Great Expectations: Miss H.

A great many readers would characterize Miss Havisham as a puppetmaster. It is plain to see that she is manipulating and brainwashing her adopted daughter Estella in order to live vicariously through her, since her physically and evidently emotionally withered body and mind will not allow her to take action herself. Estella becomes an extension of her pervading bitterness towards men, and the vulnerable social neophyte Pip serves as the perfect target, even from his …

…despite all the previous offenses she has committed, Miss Havisham convincingly makes a switch for the better in this climactic scene. One cannot help but feel sympathy for this once menacing but now humble creature. It offers hope to Pip that perhaps not all those in his life have turned their backs on him, and that the world isn’t such a dreary place if people can change for the better, as Miss Havisham did.