What the Dickens?!

To begin my new 'Gothic Horror' hair and make-up project at Southampton Solent University, we were asked to read Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.  Before the start of this project I had never read the novel before, and so far I am about half way through the book.  I have seen two different remakes of the Dickens novel, these being the television BBC version (starring Gillian Anderson and Ray Winstone) and the 2012 film version (starring Helena Bonham Carter and Robbie Coltrane).  I found both of these interpretations very interesting, especially the way in which Miss Havisham was portrayed by the two different actresses.

Gillian Anderson as Miss Havisham

In the BBC version, Gillian Anderson was made up to look very ghost like and pale, with dark grey circles around her eyes and her lips chapped.  Her hair looked well kept, though disheveled, with tight ringlet curls framing her face and the rest of it pulled back into a bun like shape.  Her dress is a floor length, white wedding dress, that falls straight down to her ankles.  Also, she doesn't wear any shoes around her house.

However in the 2012 film version of Great Expectations, Miss Havisham was created in quite a different way.  In this remake, Helena Bonham Carter was made up to look very old and more like an old widow who was close to her death bed.  The make-up applied on Helena Bonham Carter was a lot more theatrical compared to that applied on Gillian Anderson, with really dark circles around her eyes and her skin being made to look grey and dusty.  Her hair was made to be very big, quite frizzy and untamed.  This, combined with the make-up that had been designed, made her appear like a crazy old lady.  The dress is a floor length, dusty wedding dress that has quite a puffy skirt and bigger sleeves.

Helena Bonham Carter as Miss Havisham

I feel that Gillian Anderson portrayed Miss Havisham in an unstable way, acting very distant and speaking with a smooth, high pitched voice that made you feel slightly uneasy.  Whereas Helena Bonham Carter portrayed Miss Havisham in a much more theatrical way, acting quite over the top and as though she had a screw loose.  I think that Miss Havisham in the BBC television version seems a lot younger than the Miss Havisham in the 2012 film version.  This is interesting, because the book portrays her through the eyes of Pip, who sees her as a mad old spinster, which is similar to how Helena Bonham Carter portrays her.  Furthermore, during the Victorian era people didn't have great life expectancies, so what might have seemed elderly to Pip probably wasn't that old compared to what we perceive as old today.  I think that Gillian Anderson's portrayal of Miss Havisham fits more with this idea, as she is not portrayed in that version as an old spinster, as Pip would have seen her, but as other Victorians would have perceived her.

When watching the different remakes, I found it interesting to see how Miss Havisham had been portrayed in such different ways.  The first adaptation that I saw was the 2012 film with Helena Bonham Carter.  I found that she portrayed the character more in the way that Pip would see her and the way in which the book portrays her.  When I then watched the rendition with Gillian Anderson, I was quite surprised at how she portrayed the character of Miss Havisham.  This was because I had expected her to have the same characteristics as the Miss Havisham in the book and the film.  However since having thought about the ideas behind the way in which Gillian Anderson portrayed the character, I feel that it was done very cleverly, as it gives us a different perception of Miss Havisham.  This is because in the BBC version, we see Miss Havisham in a way that she would have been seen by other Victorians, rather than just seeing her through the eyes of Pip again.

References:

- Nikkhah, R. (2012). Helena Bonham Carter plays Miss Havisham in new Great Expectations film. Available: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/9622620/Helena-Bonham-Carter-plays-Miss-Havisham-in-new-Great-Expectations-film.html. Last accessed 27th Jan 2014.

- Buckland, L. (2011). What the Dickens? Critics in uproar as BBC alters ending of literary classic. Available: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2075956/BBC-alters-endings-Charles-Dickenss-greatest-works.html. Last accessed 27th Jan 2014.