Effects on Miss Havisham's Health

The effects that Miss Havisham caused herself by secluding herself from reality would have been great. Statis House, Miss Havisham's large home, is undoubtedly spooky, with Dickens referencing he Gothic throughout the description. "We went into the house by a side door - the great front entrance had two chains across it outside - and the first thing I noticed was, that the passages were all dark, and that she had left a candle burning there. She took it up, and we went through more passages and up a staircase, and still it was all dark, and only the candle lighted us." This lack of sunlight would have taken it's toll on Miss Havisham's health. She has barricaded all of the light out of her home, so that the only lighting is candles. The sun helps our body produce Vitamin D, which helps too keep bones and teeth healthy. It also has a vast effect on our mood, with Vitamin D deficiencies leading to SAD, or season affective disorder. This disorder leads to depression in the seasons that lack sunlight, particularly at the north and south of the world. Spending just 6 days in casual sunlight will make up for 49 days spent without any sunlight. Miss Havisham would have been very emotionally unstable at the time, so with taking away another source of light from her life will have significantly lowered her mood. "Saving for the one weird smile at first, I should have felt almost sure that Miss Havisham's face could not smile. It had dropped into a watchful and brooding expression - most likely when all the things about her had become transfixed - and it looked as if nothing could ever lift it up again. Her chest had dropped, so that she stooped; and her voice had dropped, so that she spoke low, and with a dead lull upon her; altogether, she had the appearance of having dropped, body and soul, within and without, under the weight of a crushing blow."

Another factor that would be effecting Miss Havisham's health would be her severe malnutrition. Her body's immune system would be significantly at risk of attack, whilst her muscles would be fading away, at risk of pressure ulcers and blood clots. It can effect the kidneys, where they become unable to regulate salt, which can lead to over-hydration or dehydration. Heart failure is at a substantial risk due to malnutrition, and just a few parts of the body that it can effect. Malnutrition has an impact on the brain, leading to depression. Miss Havisham puts herself at risk to all of these serious effects, because she has lost a love one, she has lost her meaning of life. She would have a hollowed out face, dry, upset skin, be very thin, with wiry hair. Not one part of her body would be looking healthy. Ultimately, Miss Havisham is setting herself up to die, and I believe that Pip can see this instantly. In his first visit to Statis House, he sees Miss Havisham hanging, and for me, this is his mind showing him what Miss Havisham wants, and Dickens implying to the reader that Miss Havisham is depressed and suicidal. "It was in this place, and at this moment, that a strange thing happened to my fancy. I thought it a strange thing then, and I thought it a stranger thing long afterwards. I turned my eyes - a little dimmed by looking up at the frosty light - towards a great wooden beam in a low nook of the building near me on my right hand, and I saw a figure hanging there by the neck. A figure all in yellow white, with but one shoe to the feet; and it hung so, that I could see that the faded trimmings of the dress were like earthy paper, and that the face was Miss Havisham's, with a movement going over the whole countenance as if she were trying to call to me. In the terror of seeing the figure, and in the terror of being certain that it had not been there a moment before, I at first ran from it, and then ran towards it. And my terror was greatest of all, when I found no figure there."

(Bapen, 'Introduction to Malnutrition', (online) [viewed 19th February 2015], available from: http://www.bapen.org.uk/about-malnutrition/introduction-to-malnutrition?showall=&start=2)
(Shelagh Braley & Kate Clark, 'How Does Sunlight Affect Your Mood?' (online) [viewed 19th February 2015] available from: www.life.gaiam.com/article/how-does-sunlight-impact-your-mood)