AS SEEN ON TV: MISS HAVISHAM

MISS HAVISHAM

AS SEEN IN:

"Great Expectations"

AS PLAYED BY:

Joan Hickson

TV DIMENSION:

TBD

STATUS:
Recastaway

 

MISS HAVISHAM

AS PLAYED BY:

Gillian Anderson

TV DIMENSION:

Parallel Earth

STATUS:

Recastaway

SOURCE MATERIAL:

"Great Expectations"

WRITTEN BY:

Charles Dickens

From Wikipedia:

Miss Havisham is a significant character in the Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations (1861). She is a wealthy spinster, who lives in her ruined mansion with her adopted daughter, Estella, whom she has sent to France, while she herself is described as looking like "the witch of the place."

Although she has often been portrayed in film versions as very elderly, Dickens's own notes indicate that she is only in her mid-fifties. However, it is also indicated that her long life away from the sunlight has in itself aged her, and she is said to look like a cross between a waxwork and a skeleton, with moving eyes.

From the source material:
I had heard of Miss Havisham up town,—everybody for miles round had heard of Miss Havisham up town,—as an immensely rich and grim lady who lived in a large and dismal house barricaded against robbers, and who led a life of seclusion.
~~~

In an arm-chair, 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, 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. 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 few 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 should have cried out, if I could.

As far as Toobworld Central is concerned, Dickens didn't create the character; he chronicled her actual life in Toobworld. That's why they both exist in Earth Prime-Time.

Since Inner Toob is following that old PSA adage - "Reading Is Fundamental" and dedicating the "As Seen On TV" showcase to literary characters adapted for television, we'll have more than enough characters to reactivate the "Two For Tuesday" feature all through the year....

Maktoob!