Ms Havisham Essay
Write about the feelings that you have for Miss Havisham. You should focus your answer on any two passages from the novel.
Throughout the course of the novel our feelings for Ms. Havisham are largely negative. This is due to a number of reasons. First of all it is due to Ms. Havisham's malicious manipulation of Pip and the way she persuades him into believing that Estella was meant for him alone. Negative feelings also develop because of the way Ms. Havisham shapes Estella's character. Ms Havisham shapes Estella into the cruel hearted women that she has become. She brings up Estella to manipulate and break men's hearts-in this case it is Pip which is greatly affected by these actions. She teaches Estella not to love and this has a great effect on Pip which is why feelings of hatred towards Ms Havisham start to develop and a harsh image of Ms. Havisham is portrayed. However, towards the end of the novel our feelings for Ms Havisham change dramatically. It is towards the end of the novel that we see a dramatic change in Ms Havisham herself. Not only does Ms Havisham become more compassionate towards Pip and his friends i.e. Mr Pocket, but she also offers to help Pip and asks for his forgiveness. It is at this moment in the novel where we first start to develop feelings of sympathy for Ms. Havisham. This dramatic change in Ms. Havisham's character and emotions change our entire view of Ms Havisham.
In Pip's first meeting with Ms. Havisham we immediately acquire a rough image of Ms. Havisham. This is not only due to Ms Havisham's actions which we see later on in this chapter, but it is also due to the environment that she lives in. The description of Ms. Havisham's house is like that of a prison, "Which was of old bricks, and dismal, and had a great many iron bars to it. Some of the windows had been walled up; of those that remained, all the lower were rustily barred." The way in which Dickens describes the surroundings creates feelings of...
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