Friday 2 January 2015

Homework over Christmas

Great Expectations and the characters of Miss Havisham, Pip and Estella all have contrasting backgrounds, appearances and personalities. It is interesting to see them as a microcosm of victorian people as it can give the readers an insight as to what people in the Victorian era were like, how they acted and what they looked like.

Miss Havisham
The house and the life of Miss Havisham are stagnant, worn, lifeless and haggard. She is like the ghost of wedding's past who roams around the house as a ghostly, solemn, paranoid spirit of her past self. We know that she looks deflated and aged as Pip describes her as having 'sunken eyes' and to have 'shrunken to skin and bone' which indicates that she does not look after herself and is basically waiting for her to die.

 In chapter 8, there is a quote about Miss Havisham that says "I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress, and had no brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes". This makes me believe that she is a dilapidated, neglected, timeworn version of her pre-wedding self,  like time has worn the outside of her but she is still the image of what she once was. In chapter 11, she says that she is 'yellow skin and bone', which can be taken quite literally; she may even have Jaundice as a result of poor health. She chooses to live in a decaying house with everything still in the same place as it was on her wedding day and keep the same clothes on and not even put her second shoe on, which also indicates that time seems to have stopped for her as she was mid getting ready when her fiancĂ© left her. She is grieving for that day and has never let it go.

Miss Havisham has been betrayed by men; her half brother and her fiancé. Therefore she becomes extremely hateful and seeks vengeance against males, which may contribute to her appearance looking angry and bitter, with a lot of stress lines and neglect. However, she was once a rich lady and has come from a respectful background, so her costume and hair adornments will have been real, expensive and lavish.

Pip
We know that Pip has a tough upbringing in the marshes as the brother-in-law of a kind blacksmith and the brother of a harsh woman. However he gains a fortune and becomes ungrateful and a snob, which will attribute to his future appearance and his personality.

When he is young, Estella makes fun of his appearance, saying that he has 'coarse hands' and 'thick boots'. He is from the family of a Blacksmith meaning that he is not very wealthy, however he later uses his fortune to buy clothes and jewellery (mostly jewellery). This would suggest that he attempts to look high class.

Because the book is in first person (Pip's perspective), not much of his appearance is talked about and so the reader isn't much aware of what he looks like, but we can assume that he neatens up and is more well kept when he's older than when he's younger. He will have a rich man's haircut and will be well dressed.

Estella
At the end of the novel we find out that Estella is Magwitch the criminal's daughter, and so technically she should look as if she comes from the lowest of the low classes in the Victorian times. However as she was adopted by Miss Havisham, she is launched up into high class society, although she doesn't necessarily leave the house. This means that her costume is rich, and her hair is neatly done.

At one point, Estella says "I have not bestowed tenderness anywhere. I have never had any such thing." This would suggest that her face is emotionless, and despite her youth and beauty, she will have a cold aura about her that can be detected in the face. This could possibly be represented through a pale face, or through a harsh facial expression.




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