13 thoughts on “WCW: Miss Havisham

  1. “Are you Team Havisham?”

    Of course! Miss Havisham is goth as fuck!

    My favorite though is Anne Bancroft’s version in the 1998 film. So glamorous, bitter, and disturbing. Made no sense to re-name the characters and keep the original title but whatever. She makes the movie a worthy watch in her Florida-Meets-Grey Gardens Realness.

  2. My wedding dress was a regency pattern from Folkwear. I’ve used it to dress up as Miss Havisham a few times now :)

    The was a British chocolate/cake show and one episode they made a wedding cake based on Miss Havisham’s, right down to the mice!

    1. I used that same pattern for my younger daughter’s wedding dress! Was a dusty mauve bengaline, and I just happened to have some antique lace for it. She looked lovely, and her dad didn’t notice the baby bump. ;-)

  3. I love Gillian’s version the most — it actually made me feel sorry for this poor, twisted woman in a way that no other adaptation has managed — the part where she’s scratching her hand raw and whispering, “When will [my relatives] leave?????” … yeah, Miss H. Been there, done that. ;)

  4. Team Haversham, count me a new member. I really enjoyed HBC’s take on the character with her Goth/steampunk wedding dress. Now I’m going to re-watch the others, but will watch Dickensian first.

  5. I saw a production of Great Expectations at the Oregon Shakespearean Festival last October. It was pretty amazing. Miss Havisham’s clothes appeared to be something 1820ish. Was pretty amazing.

    What I don’t understand though- she’s supposed to have been hanging out in her wedding clothes for about 30 years now. If she as at the altar at 20-25, she’s 50-55, right? Why do they always make her look like she’s at least 75? I mean, I’m 52, and I don’t look anything like that, even at my worst!! (Good genes, clean living, and Oil of Olay. :-) And no tanning.)

    1. Fifty was a lot older then than it is now. Dickens himself died in his late 50s.

      Mozart wrote Haydn warning against Haydn’s trip to England because he felt Haydn in his 50s was too old to survive the trip. Ironically, Mozart died just short of 36, and Haydn lived to 77.

  6. I always thought that Bellatrix LeStrange was the role that HBC was born to play, but now I realize it was Miss Havisham.

  7. Did she ever bother to take the dress off long enough for a bath or even a quick wash-up? Because if she didn’t, well…I’m amazed anyone, but especially Pip and/or Estella, was able to stand getting close enough to have a conversation with her. (Yes, standards of hygiene were somewhat different, but generally people *did* try not to stink to high heaven and maintain some level of personal cleanliness.) Also, if that’s the case, then all these ladies, no matter how ratty and dusty, might be a wee bit too *clean*…

  8. My first Havisham was Wishbone, and I’ve been team Havisham since. She’s obviously not the most lavishly costumed, but since then I’ve loved the character in all her ratty, rotting-at-the-seams glory.

  9. My sister bought a Build A Bear dinosaur and a pretty wedding dress costume to put on it, and the obvious name was Miss Havisham. We laughed and laughed, because we are middle-aged spinsters who do silly things.

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