As a whole, I thoroughly enjoyed the story line and completely fell in love with the idea of a young girl being brought up by Miss Havisham, a wealthy lady who was completely heart broken and mentally ruined by her fiance not turning up to her wedding, and Estrella, the young girl, being taught how to be heartless and to break men's hearts and make them cry to get revenge on her runaway husband. Whilst also following the maturing of a young boy named Pip who was sent away to be taught how to become a gentleman, he then fell hopelessly in love with Estrella, who in the end, does actually find her heart and falls in love with Pip.
Quotes on Miss Havisham's apperance
"She was dressed in rich materials- satins, and lace, and silks- all of white. And she had a long white veil dependent from her hair, and she had bridal flowers in her hair, but her hair was white. Some bright jewels sparkled on her neck and on her hands, and some other jewels lay sparkling on the table...She had not quite finished dressing, for she had but one shoe on...her veil was but half arranged, her watch and chain were not put on, and some lace for her bosom lay with those trinkets, and with her handkerchief, and gloves, and some flowers, and a prayer-book, all confusedly heaped about the looking glass...I saw that everything within my view which ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its lustre, and was faded and yellow. 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... Now, wax-work and skeleton seemed to have dark eyes that moved and looked at me." - Page 56 + 57
"Saw that the shoe upon it, once white, now yellow, had never been worn. I glanced down at the foot from which the shoe was absent, and saw that the silk stocking on it, once white, now yellow, had been trodden ragged" - Page 59
"Sat the strangest lady I have ever seen, or shall ever see." - Page 56
"Everything within my view which ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its lustre, and was faded and yellow. 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. I saw that the dress had been put upon the rounded figure of a young woman, and that the figure upon which it now hung loose, had shrunk to skin and bone." - Page 59
""You are not afraid of a woman who has never seen the sun since you were born?"" - Page 60
"corpse-like"
Many of these quotes refer to her as old looking with a white drawn out face, this may be due to the lack of sun she has encountered. From the way Dickens wrote 'corpse like' I can gather than she was thin, pale, sunken in eyes and the whole appearance of her sort of rotting away. Also whilst watching a film version and looking into other film versions of it, this is also the way she has been portrayed. Her general mental state might play a role into her exterior looks as well; mentally she doesn't seem to be there as her goal is to raise a child to be heartless and break men's hearts (this is how I see it anyway) and this bitterness and cold heart about her portrays on the outside with icey cold skin and white hair with dirt and stains all over her garments.
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