Satis House

Dickens used the gothic motif and puts them into a contemporary Britain, he created Satis House. Home to Miss Havisham, a famous Gothic Character within herself.

When thinking of the décor of this house we think of Miss Havisham’s background, she was a heiress to her father’s fortune making her a rich woman, therefore the house was very grand. However she was abandoned on her wedding day and her life stopped, therefore so did everything else including the care of the house. Every clock in the house was stopped at twenty minutes to nine, the time she learned of her intended husbands betrayal. From then her house and grounds were left to waste away. The stone is crumbling and a lot of areas in the house fall under darkness and dust. Pip describes the house again in chapter 17 ‘So unchanging was the dull old house, the yellow light in the darkened room, the faded spectre in the chair by the dressing-table glass, that I felt as if the stopping of the clocks had stopped time in that mysterious place, and, while I and everything else outside it grew older it stood still.’

Daily Mail Reporter. (14 January 2012). GREAT Expectations: Gillian Anderson leads an all-star cast in the BBC's festive adaptation of Charles Dickens classic. Available: REAT-Expectations-Gillian-Anderson-leads-star-cast-BBCs-festive-adaptation-Charles-Dickens-classic.html. Last accessed 15th February, 2015.

This house was not just gothic for the setting but also for the atmosphere of decay and ghostliness. This included her wedding feast, as it decays away it symbolises the degeneration of Miss Havisham’s life. The quote from chapter 11 shows this ‘ “On this day of the year, long before you were born, this heap of decay,” stabbing with her crutched stick at the pile of cobwebs on the table not not touching it, “was brought here. It and I have worn away together. The mice have gnawed at it, and sharper teeth than teeth of mice have gnawed at me.” ‘

Kennedy, O Kirby, V. (April 10, 2012). Great Expectations. Available: https://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/tag/great-expectations/. Last accessed 15th February, 2015.

Reference:

Wikipedia. (No Date). Satis House. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satis_House. Last accessed 15th February, 2015.

Shmoop editors. (No Date). Great Expectations Time Quotes. Available: http://www.shmoop.com/great-expectations/time-quotes.html. Last accessed 15th February, 2015.