Ahead of tonight’s penultimate episode of BBC’s controversial adaptation of Great Expectations, Island Echo explores the real-life inspiration behind the character of Miss Havisham, portrayed in the new series by Oscar-winning actress Olivia Colman.
It is well known that Charles Dickens spent time on the Island but was the character of Miss Havisham in Great Expectations based on the story of a jilted Bonchurch bride?
Research has produced compelling evidence that Bonchurch woman Margaret Dick at least partly inspired the character and a number of other local figures may well also have inspired other famous Dickens characters.
Dickens stayed at Winterbourne in Bonchurch during the Summer of 1849 where he worked on David Copperfield, enjoyed rambling through the stunning countryside around the South Wight and met some of the local community’s colourful characters.
These included the young poet Algernon Swinburne who was living with his parents at East Dene opposite Winterbourne where Dickens was a regular visitor and where he might well have heard the sad story of local woman Margaret Dick.
Miss Dick was the daughter of Captain Samuel Dick and the family lived at Uppermount in Bonchurch until Samuel Dick passed away. It was then that Margaret Dick was jilted at the altar of Holy Trinity Church on the morning of her wedding and she lived out the rest of her days as a recluse just like Miss Havisham in Great Expectations.
The name ‘Havisham’ meanwhile, could well have been inspired by a Miss Haviland who lived nearby.
Margaret Dick died in 1878 and is buried at Ventnor Cemetery in Upper Ventnor although sadly the grave is now barely legible.
The summer of 1849 saw a number of other notable literary visitors to Bonchurch including William Makepeace Thackeray, Thomas Carlyle, Alfred Tennyson as well as Mark Lemon and James Leech, respectively the founder and an illustrator of the famous Punch magazine.
You can catch up on previous episodes of Great Expectations ahead of next week’s finale and below is a trailer of Colman’s performance as the villainous Miss Havisham.
