Throughout Great Expectations, Charles Dickens uses symbolism at different points in the novel in order to provide the reader with a more in depth look at the personal lives of each character. For example, in chapter eleven Dickens goes into a very detailed description of Mrs.Havisham's wedding cake and the room around her. This small passage is used to help the reader understand how powerful the effect of the spell that Mrs. Havisham has put on the Satis House really is.
             The molded spider infested centerpiece at the center of the room in which Mrs. Havisham commands Pip to enter is used to symbolize the pain and suffering that she has expirienced throughout the many years since her return to the Satis House. This centerpiece was reavealed to the reader as her wedding cake pinpointing the exact day that she ceased to truly live. This cake was once a "great cake" as Mrs. Havisham was once a great and very beautiful woman. However over time this cake has been ridden with mold and eaten away by a black fungus destroying the outward beauty that it once held. Havisham aswell has over time lost her once radiant and alluring features and become "yellow skin and bone". The cobwebs which are delicately lacing the cake are symbolic of the wedding dress that Mrs.Havisham has worn since the day of her ruin. Though a single cobweb may be attractive to the eye a person doesnt just leave it up unless they have the intent of setting up a feeling of foreboding. The same can be said of Havisham's wedding dress, it has be left on over the years to envoke an uncomfortableness in anyone who came in contact with her. The mice eating at the cake represents the pain that she has felt gnawing at her constantly since her tragedy. The spiders and black beatles running to and from the cake represents her relatives and everyone that comes into contact with her in attempt to recieve a portion of her wealth. The relatives for example, are given the name "Pockets"...