight is the fact the clocks have stopped at that specific time, hence placing more time pieces throughout the environment. Colour and style wise is still a little hazy Im keen to make this uncanny and be very atmospheric, yet I dont want it to be a clich, hence style and experimentation will be vital. I want to keep Miss Havishams character and accentuate it with my own twist. At the moment Im considering a 2D illustration style and mixing it with 3D elements. Im adamant that all of the textures are to be hand painted/sketched and that there will be a huge amount of detailing within the modelling and textures. Below are a few illustrations and photographs that I could use as inspiration.