Introduction

When first received our project brief i had remembered touching on the book in school the main image that i remembered was of the decaying Miss Havisham who's character had stuck with me. I began re-reading the book but found that the old english was very hard to follow , although i loved the use of imagery Dickens had used through his writing. I further used spark notes to help me gain a better understanding of the entire story line and delving into the on going themes and symbolism's used. This helped me gain a better understand along with watching the 2012 Film and later on the BBC version in class both portraying very different views of the characters to me this was interesting how they took what Dickens had written and both brought the characters to life in a different ways.

I found Gillian Anderson's adaptation of Miss havisham very interesting she portrays the character though adult eyes unlike Helena Bonham Carters version was seeing Miss Havisham through Pip's eyes Helena was a lot more grotesque more to me describing the character Dickens had created within the book. This may have been as the audience for the BBC version was a lot different to the (2012) film version had to encompass something for everyone more a family film. Gillian's recreation of the character encompassed adult issues such as her scratching ticks and the bone like worrying structure of her body, although i felt she looked very pretty, the characterisation was gentle with the sense of underlying darkness and craziness to her rather than Helena's more abrupt characterisation.

I felt that both films set the opening scene well and this was ongoing through out portraying visually the themes within the book creating a dark creepy and claustrophobic atmosphere. When reading the book Dickens writes in a very visual way so i felt the film in kept with how dickens had visualised the story when he was writing the settings that surrounded his characters especially in the marshes and within Satis house.
I was instantly drawn to Estelle her character i felt was intriguing the sense that she was trapped in this decaying but beautiful house with a crazy old woman yet her character is very strong, intelligent and she has a lot of attitude something i wouldn't expect from a little girl who hasn't experienced much of other peoples company. Her character also like the central character Pip's is a theme within the story about Class and wealth and when this is broken down much like Estelle it's all a hard edged frount.