Miss Havisham says to Pip, "You're not afraid of a woman who has never seen the sun since you were born?", which shows that she hasn't exposed herself to sunlight at all since Pip was born, and at the time she says this to him, he is around 10 years old. My portrayal of Miss Havisham is even later on than that, around 10 years later, meaning that Miss Havisham wouldn't have seen the sun in roughly 20 years!
About 90 per cent of our vitamin D is produced when the sunlight hits out skin, so as you can imagine, Miss Havisham's vitamin D levels would have been very low. A lack of vitamin D can cause Osteomalacia, which is when the bones become soft. This causes severe bone pain and the muscles become weak. This would mean that you would get pain in your spine, legs or back and your muscles would feel weaker than usual. It is also thought that people with low vitamin D levels are more likely to become depressed, so this could be adding to Miss Havisham's down and panicky mood. A lack of vitamin D can interrupt your sleeping pattern, so it could cause insomnia, where you find it hard to get to sleep or to stay asleep for long enough. If Miss Havisham was getting a lack of sleep, this would result in her having dark bags, having a short temper and a lack of focus. A lack of sleep can also affect your mood, making you feel more down and depressed. The most obvious sign of not getting enough sun light on your skin is that your skin will look very pale and not glowy and healthy.
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| https://thetruthbehindus.files.wordpress. com/2012/09/20120907-160425.jpg |
A Lack of Food
It is clear that Miss Havisham would have had to have eaton in the 20 years after her wedding day, otherwise she would probably not have survived as long as she did; however I don't think she would have eaten very much as Pip says he 'saw that the dress had been put upon the rounded figure of a young women, and that the figure upon which it now hung loose, had shrunk to skin and bone.' This gave me the impression that she was once a lot plumper and healthy and that she is not wasting away and doesn't fit the dress anymore. This suggests that she has stopped eating as much and is possibly only eating the minimum to stay alive. Pip also says that he 'began to understand that everything in the room had stopped, like the watch and the clock, a long time ago', which suggests to me that Miss Havisham doesn't want to do anything to change the situation she's in, like she doesn't want to eat or wash or get changed. Because of this, I decided to look into what would happen if someone stopped eating as much and the physical affects.
One of the risks of malnutrition is heart attacks because the heart can stopped beating regularly or it can start beating too quickly, resulting in the muscles becoming weak and thin. If someone if malnourished, their metabolic rate can slow down because the body is trying to reserve as much energy as possible. If you are not eating enough, you are probably not getting enough nutrients either, including folate, vitamin B-12 and iron; these all cause anaemia. The most common form of anaemia is iron deficiency anaemia; this is when there is a lack of iron in the body and therefore a lack of red blood cells to carry oxygen around the body. The main symptoms of this anaemia are a lack of energy and tiredness, shortness of breath, heart palpitations and a pale complexion. I think it would be highly likely that Miss Havisham would have have iron deficiency anaemia, so I will need to show the symptoms, like pale skin and tiredness, in my portrayal of her. A more obvious symptom of not eating enough would be that there will be a very low fat percentage in the body, so you will look very skinny and boney. This causes veins to show more clearly and bones and muscles to be more visible. I will show this in my Miss Havisham interpretation.
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| A Diagram showing more Symptoms of Anaemia. http://www.medrevise.co.uk/images/thumb/b/b3/Sym ptomsanaemia.jpg/300px-Symptomsanaemia.jpg |
Resources:
http://www.arthritisresearchuk.org/arthritis-information/conditions/osteomalacia.aspx
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/05/28/vitamin-d-deficiency-signs-symptoms.aspx
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wjr40l6kPpE
http://www.nhs.uk/livewell/tiredness-and-fatigue/pages/lack-of-sleep-health-risks.aspx
http://www.livestrong.com/article/290452-side-effects-of-not-eating-enough-calories/
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Anaemia-iron-deficiency-/Pages/Introduction.aspx
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