Symbolism In Chapter 8 Of Great Expectations

In chapter 8 of Great Expectations  Charles Dickens uses several symbols to represent psychological paralysis, class division, and the decay of of the past. 

The stopped clocks: All the clocks in Miss Havisham's  room are stopped exactly at twenty minutes to nine. They symbolize Miss Havisham's total psychological freeze in time. The moment her fiance abandoned her at the altar, her life stopped moving forward, trapping her in a state of perpetual grief and bitterness. 

Satis House and the abandoned brewery: Satis House is a decaying locked up mansion filled with wedding relics, shadows and iron barred windows paired with an empty quiet brewery outside. Satis means "enough" and it is deeply ironic.  It represents the rotting upper class emotional stagnation and a dead environment.  The abandoned brewery links the industrial or mercantile glory of the past to the present emptiness and decay.

Beggar My Neighbour:  When Pip plays cards with Estella she routinely wins, insults his "coarse hands" and "thick boots" and treats him with disdain. The card game mirrors unequal power dynamics of social class.  Estella's dominance and calculated manipulation reflect how the upper class holds the rules, stacks the deck, and exploits or humiliates the lower class, at their mistakes.

The abandoned brewery:  At the end of his visit, while coming out the vision of Miss Havisham hanging from a beam represents the decay of old Estate Commerce. The ruins of brewery signify the decay of family estate.  Miss Havisham's frozen world perfectly mirrors landed class's  stubborn refusal to move with the times during a period of massive social upheaval.

Great Expectations was set at early 1800s.  The traditional landed gentry and aristocracy were desperately trying to cling to power while the world around them changed rapidly. 

The barred windows, rusted gates, and overgrown courtyard represent a class that has shut itself off from the rest of the world.

During the era in which the novel was set, the traditional power of land owners was being challenged by rising merchants and working class.