In Great Expectations, Is Miss Havisham crazy and/or evil? Essay

In Great Expectations, Is Miss Havisham crazy and/or evil? The mad,eccentric and incredibly peculiar Miss Havisham,a wealthy dowager who lives in an old, rotting mansion secluded from the outside world is certainly one of the most memorable creations in the book Great Expectations written by Charles Dickens. From the first introductory scene on encountering Miss Havisham’s character it is immediately clear that she is supposed to leave a lasting impression on the reader. Dickens uses a vast variety of imagery and word choice to describe the appearance of the house in which Miss Havisham lives . Satis house,as it was called, emits an ominous presence with its old brick walled up windows and many iron bars.This gives the sense that outsiders where not entirely welcome and rarely visited. The room in which she sat was vividly described as dark with â€Å"no glimpse of daylight.. to be seen† and furnished with many old and unrecognisable objects .The vivid setting is emphasised by the young boy,Pip, who narrates this entire experience and describes Miss Havisham at first as â€Å"the strangest lady I have ever seen or shall ever see.†. The cause or her peculiarity? A single, tragic event which was to take over Miss Havishams life for ever.Her life is defined by the jilting of her fiancà ©e and lover Compeyson and from that moment forth her world has been one based around heartbreak and betrayel thus, casting herself away from the realms of reality. From the exact moment in time when she first learnt Compeyson was gone, the old woman stopped all the clocks from ticking and fixed them at twenty minutes to nine. This links into her somewhat dishevelled appearance at a first glance for only one shoe was upon her f... ...her parting from her†. In conclusion Miss Havisham was neither crazy, nor was she evil. She was mentally ill, driven to insanity with love and pain, with nobody to care for her. She was a confused lady, with nowhere to turn; therefore, she created her own fictional world where nothing changed and her own experience of emotional betrayal cast a prolonging shadow over her entire life. Dickens illustrates the fact that interpersonal and family relationships are forever changing, as remaining still only leads to tragedy. Her character draws in the reader as her peculiarity is mysterious, interesting and somewhat chilling as she is just that little bit different. Charles Dickens uses an exceptionally vast amount of word choice and word imagery to give us this unforgettable impression of one of the most memorable characters ever created in English literature.