Literary influence of Hamlet a production of "Hamlet" at its core but also dwells on parallels between the Ghost and Wilhelm Meister's dead father. In the early 1850s, in "", Herman Melville focuses on a Hamlet-like character's long development as a writer. Ten years later, Dickens' "Great Expectations" contains many Hamlet-like plot elements: it is driven by revenge actions, contains ghost-like characters (Abel Magwitch and Miss Havisham), and focuses on the hero's guilt. Academic Alexander Welsh notes that "Great Expectations" is an "autobiographical novel" and "anticipates psychoanalytic readings of "Hamlet" itself". About the same time, George Eliot's "The Mill on the Floss" was published,
Miss Havisham that "James Payn, a minor novelist, claimed to have given Dickens the idea for Miss Havisham – from a living original of his acquaintance. He declared that Dickens's account was 'not one whit exaggerated'." Although it is documented Dickens encountered a wealthy recluse called Elizabeth Parker on whom it is widely believed he based the character, whilst staying in Newport, Shropshire, at the aptly named Havisham Court. "Miss Havisham's Fire" (1979, revised 2001) is an opera composed by Dominick Argento with a libretto by John Olon-Scrymgeour, based on Dickens' character. The entire story is told in flashback during an inquiry