I have always called this one Barbie Havisham after the character in Dicken's Great Expectations. Dressed in white, with her pale skin and long, black hair this Barbie seems spectral or even witchy to me.
 |
| Barbie Havisham |
Dickens said Miss Havisham was "the witch of the place". She was jilted on her wedding day and never recovered from the trauma. She spent the rest of her life in a vendetta against men, poisoning her adopted daughter's attitudes in the hopes that the beautiful Estella would destroy the lives of many men. Miss Havisham wore the rags of her wedding dress. Her wedding feast (including the cake) remained uneaten and rotting on a large table.
She is presented as a very dramatic character but one detail rendered her clownish to me. She wore only one shoe as she hadn't put the second one on her foot when she got the news that her betrothed would not be joining her at the altar. Since most brides choose to wear high heels with their wedding finery, I have always pictured Miss Havisham lurching around like Igor from the old
Frankenstein movies. How scary is that?!
No comments:
Post a Comment