Miss Havisham…A Victim or a Villain? Essay

Was throw off Havisham a victim or a villain? This extremely eccentric character is absolutely essential to the game of Great Expectations, for with malice intended, she greatly alters the paths of Pips and Estellas lives, and with neurotic behavior destroys her own life.Miss Havisham was heir to a fortune that had been gained by successful industry rather than noble birth. Miss Havishams suitor, Compeyson, was, by social classification, beneath her. The fact that he jilted her and was of a tear down station was a double blow to her obviously frail intellectual state. Dickens reminds us that even money earned by back bursting work rather than noble inheritance does not assure happiness.With this catalytic event, Miss Havisham committed pseudo suicide and confined herself to a mausoleumSatis House. It is prerequisite for the reader to know that Miss Havishams psychotic behavior began incisively at 840 a.m. on what was to have been her wedding day. When Miss Havisham learned th at she had been deserted by Compeyson, she was wearing just one shoe. She had not quite finished dressing, for she had but one shoe on. Dickens is express how suspended in time Miss Havisham remains.It does not seem a stretch to believe that Dickens was showing us how altogether of humanness is just one step from insanity. Dickens described Miss Havishams surroundings the court-yard but grass growing in every crevice, and the brewery all was empty and disused. Metaphorically, the same row describe Miss Havisham and illustrate that a life of revenge is hollow and unattended.The humiliation and hurt Miss Havisham suffers at the hand of Compeyson causes her to coach her adopted daughter, Estella, in the many ways to breaka mans heart. Incapable of doing it herself from her weakened and aging position, she uses Estella as her weapon of revenge.I am quite certain that Dickens arrived at Miss Havishams name by implementing some combination of words that provided him with a metaphorica l laugh. I have my own interpretation Websters Comprehensive Dictionary shares my guilt. One definition of have is to cause. Sham is as well as defined as something to be pretended other than it is. To cause a pretension is exactly what Miss Havisham did to Pip by allowing him to think she was his deep benefactor.Miss Havisham was a victim only because she allowed herself to be. A strong mortal would have quickly realized that her life would be improved by being liberated from Compeyson, a white-collared criminal. Miss Havishams villainy is excusable her self-imposed insanity allows us to do that. Miss Havisham is a wonderful diversion for the reader not quite believable, but oh, so interesting.