The Miss Havisham That I Am Creating

When thinking about the design that I wanted to create, I decided that I needed to focus on a single moment in the book so that I was able to create a realistic but new make up look on the many times recreated scene. I have decided to focus on the first encounter that Pip has with Miss Havisham in Satis House. I think that this is an interesting scene to recreate as Dickens gives a large amount detail about her character and look, and when reading it for the first time it was easy to imagine what Miss Havisham looked like which therefore made it more interesting to create a look that I think represented her character the best. 'She was dressed in rich materials-satins, and lace, and silks- all of white. Her shoes were white. And she had bridal flowers in her hair, but her hair was white. Some bridal jewels sparkled on her neck and on her hands, and some other jewels lay sparkling on the table.' 'But, I saw that everything within my view that ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its lustre, and was faded and yellow. I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress, and like the flowers, and had no brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes. I saw that the dress had been put upon the rounded figure of a young women, and that the figure upon which it now hung loose, had shrunk to skin and bone'. Although I was keen not to get swayed by depictions already created, I decided that it was important to research films and television shows and focus on previous depictions and how they represented her specifically in this scene.  From what I have seen I feel her character is always represented as far older than what Dickens envisaged. I am therefore trying to capture the youth and in some ways the beauty that she still had at this point in her life. Dickens describes her as a 'waxwork' which to me brings to mind smooth, taught skin rather than more mature wrinkled skin. I will be keeping it with the traditional Victorian style of minimal make up and am going to make her look realistic to her description of having, 'sunken' and, 'dark eyes', as I am not going to try to make her into a 'beauty queen'.  I will also be focusing on the paleness of her skin, as she never sees the sun and as written in the book asks Pip, 'You are not afraid of a woman who has never seen the sun since you were born?' I however do not intend to make it extremely pale as I feel that is a popular look that has been done many times. I am looking forward to exploring my representation of Miss Havisham's character and carrying out the design in the final timed assessment.