Introduction

This semester we will be exploring Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Although I had previously studied this novel at school for my GCSE’s in 2009 I needed to refresh my memory as I couldn’t really remember much of plot or the characters.

Throughout the Christmas break I began re reading Great Expectations but I found it very slow, boring and difficult to understand. I found the spark notes online very useful to help me understand the text more.

Great Expectations was set in the Victorian Era which ran from 1837 – 1901. The novel has themes of suspense, horror, fear and superstition; it is classed as a gothic novel which were very popular during this time. The settings of the book are often in very dark and gloomy places which also reference to the gothic theme of the book. Many of the characters also show gothic qualities throughout the novel.

My favourite character in the novel is Miss Havisham - the bride frozen in time, her powerful character is fascinating to me as during the Victorian era women were meant to be dependent on a male figure. She is an older woman who was jilted on her wedding day, years later still wearing her wedding dress and has a grudge against all men. Although she doesn’t seem like a particularly very nice character in the book as she also raises Estella to become a heart breaker, as a tool of her own revenge against men.

Gillian Anderson as Miss Havisham in the
BBC series of Great Expectations.

I have watched the first episode of the three part series of Great Expectations which was shown in 2011 by the BBC that was written by Sarah Phelps and Directed by Brian Kirk. Miss Havisham was played by Gillian Anderson in the series, the way she was portrayed through the eyes of Pip in this version of Great Expectations which created a sense of innocence for her character.  

Anderson’s appearance as Miss Havisham was surprising in the first episode of the series as I thought that the dress should have looked a lot more worn and tattered with a hint of yellow to it as it has been worn for so long. Her skin is looking very dewy in an unhealthy way. She looks like she has been deprived of sleep; the bags under her eyes are striking. A point a lecturer of mine made was that you can see that she has a lot of product on her face which is interesting as I wonder why she has been made up in this way, it looks very unnatural.

Overall I am very excited about this new project for this semester as I am feeling very inspired to all the different elements of the story to connect to the brief, I think that Great Expectations could lead to an exciting final outcome.

Image of Gillian Anderson as Miss Havisham