Miss Havisham 🔒 Members

🔒 Members only: join for £4.99 a month

Age and build

physically weak and stooped

“She was not physically strong, and after a little time said, “Slower” (Great Expectations, part 11)

collapsed form suggesting advanced age and decline

“the withered bridal dress on the collapsed form could have looked so like grave-clothes” (Great Expectations, part 8)

Face and hair

yellow skin and bone

“I am yellow skin and bone” (Great Expectations, part 11)

grey hair adrift on the ground

“Miss Havisham’s grey hair was all adrift upon the ground, among the other bridal wrecks” (Great Expectations, part 38)

wan bright eyes glaring like a spectre

“her wan bright eyes glaring at me, a very spectre” (Great Expectations, part 38)

Dress

withered bridal dress worn as grave-clothes

“the withered bridal dress on the collapsed form could have looked so like grave-clothes, or the long veil so like a shroud” (Great Expectations, part 8)

one shoe missing, the other trodden ragged

“the shoe upon it, once white, now yellow, had never been worn. I glanced down at the foot from which the shoe was absent, and saw that the silk stocking on it, once white, now yellow, had been trodden ragged” (Great Expectations, part 8)

Voice and speech

voice dropped low with dead lull

“her voice had dropped, so that she spoke low, and with a dead lull upon her” (Great Expectations, part 8)

speaks with impatience and sharpness

“Why, what’s the matter with you?” asked Miss Havisham, with exceeding sharpness” (Great Expectations, part 11)

makes low moaning sounds

“Miss Havisham, with her head in her hands, sat making a low moaning, and swaying herself on her chair” (Great Expectations, part 38)

Signature words

Break their hearts (her obsessive refrain to Estella)

“Break their hearts my pride and hope, break their hearts and have no mercy” (Great Expectations, part 12)

Love her (repeated with greedy intensity)

“Love her, love her, love her” (Great Expectations, part 29)

Gait and mannerisms

leans on crutch-headed stick, looks like a witch

“In her other hand she had a crutch-headed stick on which she leaned, and she looked like the Witch of the place” (Great Expectations, part 11)

twitches hand on shoulder and works her mouth while walking

“we went at an impatient fitful speed, and as we went, she twitched the hand upon my shoulder, and worked her mouth” (Great Expectations, part 11)

strikes stick upon floor in anger

“Speak the truth, you ingrate!” cried Miss Havisham, passionately striking her stick upon the floor” (Great Expectations, part 38)

walks at night in ghostly manner making low cry

“I saw Miss Havisham going along it in a ghostly manner, making a low cry” (Great Expectations, part 38)

Strengths

commanding presence that inspires fear and obedience

“Miss Havisham twitched my shoulder, and we posted on,—with a shame-faced consciousness on my part that they would think it was all my doing” (Great Expectations, part 11)

shrewd understanding of character

“Miss Havisham glanced at him as if she understood what he really was better than I had thought possible” (Great Expectations, part 13)

Flaws

consumed by desire for revenge on all men

“she was not to be given to me until she had gratified it for a term” (Great Expectations, part 38)

cruel practice on susceptible hearts

“It would have been cruel in Miss Havisham, horribly cruel, to practise on the susceptibility of a poor boy, and to torture me through all these years with a vain hope and an idle pursuit” (Great Expectations, part 44)

possessive and jealous love for Estella

“Did I never give her a burning love, inseparable from jealousy at all times, and from sharp pain” (Great Expectations, part 38)

forgot her own trial's effect on others

“in the endurance of her own trial, she forgot mine, Estella” (Great Expectations, part 44)

Traits

immensely rich and grim

“an immensely rich and grim lady who lived in a large and dismal house barricaded against robbers, and who led a life of seclusion” (Great Expectations, part 7)

has never seen the sun since Pip was born

“You are not afraid of a woman who has never seen the sun since you were born” (Great Expectations, part 8)

everything in her room stopped long ago

“everything in the room had stopped, like the watch and the clock, a long time ago” (Great Expectations, part 8)

appearance of having dropped body and soul under weight of crushing blow

“she had the appearance of having dropped body and soul, within and without, under the weight of a crushing blow” (Great Expectations, part 8)

mortally hurt and diseased mind

“with the intensity of a mind mortally hurt and diseased, she sat with her other hand on her crutch stick” (Great Expectations, part 38)

Lines in their own words

asking about Estella's beauty with greedy intensity

“Does she grow prettier and prettier, Pip” (Great Expectations, part 12)

expressing remorse and confusion

“What had she done” (Great Expectations, part 49)