Comparing Disturbed Characters Of Shakespeare And Miss Havisham

English Literature GCSE- Controlled Assessment
Explore the ways Shakespeare and Dickens present Lady Macbeth and Miss Havisham as disturbed characters
Shakespeare and Dickens both show disturbed characters in their play or novel. Shakespeare wrote Macbeth in1606, this gives us better idea of the time were they thought that witches were real and Shakespeare wrote this play because he wanted to impress the king. On the other hand Dickens didn’t want to impress anyone by writing a novel based on someone else.
In Great Expectations Dickens introduces Pip as a weeping boy who is grieving over his dead family in the churchyard, immediately we can see that something is wrong and this is not normal behaviour for a child. Pip is all alone and terrified; the reader senses that something disturbing is about to happen. In the Victorian times many people believed in ghosts and the supernatural, therefore they would have expected disturbing events such as this. However, Pip is not met with ghosts nut instead faces a convict Magwitch.
Magwitch is described as “A fearful man, all in coarse grey, with an iron on his leg.” Dickens conveys to the reader through the word “fearful” and furthermore in using the colours “grey and iron” this suggest that somebody is made of metal and is washed out of colour.
An “iron” on his leg represents that he has escaped from prison and he is danger towards people. But in Great Expectations he might be disturbed but Magwitch is good hearted, Dickens shows this by making out that he is decent enough to take the blame for Pip’s theft, although Pip was terrified to meet his at first he comes to love Magwitch a good and noble
man.
In Macbeth, William Shakespeare describes Macbeth by a brave and noble soldier, ready to die for his king, Duncan. However when Macbeth was introduced to the three witches, they had a powerful effect on him. When he realised that what they say had become true, especially when he learns that when the three witches had said that he would become the Thane of Cawdor. The three witches were placed in a heath which tells the audience that they are not within society because they wanted to be alone and not be civilised. This suggests that the witches would have made Macbeth a disturbed character because they say things to him like “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Glamis! All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter!” this would make him a bit big headed, because he thinks more and more about being king, and he is easily persuaded to agree to murder Duncan. Occasionally he appears weak by having strange visions, he asks a lot of questions he cannot make a decision and never really seems sure of himself. For example when he murders King Duncan he relies on his wife to find him an alibi because he was in a panic and couldn’t think straight. Later in the paly he appears to be in control more often and less dependent on his wife. For instance he plans to murder Banquo without telling his wife what he his plans were, he also ignores his vision and make decisions quickly and gives orders rather than asking the questions. This suggests that Macbeth might be the most disturbed character in Macbeth because he has no control over the witches and what he feels.
I think that Macbeth is a more disturbed than Pip because he was influenced by his wife to murder king Duncan and others that he was close too. He was very easy to convince, as his wife stated to kill the King he was scare at first but then agreed to it. Also when he spoke to the witches they found it easy to convince him that he would be king and everyone would obey him. This shows that Macbeth is a disturbed character because in the being of the play it shows that he was a loyal leader that fought for his king in war but during the end he became unfaithful and turned against them killing them.
In Great expectations Pip wanted to become a “gentleman” because he wanted to impress Estella so she wouldn’t despise. Not knowing what this could do to him he went to London to learn manners. Pip grows shallow and conceited. This shows that he is disturbed by changing and forgetting everyone that has helping him in the past when he was all alone.
Pip was taken by his Uncle Pumblechook to Satis house. Miss Havisham being left at her wedding had stopped all the clocks to the time of her ceremony, and sits in her wedding dress. Miss Havisham had told Pip to play cards with her adopted daughter Estella, Estella is beautiful and Pip falls in love with her. But Miss Havisham has bought her up to wreak revenge on men, and Estella humiliates him. After 5 years a London Lawyer had come to visit Pip and tells him that unknown benefactor has given him a huge sum of money for Pip to become a ‘gentleman’. Pip assumes that it was Miss Havisham that had given all that money to him and wants him to marry Estella. After a while Pip receives a visitor Magwitch the convict. Magwitch made a fortune in Australia and it was him that had sent Pip the money