Miss Havisham

Jilted at the altar; stops every clock in the house at twenty minutes to nine; sits in her bridal gown for decades growing the cake into a ruin; raises Estella as an instrument of revenge on men; burns at the end; dies asking forgiveness. Failure mode: Building a life around the moment of betrayal; weaponizing the next generation. Restoration path: Burn the room down and ask forgiveness — but very late. Markers: clocks stopped at the wounds hour; wedding cake left as ruin; raises another to repeat the harm; decades inside the wound; late, fire-purged confession — Miss Havisham, Dickens, Great Expectations (Literature)