Title: Great Expectations
Author: Charles Dickens
Date of First Publication: December 1860 –August 1861; In three volumes October 1861
Place of Publication: All The Year Round (peridocial)
Type: Novel
Characters: No Character
Themes: BYRONIC HERO; RACE/POLITICS; SYMPATHETIC MONSTER
Critical Summary: A young orphan, Pip, is forced by threats from an escaped convict to save himself at the cost of stealing from his family. While the price of stolen food and drink may be small, the fact that he is assisting a criminal brings moral questions into view. Pip continues to face more complicated issues, as he is constantly belittled and beaten by the authority figures and peers in his life. This ridicule only increases once he becomes the source of entertainment for a rich old woman, Miss Havisham. She then pushes her revenge on men onto her ward, Estella, acting out her hatred on to Pip. Estella’s arrogant, judgmental nature affects Pip so greatly, that he allows this to define him into his adulthood. While both women are cruel, Pip is still attracted to Estella and believes that Miss Havisham is trying to get the two together.Troubles continue as Pip’s sister is attacked by a cruel man, Orlick, and left a mute.
Pip’s luck seems to change once a lawyer, Jagger, notifies him that he will receive a fortune through an anonymous source, and renounce his embarrassing past. He leaves behind his uneducated father figure Joe Gargery, the local blacksmith, and Biddy, a school friend, without any true concern or pain until he is already gone and has acted as cruel as Estella. While in London, Pip befriends Herbert, an aspiring merchant and continues his journey to become a true gentleman. Orlick comes into Pip’s life again, until the Jaggers fire him, once Pip reveals Orlick’s past. Several years pass as Pip and his friends continue spending money recklessly. One night Pip is faced with an old acquaintance and a harsh reality. The old convict from his childhood, Magwitch, is the true source of Pip’s fortune, and not Miss Havisham. Pip alludes to Mary Shelley’s novel in his attempt to describe his situation:
The imaginary student pursued by the misshapen creature he had impiously made, was not more wretched than I, pursued by the creature who had made me, and recoiling from him with a stronger repulsion, the more he admired me and the fonder he was of me.
Victor is wretched and guilty for abandoning what he made; Pip is wretched, but as the creature who wishes to escape the wretch that made him. He, too, is guilty. Even though Pip is ashamed that his fortune came from Magwitch and not the nobler source of Miss Havisham, Pip decides to help Magwitch escape London. Matters are only made worse when Estella marries a rich man, leaving Pip heartbroken. It is revealed that Magwitch’s old partner in crime, Compeyson, was the man that hurt Miss Havisham by leaving her at the alter and stealing her money. During their attempted escape, Orlick almost kills Pip, until Herbert saves him, while Compeyson alerts the police of Magwitch’s escape. Compeyson is drowned and Magwitch is sentenced to death, meaning Pip loses his fortune. Magwitch, dies in peace, while Pip become severely ill and is healed by Joe. They reconnect and Pip feels nostalgic for his past life, rushing home to marry Biddy. However, Joe and Biddy have already been married, resulting in Pip’s decision to travel with Herbert on his mercantile endeavors. Returning many years later, Pip runs into Estella, a widow now, leaving the possibility for their two paths to converge.
Dickens creates a haunting moment for Pip when Magwitch’s return from Pip’s almost forgotten past, alluding to the Creatures “haunting” of Victor in Shelley’s novel. Magwitch and Pip attempt to create a “new, gentleman Pip,” both becoming the Frankenstein to this “new Pip.” The immediate joy Magwitch has at seeing Pip is similar to the immediate connection the Creature has to Victor. And yet, Magwitch is also Pip’s creator, as he supplied Pip with the funds to become the “new Pip.” Magwitch is as hopeful as Victor when creating the Creature, and yet when “new Pip” is almost complete, it is a failure. The loss of Magwitch, and with his riches, the “new Pip” allows a better Pip to emerge and properly function in society.
Administrative Notes: Elissa Saucedo, CSUF; Dr. David Sandner, CSUF (editing)