Sunday, May 27, 2012

According to Herbert, what is Miss Havisham's eccentric behavior motivated by in Great Expectations?

Herbert Pocket describes to Pip in chapter 22 of the novel what supposedly happened to Miss Havisham in her youth and prompted her to become the eccentric recluse Pip knows her to be. He says that she wants Estella to "wreak revenge" on all men because of how she herself was treated. Having been brought up as the beloved child of a doting father, the father then married his cook and had a son, who was extremely "riotous" and extravagant. He ran up enormous debts.
At the same time, another young man of similar inclinations began pursuing Miss Havisham, scheming a lot of money out of her for his own purposes as well as on behalf of the brother. A wedding was fixed between the two of them—Miss Havisham refused to be told by anyone that she was being used by this man, as she was so in love with him. At the last moment, however, he jilted her, sending her a letter which she received on the morning of the wedding. At this point, Miss Havisham stopped all the clocks and went into mourning. It turned out that the suitor had been in league with Miss Havisham's brother in an attempt to swindle large amounts of money out of her.

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