To take some liberties with Aristotle's definition of tragedy, Miss Havisham is a tragic character. Possessing a certain hubris, and in her anger at being jilted on her wedding day, she vows to take revenge on men through the instrument of Estella. But, in her arrogance, she becomes ignorant of the fact that if she raises Estella to be cruel to people, it follows that Estella will also be cruel to her. And, in her desire to wreak vengeance upon men, Miss Havisham needlessly harms the innocent Pip.
In her discovery of her sin of pride and her realization of what it has wrought, Miss Havisham has committed an act of injustice--"Oh!...What have I done! What have I done!--against Estella and Pip both, and punishment must be exacted. The fire provides Miss Havisham her punishment. And, since fire is both symbolic of purification and of punishment, Miss Havisham's fall into the fire in Great Expectations carries the significance of a penance for her transgressions. After all, as she repeats " Take the pencil and write under my name, 'I forgive her'!" she has certainly begged for forgiveness.
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