I lately watched the most recent PBS film adaptation of Great Expectations. It was worth watching, but could not compare with the film adaptation done long ago in 1946. The most unfortunate actor choice was that of Miss Havisham played by Gillian Anderson. First of all Ms. Anderson was far too attractive and far too young to have played the part. She did lend an eerie sense of madness, but perhaps too much so, as I believe the character to have been less mad and more obsessed and self absorbed with her own misfortune, which brings me to the next issue. The ending implied that Miss Havisham purposely set herself alight, which would have been utterly out of the characters realm of cognition for several reasons. First, at that time people were far more religious than they are today and the mere idea of spending eternity in hell would have dissuaded such a cowardly, self absorbed character as Miss Havisham from committing such an act and too any woman who spends years on end in the manner characterized in Dickenss book is not going to purposely end it all in flame and fire! No, as in the book there is a certain idea of divine justice for the character who accidently catches fire. This suicide lent itself far too much to 21 century sensibilities than that of the Pre - Victorian woman as was Miss Havisham.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 19:17:05 +0000
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