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Havisham Quotes

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Miss Havisham

Havisham Quotes

“We live in a culture that insists on "moving on" (even while our loyalty to and love of the franchise and the sequel give away a larger loopiness). But I tend to dwell or obsess or meditate, and I came back to, for instance, the figure of Dickens's "Miss Havisham" with some (self) recognition if not relief.”

IfsGivingSelfMovingCultureMissingFiguresAnd LoveLoyaltyInstanceRecognitionReliefSequelsDickensSelf RecognitionHavishamMiss Havisham
Author:Laura Mullen
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“Miss Havisham is an important feminine literary figure in the tradition of Antigone (though it's significant that Antigone is fighting to bury something and Miss Havisham refuses, as it were, to bury the corpse). Like Hamlet, she's focused on what everyone would rather not know or would like to forget, and she seems crazy / stuck as well as bitter, but she's also a perfect prototype of a performance artist. She's intentionally hard to deal with inviting the audience to remain with the violated body, the evidence of violence.”

KnowsWellsImportantHardBodySeemsArtistFightingPerfectForgetDealsAudienceViolenceCrazyMissingFiguresEvidenceTraditionPerformancesRefuseFocusedStuckSignificantBitterFeminineCorpsesInvitingPrototypeAntigoneHavishamMiss Havisham
Author:Laura Mullen
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“Miss Havisham is a glitch in the smooth functioning of the Patriarchy, enforcing awareness of a moment of social disaster and personal shame, something it seems she would want us to forget (but no one would forget). (Maybe an interesting "discussion question" for readers of Complicated Grief might be, "What do Terry Barton and Miss Havisham have in common?"?)”

WantMomentsSeemsMightSocialForgetInterestingCommonGriefAwarenessMissingReaderShameComplicatedDisasterDiscussionSmoothPatriarchyWant UGlitchesHavishamMiss HavishamComplicated Grief
Author:Laura Mullen
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“It would have been cruel in Miss Havisham, horribly cruel, to practise on the susceptibility of a poor boy, and to torture me through all these years with a vain hope and an idle pursuit, if she had reflected on the gravity of what she did. But I think she did not. I think that in the endurance of her own trial, she forgot mine, Estella.”

IfsThinkingYearsHas BeensPoorBoysMissingMinesExpectationsPursuitTrialsVainTortureEnduranceGravityIdlePractiseGreat ExpectationsSusceptibilityGreat Expectations ImportantPoor BoyHavishamMiss Havisham
Book:The Complete Works of Charles Dickens: Great Expectations
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“I'll tell you," said she, in the same hurried passionate whisper, "what real love it. It is blind devotion, unquestioning self-humiliation, utter submission, trust and belief against yourself and against the whole world, giving up your whole heart and soul to the smiter - as I did!”

WorldLoveGivingHeartSaidRealSoulSelfWholeBeliefGiving UpBlindPassionateDevotionWhole WorldReal LoveHumiliationSubmissionHeart And SoulGreat ExpectationsHavishamMiss Havisham
Book:British Classics: Great Expectations
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“. . . 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 . . .”

MindOrderNaturalHealingInfluenceThousandExpectationsMakersSolitaryReverseBroodingGreat ExpectationsDiseasedSeclusionSecludedGreat Expectations ImportantHavishamMiss Havisham
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated)
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“She wasn't the only one to be physically morphed by reader expectation. Miss Havisham was now elderly whether she liked it or not, and Sherlock Holmes wore a deerstalker and smoked a ridiculously large pipe. The problem wasn't just confined to the classics. Harry Potter was seriously pissed off that he'd have to spend the rest of life looking like Daniel Radcliffe.”

ProblemMissingReaderExpectationsHarry PotterElderlyPottersConfinedPipeHolmesPissed OffRest Of LifeHavishamMiss Havisham
Author:Jasper Fforde
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