Satis House

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Satis House is a fictional estate in the Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations.

Satis House is the home of Miss Havisham, a rich woman, heiress to her father's fortune, who was abandoned by her intended husband on her wedding day. In rage and disappointment, she "lays waste" to the buildings and grounds, even stopping the clocks at the exact time she learned of her lover's betrayal.

The name Satis House comes from the Latin for sufficient, and is the name of a real mansion in Rochester, Kent, near where Dickens lived. It gained its name from a comment by Queen Elizabeth I who stayed there as a guest of the owner, Richard Watts. As she left, Watts asked his queen if she had been comfortable during her stay. Offhandedly, she replied: "Satis".^[1] The building itself is based on the nearby Restoration House ^[2][3] The character Estella, Miss Havisham's adopted daughter, describes the name to Pip, the hero, this way:

Pip: 'Is Manor House the name of this house, miss?'

Est.: 'One of its names, boy.'

Pip.: 'It has more than one, then, miss?'

Est.: 'One more. Its other name was Satis; which is Greek, or Latin, or Hebrew, or all three—or all one to me—for enough.'

Pip: 'Enough House,' said I; 'that's a curious name, miss.'

Est.: 'Yes,' she replied; 'but it meant more than it said. It meant, when it was given, that whoever had this house, could want nothing else. They must have been easily satisfied in those days, I should think. [...]'

Like Edgar Allan Poe's House of Usher, Satis House reflects the corruption, decay, and fate of its owner. In the novel, the building is destroyed after its owner's death, but its fate varies in the better known dramatic adaptations. In the most famous film production of Great Expectations, the 1946 version, the building remains in its corrupted state to serve as a setting for the final scene. In the mini-series version of 1989, the estate survives until the last scene but is due to be torn down.

Satis House is an example of a fictional structure whose existence embodies the soul of its owner, allegorically if not in reality.

[edit] References

1. ^ City of Rochester Society. Accessed 2006-11-22.
2. ^ Restoration House website. Accessed 2006-11-22.
3. ^ "Restoration House reveals its history" Medway Council press release, 2006-07-25. Accessed 2006-11-22.