PDF Despite my affection for Dickens, I’ve never re-visited the first of his novels that I remember reading: Great Expectations, first encountered under the excellent guidance of Meg Hawley in the ninth grade. After my lengthy streak of American literature, the craving for Victoriana got the better of me one day and I turned to this book.
Great Expectations is unusually focussed for Dickens. Unlike his more expansive novels (e.g., Our Mutual Friend, Bleak House), this book tells a single story. There are few extraneous subplots or character cameos. The only “why is this here?” element, for me, is Orlick. Perhaps just a device to get Pip’s sister out of the way?
For those who got through high school without reading this, it is about a young man named Pip. As a child, Pip has two unusual encounters. In the marshes near his home, he meats an escaped convict, to whom he supplies food. He is also enlisted as a companion for an eccentric and bitter old woman named Miss Havisham.
Later, as a young man, Pip is informed that he has been awarded a very large sum of money by a secret patron. Among the conditions attached to the money is that he not try to identify his benefactor. The idea of tracking down the source of his “expectations” is actually not tempting to Pip, who assumes that it is Miss Havisham. She does nothing to discourage that assumption.
Pip moves to London, where he befriends Herbert Pocket, whom he had met as a child at Miss Havisham’s. Herbert proves himself a true friend to Pip and helps him to learn the manners appropriate to a London gentleman.
After Pip has established himself in London, he is found by Magwich, the previously unnamed convict of his youth. Magwich reveals that it is he, not Miss Havisham, that is the source of Pip’s fortune. Pip, of course, is thunderstruck by the revelation. Not only is he not the heir of a respectable, if creepy, spinster, but he finds himself saddled with the care of an uncouth and extremely illegal escaped convict. Magwich has come to London from Australia purely to see Pip and to take vicarious pleasure in the gentlemanly status of “his boy.”
Magwich is wanted by the authorities, but is also hunted by Compeyson. Compeyson, in a typically Dickensian coincidence, happens to also be the man who jilted Miss Havisham, precipitating her decline into creepiness (not that she seems likely to have been a fun girl otherwise). Although initially horrified by Magwich, Pip develops an affection for him and, with Herbert’s assistance, attempts to help him escape to the continent. Magwich, sadly, is arrested, and dies before his execution. Since Magwich’s funds go to the Crown, Pip is left without his anticipated fortune.
Miss Havisham’s lie of omission regarding Pip’s funding is far from her worst crime. In her bitterness, she adopts a child named Estella (who, in another coincidence, is Magwich’s secret daughter) and raises her to be completely indifferent to love. Miss Havisham engineers for Pip to fall in love with Estella and falsely implies that she has plans for them to share a future together. The old woman’s misanthropy works out exactly as intented, with Pip as miserably infatuated and Estella as indifferent as Miss Havisham could wish. Estella marries a wealthy cad named Drummel. Pip meets her as a widow years later, at the very end of the novel. A revised ending suggests that the two will be together, but the original ending, while depicting a softened Estella, shows no sign of optimism.
Providing a counterpoint to Pip’s relationship (or lack thereof) with Estella is his relationship to his “father” (actually, brother-in-law), Joe Gargery. As Estella cares nothing for Pip, so Pip perpetually neglects Joe. While exhibiting none of Magwich’s “lowness,” Joe is very much of the country and appears ridiculous when visiting London, causing Pip acute and guilty embarrassment. Pip’s tragic ambition causes him to love Estella and look down on Joe, who is by far the better person.
There is, of course, far more to tell. While a direct and taut tale by Dickensian standards, there are the usual minor characters and amusing sidelines. Even these, though, seem to move the novel along in some way or provide additional illumination on some theme. It is a novel with great heart and flawlessly constructed. It deserves its place among it’s author’s masterworks.