Great Expectations: Miss H.
A great many readers would characterize Miss Havisham as a puppetmaster. It is plain to see that she is manipulating and brainwashing her adopted daughter Estella in order to live vicariously through her, since her physically and evidently emotionally withered body and mind will not allow her to take action herself. Estella becomes an extension of her pervading bitterness towards men, and the vulnerable social neophyte Pip serves as the perfect target, even from his boyhood days. Pip is subjected to many atrocities at Miss Havisham's will. He lives a life that is an emotional roller coaster and eventually turns out to be a lie. But as shadows from the past, namely Magwitch and Compeyson, resurface, the truth unravels right in Pip and Miss Havisham's faces. It is at this juncture that Miss Havisham realizes the grievous error of her ways. In the climactic chapter, when Pip meets her for the last time, Miss Havisham realizes her wrongs, shows heartfelt sorrow, and attempts to make amends, and her burning at the chapter's close symbolizes her purification. Pip returns to Satis House for the first time in a very long while. Along the trip he is struck by the morbid dreariness that seems to have fallen over the land since his last vi
He reenters Satis House to find Miss Havisham lost in contemplation before a fire. She survives, though in decidedly bad shape. It is extremely unfulfilling to the reader and unbecoming of the story to leave such a loose end dangling. She would much rather do something specifically and personally for Pip, since this would alleviate her feeling of wretchedness more directly. Even despite all the previous offenses she has committed, Miss Havisham convincingly makes a switch for the better in this climactic scene. The destruction of her dress, which symbolized her old begrudging and bitter nature, and the image of burning as a purifying and cleansing, though painful, experience shows that she has indeed come into her own as a character and no loose ends have been left. The dreariness of the place, gloomily enhanced by the dismal weather, is now more permeating than ever, as Pip's childhood memories, now viewed in a whole new light, rush back to haunt him. Though she is thankful for Pip's arrival, she looks upon him with awe, even fear, as if she almost expects Pip to rebuke and punish her for what she has done to him. It offers hope to Pip that perhaps not all those in his life have turned their backs on him, and that the world isn't such a dreary place if people can change for the better, as Miss Havisham did. Her eyes are pained and at times vacant, her face worn by something more than age, and her appearance overall is described as more haggard and withered than ever. From the very first, it is obvious that she is a shell of her former self, as there is an air of loneliness about her. Pip thinks it a bit much to ask, but Miss Havisham agrees. Normally, her being alone wouldn't make her lonely per se, as she would be brooding with her malice. Even before Pip arrives, Miss Havisham claims she is aware that there is a favor Pip would like to ask of her.
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