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 visit. He arrives and is instantly overtaken by a wave of distant nostalgia. He reenters Satis House to find Miss Havisham lost in contemplation before a fire. 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. Normally, her being alone wouldn't make her lonely per se, as she would be brooding with her malice. Now, however, it is clear that she has come to a sharp realization of her wrongdoings and is now severely effected. Pip begins to talk to her, but finds it difficult to get his point across because of her strange behavior. Though she is thankful for Pip's arrival, she looks upon him with awe, even fear, as if sh...