#charlesdickens #dickens #greatexpectations
1. the themes in Great Expectations.
The governing theme may be regarded as the greed for money and class consciousness and the corrupting influence which they produce on human in a materialistic society. A number of characters in this novel are dominated by the given themes. Pip’s journey through life, after he has been introduced to Miss. Havisham, may be called a snobbish progress. After meeting Estella, he at once begins to think that her standards are the correct ones and that he and his relatives are coarse and common. Dickens’ account of Pip’s life as a gentleman is a satire on the possession of money without any sense of responsility for its use. Dickens, in a most striking manner, portrays how money act as a corrupting influence on people in a materialistic society through his different characters.
2. Pip.
Great Expectations presents the growth and development of a single character, Philip Pirrip,
better known as Pip. He is both the protagonist, whose actions make up the main plot of the novel. And the narrator, whose thoughts and attitudes shape the reader’s perception of the story.
On the one hand, Pip has a deep desire to improve himself and attain any possible advancement, whether educational, moral or social. His desire to marry Estella and join the upper classes stems from the same idealistic desire as his longing to learn to read and his fear of being punished for bad behavior.
Pip’s idealism often leads him to perceive the world rather narrowly, and his tendency to oversimplify situations based on superficial values leads him to behave badly toward the people who care about him. When Pip becomes a gentleman he immediately begins to act as he think a gentleman is supposed to act, which leads him to treat Joe and Biddy snobbishly and coldly. On the other hand, Pip is at heart a very generous and sympathetic young man, helping Magwitch and secretly buying Herbert’s way into business.The discovery of his benefactor and losing Estella to Drummle forces him to realize that one’s social position is not important. Pip at last learned the meaning of purpose and self respect.
3. Estella.
Estella is the non-traditional heroine in Great Expectations. Raised from the age of 3 by Miss. Havisham to torment men and break their hearts. She wins Pip’s heart by practicing deliberate cruelty. Estella is cold, cynical and manipulative. Though she represents Pip’s ideal of the upper classes, Estella is the daughter of Magwitch, the coarse convict. And thus springs from the very lowest level of society.
Being raised by Miss. Havisham, Estella’s ability to express emotion and interact normally with the world was destroyed. Rather than marrying the kindhearted commoner Pip, Estella marries the cruel nobleman Drummle, who makes her life miserable for many years.
Despite her cold behavior and the damaging influences in her life, Dickens nevertheless ensures that Estella is still a sympathetic character. Estella does not seem able to stop hurting Pip, she also seems not to want to hurt him. She repeatedly warns him that she has ‘no heart’ and seems to urge him to find happiness by leaving her behind. Finally, Estella’s painful marriage to Drummle cause her to learn to rely on and trust her inner feelings. In the final scene, she has become her own woman for the first time.
4. Miss. Havisham.
Miss. Havisham, a wealthy spinster lives in a rotting mansion and wears an old wedding dress every day of her life. Her life is defined by a single tragic event: her jilting by Compeyson on their wedding day. From that moment on she is determine never to move on beyond her heartbreak. With a kind of manic, obsessive cruelty, Miss. Havisham adopts Estella and raises her as a weapon to achieve her own revenge on man. Both Miss. Havisham and the people in her life suffer greatly because of her quest for revenge. She is unable to see that her actions are hurtful to Pip and Estella.
6. What role does social class play in Great Expectations? How is the theme of social class central to the novel?
Ans: In Great Expectations, social class provides an arbitrary external standard of value by which the characters judge one another. As social class is rigid and preexisting, it is a standard for which Mrs. Joe and Pumblechook make judgment. And as high social class is associated with romantic qualities, it is an immediate attractive value for Pip. However, after Pip is elevated to the status of a gentleman, he begins to see social class for what it is. The most important lesson Pip learns - and perhaps the most important theme in the novel- is that no external standard of value can replace the judgment of one’s own conscience. It is a long hard lesson, the learning of which makes up much of the novel.
11 июл 2022
