Gothic Elements

Within the first few scenes of the text, I have noticed the FORESHADOWING WEATHER conditions and surroundings. The weather is wet, cold and foggy. To me, this implies that there is an unsettled atmosphere and that something is metaphorically building up to a climatic storm. The marsh is dense, dark and filthy with an atmosphere filled with danger. I feel the marsh symbolises potential death with the prisoners roaming through it. The filth creates the idea of poverty, ill health and poor living. Instantly I feel threatened by this scenery and I sympathise the characters in this environment, especially Pip, whose personality completely contrasts with his surroundings.

So far, the primary TONE of the text has been unsettled and GLOOMY. The atmosphere is filled with threat and negativity, except Pip’s warmth. The scenes upon the marsh show the characters living a very low class life with now hope of escape. But with the hope of Pip’s investment the characters are instantly uplifted with the thought of money and escaping their unhappy lives. The scenes within Miss Havisham’s home are just as gloomy and depressing. The house and Miss Havisham are decaying together. I can sense that both the house and Miss Havisham were once glorious, but over time they both gradually became cold, unloved and lifeless.

This leads me on to express the SUFFERING in the text. Miss Havisham is suffering from a shattered heart after her marriage fell apart from betrayal. She is so heavily effected that her life is completely in standstill and she cannot move on from her suffering. This has led to her dislike for the male sex as she metaphorically creates a heartbreaker, Estella. She is immensely beautiful and has been raised to make men fall in love with her and then she breaks their hearts. In my eyes, I feel Estella is suffering from her inability to love someone. There is also suffering displayed in the living conditions where Pip originally lived with poor health and sanitary. Pip is an orphan and we see his suffering from the verbal and physical abuse he received as a child. He seems unloved and unwelcomed, yet he is still capable of looking passed this and remaining positive.

Even though Pip has endured a hard upbringing, he is always showing signs of positivity. He FANTASISES about constantly improving himself as a man. He is full of hope and wishes to become a gentleman, but he never loses his knowledge of where he is from or how lucky he is for the opportunity he is given. We see how he is eager to be taught ‘everything’, which brings a warmth to the text.

In contrast to Pip’s positive aspect on life, Miss Havisham shows her WEAK character with displays of fragility and negativity. She is decaying in her home, trapped in her broken past. After initially disliking her character, I feel huge amounts of sympathy for her after explanation of her behaviour. She is very mentally unstable and her appearance clearly displays this. She is pale, ghostlike and looks malnourished. She remains in her bridal clothing and looks very innocently gothic. The lace of her dress and the white material is angelic in the way that she is not physically present or alive, yet she looks harmless and innocent. Also, the lace symbolises her fragility in the sense that it is delicate and can be easily broken. She has nervous twitches and snaps easily. Her actions are unstable and I feel very sorry for her as she is a woman in need of help.