Great expectations Book Review — Charles Dickens
Published in 1861, Great Expectations is a novel written by Charles Dickens that traces the moral transformation of Pip from his childhood years to adulthood. I’ve always enjoyed coming of age literature, such as Main Street, To Kill a Mockingbird, the Catcher in the Rye, Le Petit Prince, and Educated. These stories captivated me with the timeless themes of youth endeavor and epiphanies, which are often easily relatable to the reader.
The story take place during the 19th century Victorian England period, where Pip grows up in the rural marshes of Kent with the tender care of his uncle Joe. Dickens is a genius in depicting captivating characters with strong personalities — from Pip’s fascination with the beautiful Estella, Pip’s relationship with his capricious sister, and Pip’s terror of the convict…all of whom play important roles in shaping the main character’s growth trajectory.
One of the key themes of the book is the moral transformation from childhood to adulthood. Moral degradation is manifested after Pip was granted “great expectations” — immense and unprecedented wealth. When Pip was offered material wealth and liberty, he quickly forgets his childhood upbringings that anchored him — family, love, hard-working ethics, and simple teachings. “The plain honest working life to which I was born, had nothing in it to be ashamed of, but offered me sufficient means of self-respect and happiness….I was lost in the mazes of my future fortunes…I soon contracted expensive habits, and began to spend an amount of money that within a few short months I should have thought almost fabulous..”
Another theme in the book was “revenge” — reflected in Miss Havisham’s “expectations” for Estella to become a cold-blooded beauty and the convict’s “expectations” to educate Pip as a “gentleman” in haute society. Their grievances and wounded pride found vengeance in twisted desires to bring up the next generation and lavish them with things that they lost — love, honesty, fairness, and equality. Miss Havisham and the convict’s resentment, spurned affection, and unrequited love made them solitary and diseased — “ In shutting out the light of the day, she had shut out infinitely more; in seclusion, she secluded herself from a thousand natural and healing influences.”
The universal and relatable themes of the book — finding ourselves, making hard choices, and venturing into hard terrain resonates with readers to this day. “Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before — more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, gentler.” Our transformations from a student into the workplace, from a mid-sized town to a metropolis, from protected family love to complicated relationships…are all timeless themes that individuals navigate every day. The dark side of human nature: selfishness, pride, forgetfulness, material attractions…are all relevant to us today. I enjoyed reading the passages where Pip finger points at Biddy her “dark side of human nature”, while his own unease, pride, and confused sentiments manifests clearly to the readers.
One of my favorite characters in the book is Wemick. He displayed two distinct personalities in his office life and in his private life (the Castle). “The office is one thing, and private life is another. When I go to the office, I leave the Castle behind me. I don’t wish it professionally spoken about.” One dialogue between Wemick and Pip struck a bell with the theme of the book — how “great expectations”; unprecedented wealth; ruins morality. “Choose your bridge, Mr. Pip. Take a walk upon your bridge, and pitch your money into the arch of the bridge, and you know the end of it. Serve a friend with it, and you may know the end too — but it’s a less pleasant and profitable end.” “Then it is of your opinion, that one should never invest portable property with a friend?” “Unless he wants to get rid of the friend — and then it becomes a question of how much portable property it may be worth to get rid of him.” This dialogue hints of what is to come for Pip — how he navigates the riches that are granted to him — whether he wakes up from a dangerous dream.
“That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But, it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.” We all have these moments — life stage transformations that we are blessed with since childhood. Navigate them with care, and hopefully look back with more maturity and wisdom.
