Setting the Scene: Great Expectations

Admin Posts : 90 Join date : 2020-05-08

Setting the Scene: Great Expectations

Charles Dickens ﬁnished Great Expectations Great Expectations in 1861.
The book tells the story of Pip as he grows from a child to a man.
In this passage from Chapter VIII, Pip meets Miss Havisham, a wealthy
woman who was abandoned by her ﬁance at the alter.

This was very uncomfortable, and I was half afraid. However, the only
thing to be done being to knock at the door, I knocked, and was told
from within to enter. I entered, therefore, and found myself in a
pretty large room, well lighted with wax candles. No glimpse of
daylight was to be seen in it. It was a dressing-room, as I supposed
from the furniture, though much of it was of forms and uses then
quite unknown to me. But prominent in it was a draped table with
a gilded looking-glass, and that I made out at ﬁrst sight to be a ﬁne
lady’s dressing-table. Whether I should have made out this object
so soon if there had been no ﬁne lady sitting at it, I cannot say.
In an arm-chair, with an elbow resting on the table and her head
leaning on that hand, sat the strangest lady I have ever seen, or
shall ever see. She was dressed in rich materials, satins, and lace,
and silks,—all of white. Her shoes were white. And she had a long
white veil dependent from her hair, and she had bridal ﬂowers in her
hair, but her hair was white. Some bright jewels sparkled on her neck
and on her hands, and some other jewels lay sparkling on the table.
Dresses, less splendid than the dress she wore, and half-packed trunks,
were scattered about. She had not quite ﬁnished dressing, for she
had but one shoe on,—the other was on the table near her hand,—her
veil was but half arranged, her watch and chain were not put on, and
some lace for her bosom lay with those trinkets, and with her handkerchief,
and gloves, and some ﬂowers, and a Prayer-Book all confusedly heaped
about the looking-glass.

Pip sees Miss Havisham and her room as strange. List three examples
from the text that support this idea and explain how they add to the
oddness of the scene.
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Admin Posts : 90 Join date : 2020-05-08

Answer:
Pip sees Miss Havisham and her room as strange. List three examples from the text that support this idea and explain how they add to the oddness of the scene.

Actual answers will vary. Examples of correct answers:

1) “...she had bridal fl owers in her hair, but her hair was white” -- In Dickens’
time, brides who wore white were usually young and did not have white hair.
2) “for she had but one shoe on,—the other was on the table near her hand” --
People do not receive guests with only one shoe on.
3) “all confusedly heaped about the looking-glass” -- The dressing table is a
jumble of items, not neatly arranged. The room is as confusing as Miss Havisham’s attire.