Miss Havisham...A Victim or a Villain?

Dickens Directed Study
August 21, 2001
Miss Havisham
A Victim or a Villain?
Was Miss Havisham a victim or a villain? This extremely eccentric character is absolutely essential to the plot of Great Expectations, for with malice intended, she greatly alters the paths of Pip's and Estella's lives, and with obsessive behavior destroys her own life.
Miss Havisham was heir to a fortune that had been gained by successful industry rather than noble birth. Miss Havisham's suitor, Compeyson, was, by social classification, beneath her. The fact that he jilted her and was of a lower station was a d…