Spinster family caretaker for their family of origin or for a married sibling's children, "poor relations" who would work "to earn their keep" as nannies or unpaid domestics. For example, being a governess was the fate expected by rejected titular orphan in Charlotte Brontë's novel "Jane Eyre" (1847); Eyre retained that status until the man she loved was widowed and available. A common theme in the fiction writings of author/poet Sandra Cisneros is marital disillusionment; for example. in the poem "Old Maids" (1994). In the Charles Dickens' classic "Great Expectations", the primary antagonist is Miss Havisham, a spinster embittered by being
Great Expectations Ronald Frame, that features an imagining of the life of Miss Catherine Havisham from childhood to adulthood. The second chapter of Rosalind Ashe's "Literary Houses" (1982) paraphrases Miss Havisham's story with details about the nature and structure of Satis House and coloured imaginings of the house within. Miss Havisham is also central to "Lost in a Good Book" (2002), Jasper Fforde's alternate history, fantasy novel, which features a parody of Miss Havisham. It won the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association 2004 Dilys Award. Magwitch is the protagonist of Peter Carey's "Jack Maggs", which is a re-imagining of Magwitch's return to England,