Deviant female images in Charles Dickens’ novel “Great Expectations” (based on the example of the first meeting with Miss Havisham and Estella)

Abstract

The study aims to identify the plot function of Miss Havisham, one of the most famous deviant female images of Ch. Dickens (“Great Expectations”, 1861). According to the hypothesis put forward, this function consists in the heroine implicitly (and unconsciously) pushing the protagonist to self-improvement and social growth. The image of the “mad” Miss Havisham is considered in three aspects: 1) social stratification and the impulse to self-improvement: the impulse of a Bildungsroman; 2) Miss Havisham’s “terrible tenderness”: a hybrid of the paternal and the maternal; 3) Miss Havisham as a “witch” and a “fairy”: the authorship of Pip’s “story”. The scientific originality of the study is determined by the fact that, although the “madness” of the heroine was emphasized by all researchers of Dickens’ novel, the plot function of this character has been correlated thus far, as a rule, with the status of a passive marginalized woman, the question of the significance of Miss Havisham’s image for depicting the dynamic educational path of the protagonist has not been raised. At the same time, the results of the study confirm the non-marginal (active in terms of the novel’s events, narrative organization) status of the deviant heroines of the novel – Miss Havisham, as well as her pupil Estella, an example of which is their participation (sometimes implicit or by contradiction) in building the life path of the protagonist Pip, in his gaining of self-identity.

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About this article

Publication history

• Received: October 18, 2023.
• Published: December 11, 2023.

Keywords

• Ч. Диккенс
• гендерные исследования
• девиантный персонаж
• роман воспитания
• викторианская литература
• Ch. Dickens
• gender studies
• deviant character
• Bildungsroman
• Victorian literature

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