Miss Havisham

Synopsis of Great Expectations

Set in the Marshes of Kent, Pip is a young orphan who lives with his older sister and her husband. When Pip visits his parents tombstone he suddenly gets grabbed by an escaped convict who orders him to bring food and a file for his leg iron after Pip informs him his brother in law, Joe, is a blacksmith. Pip does as he is told but the convict is soon captured, however the convict protects the boy by saying he stole the items himself. The wealthy Miss Havisham asks for Pip to come to their house to play with her adopted daughter Estella. Miss Havisham wears a old wedding dress after being jilted on her wedding day, her house is like time stopped, everything exactly the same as that day and even the clocks are stopped on the time, twenty minutes to nine. Although Estella is cold toward Pip, he falls in love and dreams of becoming a wealthy gentleman to be worthy. The story follows Pips attempts to change himself and to change Estella’s feelings for him.  

Miss Havisham Novel Adaptation

Miss Havisham is one of the deepest and most intriguing characters from the book. She is a secluded woman who uses her pain and anger from being jilted on her wedding day to determine her and her adopted daughters life. She holds this rage toward all men and teaches her daughter Estella to do the same. As well as her feelings it affected her appearance and the appearance of where she lives. It’s like times stopped in her manor, with webs and dust piling on her belongings.

When pip describes her look he talks about what she wears in detail such as “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…” he goes on to explain that she is only wearing one shoe, as if she hasn’t yet finished getting ready. This indicates to me that the character wasn’t even fully dressed when she discovered her fate, and that is when her life all changed. The fact that she has stayed in her exact clothing makes me feel sympathy for the character, as this event clearly destroyed her. Although further along in the book I start to question my feelings towards the character, I feel that her life is very tragic and that this should be taken into consideration when I create my character.  He goes on to explain 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.” This gives me an idea of how far along it is when Pip meets her, and I really want to consider whether I want to look at her more during this time or consider her in the past. Her figure was described as “…shrunk to skin and bone…” which shows she doesn’t look after herself. I really want to look more into what would of happened to Miss Havishams health and looks during this time to understand the character more.

In later descriptions in chapter 11 Pip describes her as “…the Witch of the place.” To get an idea of what she looked like I think I may look into what witches looked like in these times, just to give me another styling angle. Throughout the novel the character becomes more and more desperate and shrivelled, especially by chapter 38, where Estella becomes bitter on her up bringing. In her introductory description Pip describes the arrival of himself and Estella at Satis House. “She was even more dreadfully fond of Estella than she had been when I last saw them together; I repeat the word advisedly, for there was something positively dreadful in the energy of her looks and embraces. She hung upon Estella’s beauty, hung upon her words, hung upon her gestures, and sat mumbling her own trembling fingers while she looked at her, as though she were devouring the beautiful creature she had reared.” Miss Havisham is so reliant on this hatred against men that she is obsessed with her creation, Estella. After their dispute on what Miss Havisham has made Estella, all becomes normal again, however Pip describes Miss Havisham’s manners towards Estella “to have something like fear infused among its former characteristics.”

On our final meeting with Miss Havisham my opinion is once again changed. She is no longer this evil woman who is punishing the protagonist, she is this lonely, damaged ghost of who she once was. Pip describes her as he walks into the room… “there was an air of utter loneliness upon her…” as the conversation goes on so does her desperation and she begins to break down. Pip carries on “…in shutting out the light of day, she had shut out infinitely more; that, in seclusion, she had secluded herself from a thousand natural and healing influences; that, her mind, brooding solitary, had grown diseased, as all minds do and must and will that reverse the appointed order of their Maker; I knew equally well.” He carries on saying “…seeing her punishment in the ruin she was…” I imagine she looks broken, with no life left to live.

Reference:

Dickens, C (1996). Great Expectations. Strand, London, Penguin Classics

Wrinkled Skin Effect

To further our knowledge into old age make up we also learnt how to wrinkle the skin, this introduced us to some new products and was a very fun but easy effect to create. Before we started everyone had a dap of latex put on their wrists an hour before we created the look to test whether any of us reacted to the product. This is a necessary step to insuring the safety of the models and should always be done before proceeding. 

You Will Need:

Barrier cream

Old age stipple

Latex

Bowl

1. shake barrier cream put onto the back of the hand

2. rub the mixture into the area you are using

3. shake the latex

4. put a small amount into the bowl

5. using a fine sponge and stretch the skin, stipple the latex on, feather at the edge

6.have a hair dryer on cool and a medium speed, test it in the neck

7. move the heat back and forth across the latex area

8. test it to see if its dry

9. use as many layers or latex as you like

10. ease the latex to manipulate it

11. then powder

Ageing In Theatre

Although a close up look at theatrical ageing doesn't look 100% realistic, it is necessary for the stage as the audience are so far away from the characters. We first got shown the step by step by our teacher, who introduced some new equipment such as the black stipple sponge to create a broken vein effect. 

You will need:

pointy brush

supra colour

foundation palette

foundation brush

disposable mascara wand
black stipple sponge
baby buds

When you're ageing you have to look at the script to see how old the character is so you can work out how much ageing is necessary. In our case we were creating an old hag so the look is very extreme. 

1. Put on a base

2. Put moisturiser in the lid of the palette

3. everybody’s face is different they use red, green and yellow to create a brown. Add a bit of black to darken the brown.

4. add a tiny bit of moisturiser and use the back of your hand

5. follow the natural lines, make your model pull faces; raise eyebrows, smile, suck in cheeks, screw eyebrows and eyes up, cupids bow, thin nose, under lip.

6. smudge with your finger

7. highlight the remaining areas

8. mixing white with a small amount of yellow get down to the root of the brow using a mascara wand and on the ends of the lashes.

9. screw lips up and use a little bit of base to thin the lips

10. use a black stipple with a tiny bit of red and purple stipple the cheeks, nose and chin.

11. dry tooth with a baby bud

12. paint on tooth with a baby bud

This is what I created on my partner.

Although I enjoyed the experience in class I wanted to try again at home as I don't feel my lines were intricate enough and they needed a little more practise. I looked up some youtube tutorials and then recreated the look on myself. 

Victorian Beauty Ideals

Initially when thinking of beauty in the Victorian era I didn't have many ideas on what they looked like or what their beauty ideals would be so I did some initial research. 

During Queen Victoria’s reign having heavy make up became a sign of someone who had questionable morals such as a prostitute or a actress which was considered on the same level during this era. For the higher class, makeup was a lot more natural as they followed strict codes and religious values.

It was interesting to find that much like the Elizabethan era, a pale face was still a sign of nobility in the Victorian era however they had a less dangerous mixes to create this look. Women started using a white mineral powder called Zinc Oxide to create this pale complexion, as well as avoiding the sun so their natural skin was also pale. They would even go as far as using or consuming lemon juice and vinegar to maintain this ideal.

Wikipedia. (). Women in the Victorian Era. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_Victorian_era. Last accessed 19th January 2015.

The higher class used make up sparingly to achieve the natural look. Powders were often used to tone down shine but not enough to be obvious. They still used poisonous substances such as belladonna and deadly nightshade. On the Eyes ingredients such as antimony sulphide and lead where used while the lip reddeners were mercuric sulphide. To give the cheeks a light blush they would use beet juice. Make up wasn’t a way of portraying beauty in this era, the hair was more of a sign of an ideal beauty.  I found this interesting as when I think of the Victorian era I thought there was a lot more gothic theme running through their style. Therefore I want to research how Gothic horror links to this era and also see how the perception of Gothic horror has changed over time, as I feel people express it with a lot more make up in this day and age.

Women during the Victorian period would rarely cut their hair as the fuller look was the fashion of the time. They would usually wear their hair in buns or chignons and sometimes pair this with gentle curls to emphasize the sides of the face. To decorate the hair clips and ornate combs were used and oil was added to give a sleek and smooth look.

Christianson, L . (). How To Do a Victorian Bun. Available: http://www.ehow.com/how_8402424_do-victorian-bun.html. Last accessed 19th January 2015.

Woodyard, C. (). The Chignon Horror. Available: http://hauntedohiobooks.com/news/the-chignon-horror-dis-tressing-news-about-false-hair/. Last accessed 19th January 2015.

Finally men also took care of their hair during this period, they kept it short however curls were acceptable.  It was also common to sport a mustache or beard and sometimes even sideburns.

Over all I wasn’t surprised with what I discovered as I never really thought of the Victorian era as being iconic for its makeup. However I’m intrigued to discover the link between this era and gothic horror and how gothic horror has changed since this time.  

Reference

Gio. (2010). Beauty In the Victorian Age. Available: http://beautifulwithbrains.com/2010/08/06/beauty-in-the-victorian-age/. Last accessed 19th January 2015.
Kuchinsky, C. (2007). Beauty Through The Ages- The Victorians.Available: http://www.thebeautybiz.com/87/article/history/beauty-through-ages-victorians. Last accessed 19th January 2015.

Glamour Daze Family . (). The Victorian Make up Look. Available: http://vintagemakeupguide.com/victorian-look/. Last accessed 19th January 2015.