Do we like them?

Do we like Miss Havisham?

A character from Great Expectations (1860–1861)

Our score: 3 out of 10. Not one to back. She is tragic and has been badly hurt, but she uses a child and a boy's feelings to get revenge, and the damage is real.

Miss Havisham is a rich woman who lives in Satis House, where every clock is stopped and the rooms are left to rot. She still wears the wedding dress she put on years ago. Young Pip is brought to play at her house, and he meets Estella, her beautiful and haughty ward.

She is a figure of real sadness, shaped by an old humiliation that she can't let go of. But the story judges her by what she does with that pain. She teaches Estella to break men's hearts and encourages Pip's hopeless love, apparently to watch it happen. That is cruelty, whatever the cause.

Late in the book she sees what she has done and tries to make amends. She begs Pip's forgiveness, and she helps him in a practical way. The regret is sincere and it earns some sympathy, but it comes after years of harm, so the score stays low.