Miss Havisham Suffering

Agony of the Heart In the Great Expectations movie Miss Havisham says, “The agony is exquisite, is it not? A broken heart. You think you will die. But you just keep living day after day, after terrible day.” This woman plays a key role in the theme of suffering. The readers see her in the past, being tortured by it. They see her actions causing it for multiple people. But sadly, in the all of what she has done, comes back to bite her. This causes her to be the one who suffers the most. This is the theme of suffering, circling around the woman who embodies it the most, the stone-hearted Miss Havisham. Miss Havisham lived a lavish and spoiled childhood. Whatever she desired was given to her, by her adoring father. Her father was a very rich
and proud man, and was happy in what he did, unlike Miss Havisham in the present.
But, sadly her mother had died when she was a baby. She remained an only child, until her father privately married the cook which gave her a new half-brother, who would cause her much pain later on. Again, her father’s second wife died and this did not go well with the son, Arthur because, “ As the son grew a young man, he turned riotous, extravagant, undutiful-altogether bad. At last his father disinherited him.”(Dickens 168). His stepfather was horrified by his behavior and did not take pity on him until Arthur was dying. But, it still was not as much pity as Mr. Havisham took on Miss Havisham as a child. Also, during this she had fallen in love with a man named Compeyson. Now, Compeyson was of a lower class than Miss Havisham but, “He practised on her affection in that systematic way, that he got great sums of money from her, and he induced her to buy her brother out of a share in the brewery (which had been weakly left him by his father) at an immense price, on the plea that when he was her husband he must hold and
manage it all.”(Dickens 169). Unfortunately, she had done all of this for her so-called financé. They had set a date on when to be married, and Miss Havisham could not be happier. But, when the day came, no groom showed up, just a letter that was received twenty minutes to nine. She had fallen into her brother’s plot and suffers from it till this day. No one knows what happened to the men or who they were exactly but according to Dickens, “ They fell into deeper shame and degradation-if there can be deeper-and ruin.” (170). According to this the two men both did not make the best out of their lives either. But, nothing could have been worse than what they did to Miss Havisham. She wears her wedding dress everyday and has all the clocks set twenty minutes to nine in the house as a reminder of the suffering she was caused on her wedding day, of her true love standing her up. This left a stone in place of her heart that now wants to cause suffering to all men.
This is where Miss Estella Havisham comes in. Estella is Miss Havisham’s adopted daughter, who she had groomed to be a cold-hearted woman whose only duty in this world is to make men suffer. Pip is one of the victims of Estella, but through thick and thin he loves her no matter what. When Miss Havisham starts to see an attraction between these two, she does everything possible to keep them apart. Pip comes to Satis House one day, only to find Miss Havisham chanting something into Estella’s ear, “Break their hearts, my pride and hope, break their hearts and have no mercy.” (Dickens 93). This is aimed mostly towards Pip, by having Estella break his heart and make him suffer from it, just as Miss Havisham had been done to. Also, we see her making Pip suffer from her own hands when she makes him believe that she was his mysterious benefactor. When Pip finds out that she is not, he blames her for making him believe she was. “ But when I fell into the mistake I have so long remained in, at least you led me on?” (Dickens 334). Miss Havisham admits, it seems, that she in fact did lead him into believing it, “Yes, I let you go on.” (Dickens 334). Pip then asks her if it was ever kind, and she gets completely enraged by this, “ Who am I...who am I, for God’s sake, that I should be kind?” (Dickens 334). Lastly she makes both Estella and Pip suffer by marrying Estella to Drummle. It is like killing
two birds with one stone, making them both suffer from the same cause. Pip realizes this when he meets Drummle at the Blue Boar on his way to Satis House, and hopes it is not true. But, when he arrives he could tell by the tension in the air that something is wrong. He fought with both women over some time, because Pip originally thought Estella was meant for him which both women deny of having or saying any such thought. Then Estella finally declares, “ Why not tell you the truth? I am going to be married to him!” (Dickens 337). This leaves him shock, and Pip starts to beg Estella with all of his heart not to marry Drummle. He also believes that it is Miss Havisham who is making her do this on purpose, and he pleas, “Estella do not let Miss Havisham lead you into this fatal step. Put me aside forever-you have done so, I well know-but bestow yourself on some worthier person than Drummle. Miss Havisham gives you to him, as the greatest slight an injury that could be done to the many far better men who admire you and fe who truly love you.” (Dickens 337). Estella does not listen to him, so Pip tells her that he is in love with her. She becomes horrified with this said and exclaims that she has no room in her heart for such a thing called love. Sadly, Estella goes off with Drummle, leaving Pip alone and Miss Havisham proud of what she has done, or so it seems. In the end, Miss Havisham is the one who suffers the most from everything that has been said or done. Pip goes to visit her and asks for her to give him money to help Herbert. She agrees and she says she is sorry for what she has done to him over the years, but Pip says it is not all her fault. She wants to give him more in return as forgiveness for what she’s done and asks, “ Can I only serve you, Pip, by serving your friend? Regarding that as done, is there nothing I can do for you?” (Dickens 371). Again, Pip tells her no but she is relentless and tries another way to earn her forgiveness. In her mind it is like she needs his forgiveness to move on with her life, otherwise she’ll be stuck where she is now forever. So, she tells Pip to write “I forgive her” under her name he agrees to it, but something suddenly clicks in her head. Miss Havisham falls to her knees and says, “ O! What have I done? What have I done!” (Dickens 372). She does this because she realizes she ruined Estella’s entire life. In hindsight, Miss Havisham wanted a daughter so that she did not have to suffer from what the world did to her. But instead, she made her daughter get revenge on all men for her. She replaces a beautiful, sweet three year-old’s pure heart with a heart of stone. Just before Pip leaves, he goes to the garden and sees the brewery, he believes he saw Miss Havisham as a ghost hanging herself. He then turns to the house and sees fire in one of the windows and runs back into the house. There he finds Miss Havisham burning herself, “ I saw a great flaming light spring up. In the same moment I saw her running at me shrieking, with a whirl of fire blazing.” (Dickens 374). Pip attempts to help her by grabbing the old tablecloth and wrapping her in it and holding her down. But, in the process she grabs onto him and burns both of his arms as well. Once she had calmed down,doctors came to check on her, and Pip stayed till she was better and then leaves. Miss Havisham is alone again, making her the one who suffers the most in the end. As seen in Great Expectations, a broken heart can cause more destruction and despair than just to the person who suffers from it. This book seems to revolve around the woman who is the embodiment of suffering herself, Miss Havisham. Without her, more than half of all the problems in the book would not have occurred. Suffering happens more in everyday life than anyone could imagine, and it can cause pain to more people than they know. As Charles Dickens said, “Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but-I hope into a better shape.” (450). So, Miss Havisham may have just received the greatest teaching of all.