Great Expectations

Mrs. H's birthday

What is the significance of Mrs. H's birthday? Be thorough.

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Miss Havisham's birthday in Chapter 11 gives her vulturous relatives a reason to visit her as they step closer to their inheritance. Miss Havisham is furiously cynical of their motives to see her, and she chooses to have each of them see the places they will occupy when her body is laid out after death. She points viciously with her stick as she berates them-

"Now you all know where to take your stations when you come to feast upon me.!"

Miss Havisham has also revealed to Pip the grotesque spectacle of her wedding feast rotting from the day it was abandoned. It is a dramatic chapter which assists Pip and the reader in appreciating the depth of Miss Havisham's bitterness.

Source(s)

"Great Expectations" - Charles Dickens