Dickens’ Great Expectations ( Chapter 8 Analysis and Questions for GCSE )
To this, she returned: “Don’t be ridiculous, boy; I am not going in.” And scornfully walked away, and—what was worse—took the candle with her.
- Why is light comforting when we are afraid? What might the absence of ‘ the candle’ foreshadow about the strange encounter with Miss Havisham? And what do you surmise about Estella’s attitude to Pip when she addresses him as ‘boy’ and declines to escort him into the room? If the name ‘Estella’ associates the girl with the stars, does this suggest something distant/unobtainable and even cold about her character? What might it suggest about any eventual relationship with Pip? How will this affect his growth?
This was very uncomfortable, and I was half afraid. However, the only thing to be done being to knock at the door, I knocked, and was told from within to enter. I entered, therefore, and found myself in a pretty large room, well lighted with wax candles. No glimpse of daylight was to be seen in it. It was a dressing-room, as I supposed from the furniture, though much of it was of forms and uses then quite unknown to me. But prominent in it was a draped table with a gilded looking-glass, and that I made out at first sight to be a fine lady’s dressing-table.
- How polite is Pip and what do you feel about the detailed quality of his observations? Does this make him an ideal storyteller? Why does he make the reader aware of his feelings of discomfort and fear?
Whether I should have made out this object so soon, if there had been no fine lady sitting at it, I cannot say. In an arm-chair, with an elbow resting on the table and her head leaning on that hand, sat the strangest lady I have ever seen, or shall ever see.
- Why can Pip use two different tenses to announce the ‘strangest lady’ and with what effect? Do you believe that we would describe Miss Havisham sat in her decaying wedding dress as a ‘fine lady’ and if not, why do you think Pip holds this opinion?
She was dressed in rich materials—satins, and lace, and silks—all of white. Her shoes were white. And she had a long white veil dependent from her hair, and she had bridal flowers in her hair, but her hair was white. Some bright jewels sparkled on her neck and on her hands, and some other jewels lay sparkling on the table. Dresses, less splendid than the dress she wore, and half-packed trunks, were scattered about. She had not quite finished dressing, for she had but one shoe on—the other was on the table near her hand—her veil was but half arranged, her watch and chain were not put on, and some lace for her bosom lay with those trinkets, and with her handkerchief, and gloves, and some flowers, and a prayer-book, all confusedly heaped about the looking-glass.
- How does Miss Havisham appear to the reader? And what is the effect of all the decaying ‘white’ materials? Do the jewels add magic and mystery to the scene? Students in the past, have often remarked upon the oddity of the details surrounding the ‘one shoe on.’ What does this singular detail contribute to our picture of Miss Havisham in her lair-like room?
It was not in the first few moments that I saw all these things, though I saw more of them in the first moments than might be supposed. But, I saw that everything within my view which ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its lustre, and was faded and yellow. I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress, and like the flowers, and had no brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes. I saw that the dress had been put upon the rounded figure of a young woman, and that the figure upon which it now hung loose, had shrunk to skin and bone. Once, I had been taken to see some ghastly waxwork at the Fair, representing I know not what impossible personage lying in state. Once, I had been taken to one of our old marsh churches to see a skeleton in the ashes of a rich dress, that had been dug out of a vault under the church pavement. Now, waxwork and skeleton seemed to have dark eyes that moved and looked at me. I should have cried out, if I could.
- As Pip contemplates Miss Havisham, he becomes aware of her ‘faded’ and ‘yellow’ appearance. He recognises that she was once a ‘bride’ and that she is now ‘withered’ inside her dress. Is this why Pip feels she resembles some ‘ghastly waxwork’ or ‘skeleton’? Think about the effects of this meeting upon a poor, vulnerable young boy.
“Who is it?” said the lady at the table.
“Pip, ma’am.”
“Pip?”
“Mr. Pumblechook’s boy, ma’am. Come—to play.”
“Come nearer; let me look at you. Come close.”
It was when I stood before her, avoiding her eyes, that I took note of the surrounding objects in detail, and saw that her watch had stopped at twenty minutes to nine, and that a clock in the room had stopped at twenty minutes to nine.
“Look at me,” said Miss Havisham. “You are not afraid of a woman who has never seen the sun since you were born?”
I regret to state that I was not afraid of telling the enormous lie comprehended in the answer “No.”
“Do you know what I touch here?” she said, laying her hands, one upon the other, on her left side.
“Yes, ma’am.” (It made me think of the young man.)
“What do I touch?”
“Your heart.”
“Broken!”
- Upper-class Miss Havisham has invited Pip to ‘play’ in her dismal mansion. Does this behaviour show she is eccentric? Why? What did you feel about the ‘stopped’ clock? Why might someone wish to halt the natural progression of time? Does this attempt to control time or to render it fixed or static, bizarre? Why do you think Pip stays in the room despite Miss Havisham’s grotesque appearance and behaviour? Does this show Pip is fascinated or terrified? Or even both? What is the significance of the ‘sun’ when we think about Miss Havisham? Is she is vampiric, then do you believe she constitutes a threat to Pip’s heart?
She uttered the word with an eager look, and with strong emphasis, and with a weird smile that had a kind of boast in it. Afterwards, she kept her hands there for a little while, and slowly took them away as if they were heavy.
“I am tired,” said Miss Havisham. “I want diversion, and I have done with men and women. Play.”
- What type of ‘diversion’ does Miss Havisham crave and is she right to involve Pip? ( Do remember why ‘Pip’ is called Pip and what this new territory or ‘soil’ might do to his growth as a human being. ) Does the word ‘boast’ create tension in the description of Miss Havisham, and if so, why? What is it about Miss Havisham’s economic status that allows her to get what she wants?
