Charles Dickens' 'Great Expectations': End Analysis

Would you rather be prosperous and disheartened or common and jovial with your life? Joe Gargery showed that wealth doesn’t define one’s personality but personality defines ones wealth, Miss Havisham shows that wealth is everything but that emotions don’t matter, and Jaggers shows that some gentlemen have dispirited lives despite all of their riches. Characters in the novel such as Joe Gargery, Miss Havisham, and Jaggers represent that life is not always perfect whether someone is rich or poor. In the novel, Great Expectations, Charles Dickens uses the element of fortune and social class to show the dynamic of how wealth doesn’t guarantee contentment.

2. Briefly describe the convict. What evidence is there that the convict has "human" qualities and is not merely a criminal? The convict is a fearful man all in coarse gray, with a great iron on his leg, no hat, with

A related theme that is carried through in this ending is the idea of mistaken identities. Estella mistakes little Pip for Pip's son, when he is really the son of Joe and Biddy. This is like how Pip mistakes Miss Havisham for the one who gives him his expectations when it is really Magwitch.

It is said that right before someone dies, they see their life flash before their eyes. They are said to see the things most dear to them. However, no one on their deathbed regrets the amount of money that they have. In the moment of clarity, most realize that a number on a paycheck is not as important as emotional and mental possessions. People always tell each other that money can not buy happiness, yet most end up spending every waking moment thinking about money. Why do people waste their time and energy pursuing something that is not what they truly need? Often, they use social class to fill a void in their lives that can not be filled by materialistic possessions. Many people realize this, but it is often too late. Charles Dickens demonstrates the effects of social climbing in his novel, Great Expectations. This novel explores the connections and effects of human nature and society, which are the two most powerful forces that guide people’s decisions. Some may say that social climbing is good, but as will be proven, pursuing social class for the wrong reason can result in disastrous consequences. The motivation to obtain higher social status leaves those who pursue it dissatisfied with reality and with a wider void in their lives as shown by Pip, Estella, and Magwitch.

The main theme of the novel, Pip’s journey for self-improvement, has been played out between the constant collisions between the choice of affection, loyalty, and conscience and social advancement, wealth, and class. The choice constantly fights its way into Pip’s life over which set is more important to him. Dickens develops the choice throughout the novel. Dickens also splits Pip’s goal and main moral theme of the novel of self-improvement up into three different sections. The three different forms of Pip’s goal throughout the novel: moral, social and educational.

While the storyline of Great Expectations, the film based off of Charles Dicken's novel, essentially stays the same, the director inserts a few changes into the film. While the changes added initially seem to not impact the storyline, differences between the film and the novel become more apparent as the film

As mentioned before, Pip possess and inability to fully express his feeling about those around him. When he first encounters Estella, he knows that is a physical attraction but Estella’s cold and indifferent actions toward Pip leave him longing for someone he cannot create a true connection with. Furthermore, Estella has the one of the greatest influence on Pip’s identity in the novel once he obtains his expectations and attempts to alter his personality to mimic that of a genteel individual. Pip describes the anguish he feels about his background as “a most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home” insinuating that the only way to win Estella over is to disregard his humble beginnings in Kent. Which leads to his desires to become a gentleman in London in hopes that he will be better suited for Estella.

The beginning of the video started off by introducing a man named John Dickens, who worked at a naval pay office on the docks of Portsmouth, and lived in a small house at 387 Mile End Terrace. His wife was Elizabeth Barrow who he met at his office, and who he also had a kid with named, Charles Dickens. But within 7 months of Charles being born everything seemed to go wrong for them, from running into financial problems to being forced to move to several different locations, until they settled in a house up the hill from the docks of Chatham, London. This is where Charles had his happiest memories of his childhood.

With a beautiful angelic face and a cold-heart Estella serves an important role as Pip’s love interest in the story. Although she is everything that Pip should never want in a friend, that doesn’t stop him from loving her. In the novel, Estella is an important character in both the literal and figurative

Throughout the course of the novel, we are closely acquainted with Pip’s deepest thoughts. They trail on for paragraphs, and when Pip is under stress, they can spiral out of control. His “mind, with inconceivable rapidity follow[s] out all the consequences,” (Dickens 316). The reader feels as though they are inside Pip’s (rather dark) mind, personally connecting with him and his emotions. This tactic allows Dickens to bring and take hope from the readers as it is given and taken from Pip. In the first, original, ending of the novel, Pip does not end up with his love, Estella, and although Pip is content with this fact, it is still a disappointment to readers that his great expectations didn’t come true. This reveals Dickens’ more pessimistic, realistic side, displaying the idea that childhood dreams don’t often come true. Dickens portrays the world as dismal, but he does add a humorous twist when

Pip and Estella meet when Pip is brought to the

Although no mention of past events is made, Pip can tell that Estella had been through misery more intense than that which he himself had gone through almost ten years prior. This misery, Pip believes, has enabled Estella to understand the suffering that he had once felt.

Estella also is a victim to her guardian in the novel. She too is never given the chance to be her own person and live life to its fullest. Estella is conditioned by her guardian, Miss Havisham, to make men suffer, and in return it is Estella who will be made to suffer for her guardian's actions. Miss Havisham is a severely disturbed old woman who has adopted Estella. Miss Havisham was abandoned on her wedding day and as a result she forever maintains hatred toward men. Thus for her dirty work, Miss Havisham uses Estella to meet this purpose. Pip concludes that Miss Havisham "had done a grievous thing in taking an impressionable child (Estella) and had manipulated into the form that her wild resentment, spurned affection, and wounded pride, found vengeance in". Miss Havisham makes Estella have a fear of men being close to her and not to allow herself to become attached to them emotionally. Dickens’ made Estella an almost identical copy of Frankenstein: trained to perform specific tasks for the pleasure of their guardian. However someday, they crack and see the illness in their lives. Estella was Miss Havisham’s toy. Estella never

Mickey Spillane once said, “The most important part of a story is the ending. No one reads a book to get to the middle.” Despite the fact that the beginning and middle of story play an important role, the resolution is what tends to stick with the reader the most. From the instant the audience meets Pip to the final chapter where Pip and Estella bump into each other after such a long time, Great Expectations is, all the way through, a complete classic. Yet, there is some debate on the most important part of the story - the ending. The ending that Dickens published in his book was actually different from the one he had first written. After hearing some advice from his friend Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Dickens decided to change the final part of his novel. A huge debate has been created as a result of the fixes Dickens made: which of the two endings that Dickens wrote was better - the original or the published one? After examining both Dickens’ original ending and published ending, it’s clear that Dickens’ original ending is the conclusion that overall fits Great Expectations better because of its good thematic expression and plausibility.

In Charles Dickens’ novel, Great Expectations, the main character named Pip suffers through a conflict of confusing good and bad people. He repeatedly disregards the people that love and care for him and instead chooses to care for people who do not care for him. When making these choices, Pip senses that he is making the wrong decisions and therefore confuses good and bad and also confuses himself.