I had a double-caped great-coat on, and over my arm another thick coat. That I got them off, closed with her, threw her down, and got them over her; that I dragged the great cloth from the table for the same purpose, and with it dragged down the heap of rottenness in the midst, and all the ugly things that sheltered there; that we were on the ground struggling like desperate enemies, and that the closer I covered her, the more wildly she shrieked and tried to free herself, – that this occurred I knew through the result, but not through anything I felt, or thought, or knew I did. I knew nothing until I knew that we were on the floor by the great table, and that patches of tinder yet alight were floating in the smoky air, which, a moment ago, had been her faded bridal dress.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 49. When the decaying wedding dress Miss Havisham is wearing goes up in flames, Pip makes desperate efforts to save her. As the fire engulfs her, he uses his overcoat and the tablecloth to smother the flames. While dragging the cloth from Miss Havisham’s wedding feast table, her rotted wedding cake and the spiders that live in it are pulled down. The simile “struggling like desperate enemies” describes how Pip forcibly holds Miss Havisham down in his attempt to rescue her. In the fire Miss Havisham’s wedding gown is destroyed, symbolizing that she has been freed from her traumatic past and years of bitterness over her betrayal by Compeyson.