Great Expectations

Great Expectations

Charles Dickens

A young boy called Pip is telling the story. As his parents have both died, he is living with his older sister and her husband in a village on the Kent marshes. At the beginning of the story, he helped an escaped prisoner, who will play an important part in Pip’s later life. In this famous extract, he meets another person who is going to influence his life, the strange Miss Havisham.

I entered and found myself in a pretty large room, well lighted with wax candles. No glimpse of daylight was to be seen in it. In an armchair, 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, lace, and silks – all of which were white. Her shoes were white. And she had a long white veil on 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.

It was not in the first moments that I saw all these things, though I saw more of them in the first moments than might be supposed. But I saw that everything within my view which ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its lustre, and was faded and yellow.

I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress, and like the flowers, and had no brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes. I saw that the dress had been put upon the rounded figure of a young woman and that the figure upon which it now hung loose, had shrunk to skin and bone. Once, I had been taken to see some ghastly waxwork at the fair, representing I know not what impossible personage lying in state. Once, I had been taken to one of our old marsh churches to see a skeleton in the ashes of a rich dress, that had been dug out of a vault under the church pavement. Now, waxwork and skeleton seemed to have dark eyes that moved and looked at me. I would have cried out if I could.

‘Who is it?’ said the lady at the table.

‘Pip, ma’am.’

‘Pip?’

‘Mr Pumblechook’s boy, ma’am. Come – to play.’

‘Come nearer; let me look at you. Come close.’

It was when I stood before her, avoiding her eyes, that I took note of the surrounding objects in detail, and saw that her watch had stopped at twenty minutes to nine and that a clock in the room had stopped at twenty minutes to nine.

Q 1: How old do you imagine Miss Havisham is?

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Q 2: Why is she dressed in white?

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Q 3: Why is Pip so frightened of her?

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Q 4: How has she changed over the year?

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Q 5: Which two incidents in his past does she remind him of?

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Q 6: Why do you think her watch and clock stopped at twenty to nine?

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Match these words from the text with their meanings.

Find phrases or sentences in the text which have the same meanings as the ones below.

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