Great Expectations

Great Expectations

by

Charles Dickens

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Great Expectations makes teaching easy.

Miss Havisham Character Analysis

The wealthy daughter of a brewer, Miss Havisham was abandoned on her wedding day by her fiancée (Compeyson) and, traumatized. She preserves herself and her house in wedding regalia, shutting out the world for over twenty years. To exact her revenge on men, Miss Havisham adopts and raises Estella to be beautiful and desirable but completely heartless. Miss Havisham is capricious, manipulative, bitter, and, until novel's end, unable to recognize anyone's pain but her own.

Miss Havisham Quotes in Great Expectations

The Great Expectations quotes below are all either spoken by Miss Havisham or refer to Miss Havisham. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Social Class Theme Icon
).
Book 1, Chapter 9 Quotes

…my young mind was in that disturbed and unthankful state that I thought long after I laid me down, how common Estella would consider Joe, a mere blacksmith: how thick his boots, and how coarse his hands. I thought how Joe and my sister were then sitting in the kitchen, and how Miss Havisham and Estella never sat in a kitchen, but were far above the level of such common things.

Related Characters: Pip Pirrip (speaker), Estella Havisham, Joe Gargery, Miss Havisham, Mrs. Joe Gargery
Page Number: 55
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 1, Chapter 15 Quotes

Miss Havisham and Estella and the strange house and the strange life appeared to have something to do with everything that was picturesque.

Related Characters: Pip Pirrip (speaker), Estella Havisham, Miss Havisham
Related Symbols: Satis House
Page Number: 85
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 2, Chapter 38 Quotes

"I am what you have made me. Take all the praise, take all the blame; take all the success, take all the failure; in short, take me."

Related Characters: Estella Havisham (speaker), Miss Havisham
Page Number: 238
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 3, Chapter 44 Quotes

"Miss Havisham gives you to him as the greatest slight and injury that could be done to the many far better men who admire you, and to the few who truly love you. Among those few, there may be one who loves you even as dearly, though he has not loved you as long as I. Take him, and I can bear it better for your sake."

Related Characters: Pip Pirrip (speaker), Estella Havisham, Miss Havisham, Bentley Drummle
Page Number: 284
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 3, Chapter 49 Quotes

"Believe this: when she first came to me, I meant to save her from misery like my own. At first I meant no more…But as she grew and promised to be very beautiful, I gradually did worse, and with my praises, and with my jewels, and with my teachings, and with this figure of myself always before her, a warning to back and point my lessons, I stole her heart away and put ice in its place"…[Miss Havisham] burst out again, What had she done!

Related Characters: Miss Havisham (speaker), Estella Havisham
Page Number: 313
Explanation and Analysis:
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Great Expectations PDF

Miss Havisham Quotes in Great Expectations

The Great Expectations quotes below are all either spoken by Miss Havisham or refer to Miss Havisham. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Social Class Theme Icon
).
Book 1, Chapter 9 Quotes

…my young mind was in that disturbed and unthankful state that I thought long after I laid me down, how common Estella would consider Joe, a mere blacksmith: how thick his boots, and how coarse his hands. I thought how Joe and my sister were then sitting in the kitchen, and how Miss Havisham and Estella never sat in a kitchen, but were far above the level of such common things.

Related Characters: Pip Pirrip (speaker), Estella Havisham, Joe Gargery, Miss Havisham, Mrs. Joe Gargery
Page Number: 55
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 1, Chapter 15 Quotes

Miss Havisham and Estella and the strange house and the strange life appeared to have something to do with everything that was picturesque.

Related Characters: Pip Pirrip (speaker), Estella Havisham, Miss Havisham
Related Symbols: Satis House
Page Number: 85
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 2, Chapter 38 Quotes

"I am what you have made me. Take all the praise, take all the blame; take all the success, take all the failure; in short, take me."

Related Characters: Estella Havisham (speaker), Miss Havisham
Page Number: 238
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 3, Chapter 44 Quotes

"Miss Havisham gives you to him as the greatest slight and injury that could be done to the many far better men who admire you, and to the few who truly love you. Among those few, there may be one who loves you even as dearly, though he has not loved you as long as I. Take him, and I can bear it better for your sake."

Related Characters: Pip Pirrip (speaker), Estella Havisham, Miss Havisham, Bentley Drummle
Page Number: 284
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 3, Chapter 49 Quotes

"Believe this: when she first came to me, I meant to save her from misery like my own. At first I meant no more…But as she grew and promised to be very beautiful, I gradually did worse, and with my praises, and with my jewels, and with my teachings, and with this figure of myself always before her, a warning to back and point my lessons, I stole her heart away and put ice in its place"…[Miss Havisham] burst out again, What had she done!

Related Characters: Miss Havisham (speaker), Estella Havisham
Page Number: 313
Explanation and Analysis: