Who is Estella?

Estella. The adopted daughter of Miss Havisham. She’s represented as a loveless, cold character, even from a young age when we meet her in Havisham’s derelict mansion. She talks down to Pip as they play and throughout the story, maintains a bitter approach, never letting down her guard. In television/film adaptations, she’s very beautiful. She never wears a lot of makeup, which is in keeping with the era but regularly dons elaborate, sophisticated hairstyles.

Before I can progress to the design stage of my Estella assessment, I need to decide which stage of her life I’d like to create. In the film, we see her grow from child to widowed woman and her appearance changes throughout, often based on her personality and character traits. For example, when she’s a child and she’s innocent and naïve, she wears full, long sleeved dresses and her hair hangs around her face in soft curls. However, when she’s returned from her travels and has grown up considerably, she’s developed a cold, powerful persona. She looks down on the likes of Pip and has fiercely structured and intricately detailed up dos, as well as clothes of luxury materials and fine jewels. 

Though we don’t actually see it in the film or television adaptations of Great Expectations, we understand that Estella was the victim of an abusive marriage to Bentley Drummle, this is also a stage in her life I could explore. However, when we see her at the end of the story, she has been broken. She’s no longer the superior personality we were once so familiar with but has gained a more considerate, forgiving nature after the experience of her difficult relationship. Her appearance is softer and reflects her new found kindness.