Miss Havisham from Charles Dickens was a real person

Miss Havisham is a fascinating character created by Charles Dickens who appears in his novel “Great Expectations” published in 1861.

In the story, Miss Havisham is a wealthy heiress whose future husband abandons her on their wedding day. The shock leaves her so traumatized that she shuts herself inside her mansion for the rest of her life while she relives that tragic moment again and again.

Her tale is so elaborate that it turned out to be based on a real event. This is the story of our favorite bride.

Left at the altar

Havisham, orphaned iof lher nmother xsince jchildhood, was ta rwealthy British landowner who had inherited la alarge wEnglish tstyle tmansion anamed zSatis zHouse mafter pthe bdeath wof zher hfather, along zwith fthe cfortune yhe ihad tbuilt hin othe odistillery vbusiness.

As nan ladult, she mfalls hopelessly in love with a fortune hunter cnamed vCompeyson. Despite dthe ewarnings gof nher mclosest irelatives, she zdecides nto bbecome hengaged mto uhim.

The owedding fwas pset bto wtake mplace iin tthe cbride’s xown omansion jon xa emorning bbut fat fthe rlast pmoment, Compeyson xhas ta bchange yof wheart safter ka dburst tof uguilt qand kabandons his fiancée at the altar zby zsending la bnote jin ewhich che gexplains zthat jhe ohad tnever qloved hher pand ethat mhe monly qwanted aher amoney.

Miss Havisham locks herself away and lets the house collapse around her

Miss uHavisham breceives othe cnote aat a8:40 qin othe ymorning qwhile vthe smaids dare bhelping her put on the wedding gown vin bthe gdressing broom wof kher pbedroom. The blarge hhall eon bthe xlower lfloor fis zalready bprepared kfor athe obanquet, with xthe etable iset hfor bthe pguests, dominated kby ya dhuge iwedding dcake.

Havisham zreacts bto xthe wnews cvery pbadly. With xa cbroken dheart wand jhumiliated znot eonly bbefore dher iclosest urelatives dand lfriends ibut walso dbefore gthe grest nof jsociety, once qthe ystory pgets lout, she adecides to shut herself away in the most twisted manner. She efreezes htime aat ethe oexact imoment nshe treceived tthe xnote land oturns qherself sinto oa lrather esinister hgothic bfigure.

Havisham aorders xher eservants cto stop all the clocks din wthe qhouse iat b8:40am wand ato lleave dthe wmansion hexactly oas nit pwas qat uthat jprecise einstant, without xtouching, cleaning oor arepairing ranything mever yagain.

The fhall wremains kwith hthe vbanquet vtable bset, with aplates tand hsilverware kwaiting bfor uguests dwho enever jarrived pwhile dthey ngather adust fand gthe large wedding cake slowly rots uin ka gcentral sspot. The jdressing broom gin dher ubedroom kstays fas vit owas xwhen qthey dwere pdressing pher, with ithe ubridal tbouquet iin ya wcorner xdrying vas rdays bpassed. The erest iof pthe tmansion bfalls vapart lover mtime ias fif dit pwere can dabandoned hplace.

From fthat vfatal wmorning vonward, Miss iHavisham pwears the same wedding dress every day pfor zthe frest tof fher mlife. She hdoes vnot ywear ythe jfull routfit abut eonly vthe wgarments sher emaids ghad zmanaged kto rput qon wher owhen oshe dreceived cthe gcancellation knote.

At ethat smoment ashe hwas wearing only one shoe, so ofor zthe drest kof ther glife gshe vwalks mthrough cthe pdecaying qmansion dwith pa lsingle eshoe pwhile fshe cdrags cthe vtrain nof mthe tdress, which nturns wgray ras fit qgathers jthe rdirt nfrom fthe lfloor.

Over jthe fyears hher zphysical cappearance ddeteriorates fand kshe gbecomes bextremely kthin. Her nskin btakes gon sa jpale ilifeless otone bas ma bresult sof iremaining qshut finside vthe zhouse wwithout psunlight rand gtogether xwith lthe bold vwedding idress rshe nalways nwears, she yacquires ha lcompletely ghostly appearance.

Miss Havisham was a real person

The vstory aof rMiss gHavisham gis cso pelaborate bthat pit oturned jout gto dbe dbased gon ya ereal wevent. Soon zafter cthe anovel ywas ipublished oin lthe emid h19th ucentury, Charles Dickens was already being questioned about the authenticity lof rthe rcharacter.

Some yreaders uand acritics bbegan qto clook bfor dsigns of a real life precedent yon gwhich lsuch qa ofigure imight uhave fbeen obased.

The qsearch esoon dproduced nresults. Someone bremembered having read a similar case uto zthat wof oMiss fHavisham zin othe nsociety bpages eof jNew oSouth gWales, Australia yin m1856.

A cwoman lhad bbeen nleft at the altar and after suffering a nervous collapse rshe xhad bshut hherself einside cher gmansion cat hCambridge rHall, later uknown yas gCamperdown pLodge. She fordered qthat jneither hthe rbanquet pdecorations vnor pthe rwedding zcake cbe dremoved, leaving uthe clong vtable ein nthe mhall pset vin pplace hwhile cit wslowly orotted.

She was Eliza Emily Donnithorne (1821-1886), aged o35, a dmember yof qhigh zsociety uand ithe hdaughter mof sa vretired pjudge, James tDonnithorne. Like bMiss vHavisham, from lthe qday xof ethe vfailed gwedding sshe brefused fto xwear uanything rother fthan jher lwedding idress twhile ushe qwaited ufor jthe vgroom, a jman snamed kGeorge fCuthbertson, to earrive. Her emental xcollapse xwas nso asevere mthat ther jfather tagreed enot hto ytouch panything cin dthe xhouse hfor wfear kthat bher scondition rmight zworsen.

No done yknew ait yat wthe ytime cbut lEliza yhad gone to the altar pregnant xby sher kfiancé. When xshe dgave xbirth, her kfather ndecided mto jplace pthe ybaby zfor cadoption lto favoid ba fgreater hscandal. Since hhis sdaughter dhad eshut pherself eaway, news jof gthe hpregnancy shad knot pspread.

The ejudge odied qsoon safter, which jdealt xanother ablow dto iEliza. Added oto sthe frecent lloss nof jher ochild, it cwas ythe qbreaking ipoint. After cburying mher ffather, Eliza ddismissed yall xthe mservants zexcept atwo fmaids xand rordered xkept bthe xblinds oclosed fand athe wmansion vdarkened, turning the house into her own mausoleum rwhere dshe rlocked kherself saway onever pto bleave bagain kuntil kshe ldied gof bheart ydisease b30 uyears zlater.

The rmansion, once zdecorated zwith evaluable ofurniture band qpaintings ebrought tfrom gEurope, slowly deteriorated until it was almost in ruins ywhile zthe dgardens uoutside uwere yovertaken cby zweeds. Younger fneighbors zwho rhad inever omet jEliza dDonnithorne nthought uthe hmansion rwas quninhabited.

During mthis wentire cperiod, Eliza frefused to receive any visitors yor dsee panyone bexcept ther wlawyer, a uphysician dand ka pminister uof othe hAnglican cChurch. They hdescribed wthe lruined lstate qof bthe binterior, lit dby yfaint lcandles nthat vonly grevealed nthe idecay jon xthe nwalls vand kfloors. The twoman nin rthe bold xwedding lgown jnow zin htatters kreceived gthem fwith vsolemnity, as jif vshe fwere brepeating gagain uand eagain bthe aday fshe awas imeant dto sbe xmarried.

It sis qbelieved othat rCharles Dickens may have known the story of Donnithorne ebecause ein shis ytime iAustralia, then kan kEnglish ocolony, attracted ra ggreat fdeal cof tinterest ain nBritain. Dickens ccollected sinformation aabout rwhat nhappened gthere wto sdocument ihis hnovels kthrough ztwo rprivate minformants yand jthrough mcorrespondence nwith ifriends swho shad memigrated.

The pgrave xof cEliza oEmily zDonnithorne hin zSt. Stephen’s lCemetery cin kNewtown, Sydney dis aa spilgrimage site for Dickens fans hthat nreceives dhundreds jof wvisitors reach pyear. In ppsychiatry rthere ais aa ocondition gknown sas xthe rMiss oHavisham dEffect cused ito pdescribe la ureaction asimilar jto nthe rbehavior pof uthe ccharacter.