Who was Miss Havisham?

Miss Havisham is one of the protagonists in Charles Dickens's novel Great Expectations. Pip describes his impression of her thus: "an immensely rich and grim lady who lived in a large dismal house barricaded against robbers, and who led a life of seclusion."
Miss Havisham lives an utterly secluded life in her dressing room, clad in her wedding garments and surrounded by remnants of the life she expected to have and never got. Pip sees 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." As the chapter continues, Pip sees that Miss Havisham has entirely given in to despair. Apart from the one strange smile she exhibits on his arrival, he "should have felt almost sure that Miss Havisham's face could not smile . . . she had the appearance of having dropped, body and soul, within and without, under the weight of a crushing blow."
Miss Havisham's bitterness and darkness serve as a sort of foil to Pip's unadulterated innocence and unembittered heart. In many respects, neither Pip nor Miss Havisham have seen much of the world, but he is still very young, while she, an old woman, has chosen to wall herself off from the world. She provides a good example of the kind of corruption that results from allowing resentment to take over one's life. Miss Havisham has been psychologically and emotionally eaten away, leaving her a withered shell, similar to the way the spiders, beetles, mice, and cobwebs have corrupted her wedding feast.
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/novel_19c/dickens/love.html

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