Miss Havisham

Miss Havisham

Miss Havisham's character is typically described as "eccentric", "wealthy" and "insane".  The SparkNotes description of her character is "Miss Havisham is the wealthy, eccentric old woman who lives in a manor called Satis House near Pip’s village. She is manic and often seems insane, flitting around her house in a faded wedding dress, keeping a decaying feast on her table, and surrounding herself with clocks stopped at twenty minutes to nine. As a young woman, Miss Havisham was jilted by her fiancé minutes before her wedding, and now she has a vendetta against all men. She deliberately raises Estella to be the tool of her revenge, training her beautiful ward to break men’s hearts."

Personally I find Miss Havisham to be a very sad woman, who went through something awful when she was younger, and refuses to move on, choosing instead to dwell on the pain and keep it very much alive. It is almost as if she has some kind of Post-traumatic stress disorder and the people around her don't know how to deal with it, so they just indulge her. 
She is a deteriorating woman, someone who stopped taking care of herself years ago. She has not been outdoors or seen any kind of daylight in years and chooses to live in her wedding dress that she has not changed out of since the day she was jilted by her fiancée. 

I watched the 2012 film, with Helena Bonham Carter playing Miss Havisham, and the BBC drama adaptation, with Gillian Anderson starring as Miss Havisham. I found it really interesting how both of these women played the same character so differently. It was interesting to see how other people perceived Miss Havisham. Helena Bonham Carter played a much more theatrical, almost aggressive version of Miss Havisham. She seemed far more spiteful and she definitely captured the eccentricity. 

Gillian Anderson played a much softer side of Miss Havisham. She seemed far more fragile, and delicate and a lot closer the Miss Havisham I had in mind. In terms of the hair, make up and styling, I found Gillian Anderson much more accurate to what I had in mind. I thought her dress was much more historically accurate, and her make up definitely matched the deteriorating description of Miss Havisham in the book. 

 I especially liked the dry, chapped lips she was given, as it gave a much more realistic feel to her character, as someone who didn't eat or drink properly, wash, or go outside, would have horribly dry, decaying skin. She would be dehydrated and would probably look much older than her actual age. 
Miss Havisham also had the same hairstyle she had on her wedding day. This would also mean her hair would be horribly dry, broken and decaying. She would probably have some kind of scalp condition. These are all things I would like to explore for my final Miss Havisham look.