A look at the story

To get on better terms with the characters I decided to read extracts of the novel. This way I could get a first hand experience on how Dickens wanted to portray his characters to the world. 

Pip

Pip, Philip Pirrip, is the main character in Great Expectations and narrates the story. He is an orphan who is brought up by his sister. She treats him badly and regularly resorts to beating him. Her husband, Joe Gargery is the only person who shows love to Pip and he looks up to him as a father figure. Joe is a blacksmith and Pip initially wishes to follow in his footsteps when he grows up. 

At the start of the story Pip comes face to face with an escaped convict Abel Magwitch who forces Pip to go and get him a file to break free from his handcuffs and shackles. When Pip returns he also brings along a piece of pie for Magwitch to eat, this shows a kindness that Magwitch is not accustomed to seeing. 

One day he is called upon to visit Miss Havisham up at Satis House, where Miss Havisham implies that maybe Pip's life will improve and he will become a gentleman of great expectations. However Miss Havisham changes her plans for Pip after she discovers that Estella has fallen in love with him.

Despite Miss Havisham not paying for him to go to London and become a gentleman, a anonymous benefactor comes forward via the lawyer Mr Jagger which allows Pip to go to London and fulfil his dream of becoming a gentlemen of great expectation.

Towards the end of the story it becomes apparent that Abel Magwitch is in fact Pip's benefactor as he never forgot the kindness that Pip showed to him all those years ago on the marshes. 

Miss Havisham  

Miss Havisham, one of the characters who the project brief requires me to create, is a bitter and twisted spinster who was left at the altar as her fiancé was only interested in her money. This act of unkindness leads Miss Havisham to go on to plan her revenge on mankind, in which he adopts the orphan Estella whom she raises to become a heartbreaker of men. 

Her appearance is described in detail through the eyes of Pip. He finds her to be scary and ghost like, still wearing her wedding dress from all those years ago. The dress no longer fits her properly as her poor diet and malnutrition has caused her to lose a lot of weight. In addition to her weight loss, her skin has become dry and grey due to the lack of sunlight and her hair is messy and ashy due to it still being in her wedding style. The wedding dress is described as yellowed due to the amount of time it has gone unwashed and been worn continuously for.

In our practical lessons we have learned how to age the face through the use of latex and ageing stipple, as well as how to contour the face to make it appear gaunt. The use of an ashy base will also help to create the look of Miss Havisham. We were also taught a variety of Victorian hairstyles that would be appropriate to use. These technical lessons will make creating the character a lot easier for us and through research we will be able to create a historically accurate makeup and hairstyle. 

Estella  

Estella, the young orphan who is taken in by Miss Havisham is described as being a very beautiful individual. This is a vital character trait as she needs to be good looking in able to go out an break the hearts of men as Miss Havisham so selfishly desires. The only detail in which the novel refers to Estella's appearance is that she has brown hair. This is probably due to Dickens wanting the reader to create their own vision of what she would look like. 

Research into what Victorian young women would have worn at the time will help me to create an accurate look for her though.