Gothic Horror and Great Expectations

-How is the Gothic depicted in Great Expectations?
Great Expectations is not a Gothic Horror; however it has many elements of Gothic in it. Below I have listed common elements of Gothic horrors and I have explained how these elements are portrayed in the film and book.

1. Strange places - Satis house was 'of old brick, and dismal, and has a great many iron bars to it. Some of the windows had been walled up; of those that remained, all the lower were rustily barred.' This makes it sounds like a prison, as if she is trying to lock someone/something in, or as if she is trying to lock everyone else out. The fact that it was barred up and boarded up gives the impression that the house has been abandoned, which may have been the impression Miss Havisham wanted to give so that no-one would visit or intrude. Pip says that he finds the house 'so strange, and so fine - and melancholy', which shows that Pip can sense the former glory and grandness, but also the current ruin and depressing atmosphere. Miss Havisham never let any fresh air into the house which would have meant the air would be very heavy, thick, damp and still, which added to the gloomy and dead feel of the house.

Another 'strange place' in Great Expectations was the church yard where Pip's family grave was. It says it was 'overgrown with nettles', which gives the impression that no-one is looking after it or that no-one visits it anymore, suggesting it may have been abandoned. The marshes surrounding the church were described as a 'dark flat wildness', which suggests it was either at night time or that the weather was 'dark' and grey; this adds pathetic fallacy because the melancholy mood of the scene is reflected in the dark and gloomy weather. The sea is described as a 'distant savage lair'. The fact that the sea was described as savage, suggests it was violent, wild and uncontrolled and that it has an animalistic nature. The sea is also described as a lair which suggests that an animal or person is hiding in there; this could be foreshadowing the escape of the fugitives from the sea.

2. Clashing time periods - Ever since Miss Havisham's wedding day, time in her house has stopped and it's clear Pip has noticed this when he says that he 'began to understand that everything in the room had stopped ... a long time ago'. This is a clashing time period with everything else outside her house, as time was still moving at a normal speed. Time is obviously still moving in Miss Havisham's house, because of the rotting cake and decaying of her and her house, but everything that she does and everything else surrounding her has been left in exactly the same place as it was on her wedding day.

3. Power and constraint - Many people have power over Pip at different times in the book. Pip's sister, Mrs Gargery, is a strict mother figure to Pip in the beginning as she tries to control what he can and cannot do. Magwich is another person that has power over Pip, from the beginning, where he threatens to 'cut your throat' to Pip, and also because he is Pip's benefactor, meaning he had power over changing Pip's life and constraint because without Magwich's money, Pip wouldn't be where he was anymore. Miss Havisham is another almost mother figure to Pip because she teaches him how to be more of a gentleman and she has taught and manipulated Estella to have control and power over Pip's heart; she also has power over Pip as he believes she is his benefactor.

4. Terror versus horror - Terror is when you anticipate something bad is about to happen and horror is the scared or shocked feeling you get after the incident has happened. At the very beginning of the book a scary and gloomy setting and atmosphere is created in the church yard and its surroundings which suggests all is not well, so this is the terrifying aspect of the scene and then when the fugitive suddenly jumps out at Pip, shouting 'Hold your noise!', this is when the horror sets in. There are other examples of this in the book, such as when Pip first meets Miss Havisham and when Miss Havisham goes up in flames.

5. Sexual power - Estella holds a lot of sexual power over Pip as even though she is horrible to him and humiliates him, he still wants her approval and love. The first thing that attracts Pip to Estella is her beauty and also her social superiority. After meeting Estella, all that Pip does is to impress her and win her over.

6. The uncanny - As soon as I think of strange or mysterious, I think of Miss Havisham. Pip describes her as 'the strangest lady I have ever seen, or shall ever see'. She is unlike any character I have ever come across. She has completely isolated herself from normality.

-How is the grotesque depicted in Great Expectations?

A repulsive, disgusting person in literature would generally be described as a villain, but if the reader also has empathy for the villain, this is termed as ‘grotesque’.  The term can also describe a style of writing where life is exaggerated and a fantasy, but, unlike in a fairytale, has dark overtones. 

In Great Expectations both Magwitch and Miss Havisham stand out as grotesque characters. Both are described from a child’s perspective (the young Pip’s) when they are first introduced, and with the terror they instilled in that child.

Magwitch is introduced in the first chapter when he suddenly appears in the graveyard.  He is in great contrast to the serenity of the first few paragraphs as he yells at Pip “Hold your noise! …… or I’ll cut your throat”. But he is also described as a pathetic character ‘A man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles’ and who ‘glared and growled’ like an animal - the grotesque often mixes characteristics of animals with humans. Magwitch later refers to himself in animal terms as he comments ‘I wish I was a frog. Or an eel!’

Similarly Miss Havisham is introduced to the writer as described by the young Pip in quite frightening terms when he first sees ‘the strangest lady I have ever seen, or shall ever see.’ His description is full of white, but ‘everything which ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its lustre, and was faded and yellow’ and ‘the figure upon which it now hung loose, had shrunk to skin and bone'. He ends the description with ‘Now waxwork and skeleton seemed to have dark eyes that moved and looked at me. I should have cried out, if I could.’ To him she almost looks like a skeleton. But she also is a pathetic figure, in that she has shut herself off from the world after being jilted on her wedding day.

The grotesque in literature can also mix up the lines between life and death and this is again particularly evident in the first chapter when Magwitch is introduced. Pip describes him as he ‘started up from among the graves’ and later as he seems to be ‘eluding the hands of the dead people’, suggesting that Magwitch is somehow mixed up with the dead bodies in the churchyard.

-What are specific elements of the uncanny?

‘The German word "unheimlich" is considered untranslatable; our rough English equivalent, "uncanny", is itself difficult to define. This indescribable quality is actually an integral part of our understanding of the uncanny experience, which is terrifying precisely because it can not be adequately explained. Rather than attempting a definition, most critics resort to describing the uncanny experience, usually by way of the dream-like visions of doubling and death that invariably seem to accompany it. These recurrent themes, which trigger our most primitive desires and fears, are the very hallmarks of Gothic fiction.’

This quote from website http://theliterarylink.com/uncanny.html is an interesting explanation of the word ‘uncanny’ and how it is relevant to Gothic fiction. Another website http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/gothic-motifs#sthash.BV6BY7r8.dpuf explains the concept – ‘Sigmund Freud wrote a celebrated essay on ’The Uncanny’ (1919), which he defined as ‘that class of the frightening which leads back to what is known of old and long familiar’. Gothic novels are full of such uncanny effects – simultaneously frightening, unfamiliar and yet also strangely familiar.’ 

In Great Expectations there are numerous instances of the uncanny, with dream-like visions, in connection with death and with the use of doubles.

Pip has some uncanny dream-like visions, including when he was leaving Miss Havisham’s house in Chapter 49 ‘I fancied that I saw Miss Havisham hanging to the beam. So strange was the impression, that I stood under the beam shuddering from head to foot before I knew it was a fancy – though to be sure I was there in an instant.’ He was so concerned that he returned to Satis House to check on Miss Havisham and found that she really was in danger; he managed to save her from being killed by a fire. 

Both Magwitch and Miss Havisham are examples of how the characters are connected with death. When Magwitch first appeared in the graveyard he seemed to be emerging from a grave, coming back from the dead, as he ‘started up from among the graves at the side of the church porch’ while Pip was at his father’s graveside. When he first visits Pip in London he declares himself to be his ‘second father. You’re my son.’ He subsequently haunts Pip as a substitute father figure, as Jaggers and Pumblechook had done previously. 

Pip’s first description of Miss Havisham when he meets her at Satis House is uncanny in that it almost makes her seems like a skeleton – the living dead. For her time stopped with the death of her marriage. His long description of the haunting figure is almost an incantation; she seems to be something he won’t be able to get out of his mind. He finishes ‘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 ... 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 vault under the church pavement. Now, waxwork and skeleton seemed to have dark eyes that moved and looked at me’.
Live burials were a common feature of early Gothic fiction and Pip is describing Miss Havisham here as if she has volunteered herself to a premature burial, shutting herself away from daylight, 'buried' in Satis house and withering away.
 

-How does Dickens give the uncanny a unique twist within the novel in terms of characterisation?

In his novel, Dickens gives the uncanny a twist in terms of the characters he uses as doubles and how so many characters are unexpectedly and intricately linked in their lives. Miss Havisham and Magwitch are both benefactors, driven to bring up a child to suit their own needs – Miss Havisham wants Estella to break mens’ hearts to wreak her revenge on mankind and Magwitch wants to create a gentleman. Both are driven by Compeyson; he was the conman who deserted Miss Havisham on her wedding day and stole her money and Magwitch was incensed that Compeyson appeared to have been treated differently by the justice system purely due to his higher social standing. Additionally Magwitch and Compeyson are doubles, both being convicts trying to escape on the marshes.

Miss Havisham and Mrs Joe are also mirrored. Both are mother figures to Pip, both abuse him, and both become invalids imprisoned in their own homes. However, in contrast, Miss Havisham allows her house to fall into decay, while Mrs Joe is insistent on cleanliness within her own home.  Magwitch and Pip can be paired as secret benefactors, with Magwitch helping Pip and Pip helping Herbert in the Mercantile business.

There are numerous examples of doubling in the novel, with one character's life uncannily reflecting another's, and all these characters are linked in an intricate web of coincidences and human relationships.

Resources:
http://theliterarylink.com/uncanny.html
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/greatex/themes.html
http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/gothic-motifs#sthash.BV6BY7r8.dpuf
https://litreactor.com/columns/storyville-writing-the-grotesque
http://oracle-reunion.pagesperso-orange.fr/documents/307.html
http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-gothic-in-great-expectations
The Handbook to Gothic Literature, by Marie Mulvery-Roberts, 1998