Great Expectations

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characters come to life and guide us through the many social guises of ninteenth century England.


Miss Havisham's lazy and indulgent nature is seen through Pip's many vivid descriptions of her as he became progressively more embroiled in Miss Havisham's games. Miss Havisham personified the idle rich as she sat in her mansion, brooding over the past, while still wearing her disintegrating wedding dress. Miss Havisham was obsessed with her failed marriage and created another doomed relationship by manufacturing Estella to break Pip's heart. Miss Havisham acted so childishly partly because she was brought up by a wealthy father who "denied her nothing" and because she never had to work in order to be financially secure. She entertained herself by playing sadistic games with children, Pip and Estella. As she explained to Pip, "I sometimes have sick fancies." Miss Havisham was a rich eccentric who sat in her dark, dusty home, "in her once-white dress, all yellow and ...

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were a moderately well off family, but they would never be part of the aristocracy solely because they do not have a title to their name. Through the hilarious descriptions of the Pockets, Dickens trivializes titles. " Still, Mrs. Pocket was in general the object of a queer sort of respectful pity because she had not married a title; while Mr. Pocket was the object a queer sort of forgiving approach because he had never got one."


 

 

 

Mrs. Joe and Pumblechook were not as close to the upper class as the Pockets, nonetheless, their behaviour was indicative of their adulation of the upper class. For example, Mrs. Joe does not question the wishes of Miss Havisham when ...

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