Love in great expectations
Love in great expectationsOf the major themes from Charles Dickens novel “Great Expectations” to be discussed as to their importance concerning its structure, I have selected love in the context of human relationships, isolation and finally redemption.
The loneliness isolation brings can only be redeemed by the loving associate of our fellow man, but this is a two-way thing. “Had grown diseased, as all minds do and must and will that reverse the appointed order of their maker.”
In isolation the greatest sin we commit against others, and ourselves, is to shun human companionship as Miss Haversham did. After her betrayal in love she hardened her heart towards her fellow man. By hardening her heart and suppressing her naturally affectionate nature, she committed a crime against herself.
Miss Haversham’s love for Compeyson is of a compassionate kind, but this blinded her to his true nature, as Herbert remarked, “too haughty and too much in love to be advised by anyone.” At Compeyson’s desertion her anger and sorrow became extreme and she threw herself and Satis House into perpetual mourning and a monument to her broken heart, shutting the world out and herself from the world. Her only concession is in her adoption of Estella.
Miss Haversham has ulterior motives in adopting Estella; this is not a loving action on her part, but a calculated manoeuvre to turn the child into a haughty, heartless instrument of revenge against men. Estella is encouraged to practice her disdain on Pip and to break his heart.
Paradoxically, Miss Haversham’s greatest sin is against herself. By hardening her heart she loses her generous, affectionate nature and becomes withered inside emotionally. Her punishment is that the heartless young woman she has made uses her lack of feelings against Miss Haversham.
Estella herself is isolated, as for most of the novel she takes pleasure in her role of the avenger. Her isolation is in part responsible for Pips snobbery and his estrangement from Joe and Biddy. Like Miss Haversham she becomes a victim of her own machinations. She enters into a loveless marriage to Drummle, who is cruel to her. This shows that no matter how heartless one tries to be, there is always someone more heartless. The instrument of revenge punishes the avenger and is punished in return.
Pip feels emotionally and geographically isolated on his arrival in London. Jagger’s isolation is his deliberate rejection to human involvement; he substitutes these with the mechanical process of law. Jagger uses the legal system to avoid personal responsibility for the fate of his fellow man. This profession has imprisoned his better instincts, leaving him isolated within the system.
Magwitch, however, is isolated by the system; he uses Pip as his agent of revenge. Magwitch’s’ motive is not only revenge, but also gratitude for the food Pip gave him in his hour of need. He develops a fatherly affection towards Pip, who in the end returns his affection. However, it is Magwitch who has the best reasons for disbelieving in human companionship rather than supporting it the most.
Love in the context of human relationships is best shown through Pip. The relationship between Pip and Joe changed as he grew up. As a child, he regarded Joe as an equal, though he loved him; “I had a new sensation of feeling conscious that I was looking up to Joe in my heart.”
Though there is love, the snobbish Pip is critical of Joe in his thoughts, if not verbally. When he attains his ‘great expectations’, he is embarrassed by what he regards as Joe’s commonness and avoids his company.
Pip’s conscience makes him realise that Joe has more gentlemanly qualities than he himself possesses, however his remorse is short lived. When Pip’s fortunes take a fall he is too ashamed to approach Joe and Biddy, but their love is too strong and they are there for Pip in his hour of need. In Pip’s relationship with Biddy, he is very condescending, and shows disregard for her feelings, ” If I could only get myself to fall in love with you,” is a prime example.
Pip compares Biddy to Estella and overlooks her obviously virtuous qualities. After his loss of fortune, he decides to honour Biddy by marrying her. “I would go to Biddy.” His arrogance is shown here as he thinks that Biddy would be glad to marry him.
However, Biddy has married Joe. Though she was once half in love with Pip, Biddy recognised his obsession for Estella and wisely sought a partner elsewhere. Biddy and Joe share the same values and are ideal partners. Herbert and Clara, Mr Wemmick and Miss Skiffin and Mr and Mrs Pocket also have stable loving, relationships.
Pip’s sexual attraction towards Estella is more romantic ideology than genuine love. He envisions Estella as a captive princess and himself as the heroic knight capable of awakening love in her heart. Even though Estella tells him, “I have no heart”, he does not believe her. Does Estella believe what she says or is she trying to convince herself? Is she playing ‘hard to get’ in order to hold Pip’s interest?
As the novel draws to a close, there are a few good outcomes that stand out against the bad. Miss Haversham attains redemption when she humbles herself to ask Pip’s forgiveness. Estella, after the cruelty she has endured at the hands of Compeyson, emerges as a more compassionate person. Pip also emerges triumphantly after enduring hardship, aided dramatically by the love and forgiveness of Joe, Biddy and Magwitch forgiveness and love from Joe, Biddy and Magwitch.
The themes of love, isolation and redemption are the structure from which the other themes are suspended. The loneliness of isolation in the beginning is interrupted by compassion, the food that staves it off, and redemption is the final purification. At the end of the novel, however, one thing is outstandingly clear; love is the fuel that drives it.