The World May Change, but People Remain the Same

What is it that sets the great authors apart from the rest of the pack? Is it that they are great storytellers? They must be, to be sure, but more is required than the simple ability to regale an enthralling tale to elevate an author to revered status in the literary realm. Entertainment value, then, is not enough. What’s also needed (in my humble opinion) is the ability to teach us something through the work, be it a comment on the state of human affairs or an observation upon the human condition.

If there ever was an author who has mastered the art of both storytelling and edification, it is Charles Dickens. His novels never fail to entertain, but they also bring us insight into the society of mid-19th century in which he lived. His reflections on human nature are no less valid today than they were a century and a half ago; one need only consider the popularity of A Christmas Carol to evidence this.

Less well known, however, is another of Dickens novels that explores a facet of human nature: Great Expectations. In this classic novel, Dickens considers the effects wealth and status have upon us, and how they may change our very nature in not so agreeable ways.

Our protagonist is one Philip Pirrip, nicknamed Pip early on and called by that name throughout our story. Pip is an orphan who lives with his sister, a woman who constantly berates, badgers, and at times bullies the boy. His existence is a hard one at the tender age of seven, and would be all the more difficult were it not for the kindness displayed to him by his brother-in-law, Joe Gargery.

Joe is a gentle giant, a blacksmith by trade, who essays to ameliorate his wife’s rough treatment of the boy. Pip therefore looks up to Joe and believes that one day he will be apprenticed to him. There are several important events ahead for Pip, however, events that will dramatically alter the course of his life.

The first is a chance meeting with an escaped convict on the moors nearby to Pip’s home. The convict demands food and a file to remove his manacles; if these are not delivered, he threatens, his unseen associate will make short work of the boy. Pip complies out of a seven-year old’s fear, and is forced to steal from the family food supply to do this.

Sometime later, it is decided that Pip will be sent to spend time with the wealthy Miss Havisham. Through the arrangements of his sister’s uncle Mr. Pumblechook (whose beratement of the boy rivals her own). Pip is not sure why, and at first, neither is the reader.

Soon, however, Miss Havisham’s character becomes clear: she’s a jilted bride, betrayed by the man she meant to marry and now hateful of all men. She will wreak her vengeance
through the young and beautiful Estella, the girl with whom Pip will eventually fall in love. Estella, however, is cruel to Pip. She is cold, unfeeling, and insulting to the boy, and Miss Havisham derives perverse pleasure from this.

The years go by, and Pip grows into a young man. He makes a friend, Herbert, at Miss Havisham’s, though their first encounter would not portend such an outcome between the two. One day, Pip receives another surprise in his life: he has an unknown benefactor who wishes to make a gentleman of him and release him from his apprenticeship to Joe. All monies required for this will be provided to Pip, but he must relocate to London and be tutored there.

Pip is sure it is Miss Havisham who is his mysterious patron, cultivating him for an eventual union with Estella. But is it really? He makes new acquaintances along the way to his great expectations, but unfortunately in doing so Pip becomes more and more removed from his old ones. When he is visited by Joe, he is embarrassed by Joe’s simple ways, and takes great pains to avoid introducing him to friends. He rarely visits Joe or his disabled sister.

In matters of the heart, Pip chooses equally poorly. His love for Estella is clearly based upon her physical appearance and social standing, not upon her inner beauty and heart. When Joe’s sister is brutally assaulted and left near death, she receives a caretaker, the simple but kind-hearted Biddy. Biddy is of Pip’s age and clearly enamored of him, but he can’t see past his infatuation with Estella and, following her model, is at times cruel to poor Biddy.

Pip, however, is not without redeeming qualities, and as he has been the recipient of someone’s good graces, so he will return the favor to his friend Herbert. Herbert, Pip observes, has potential to make a go of it in life but lacks the resources to do so. Therefore, Pip decides to anonymously supply him with the means to make his way in the world.

Eventually, Pip’s benefactor is revealed to him. His feelings for Estella bring themselves to a head. His relationship with Joe is addressed. His life course is determined. How these matters are resolved, however, shall not be disclosed in this review so that some degree of suspense may be preserved, and must be discovered by the reader himself.

What shall be disclosed, however, is the fact that Great Expectations is a wonderful novel filled with delightful characters and compelling situations. Dickens is a master at using his characters to display the best and worst of human nature (Pumblechook, for example, does an amazing turnabout in his demeanor towards Pip when he believes the boy will receive monies he wishes to borrow).

Then too, Dickens is once again decrying the pursuit of wealth as its own end and the effects it can have upon us. Clearly, Pip’s corruption by his great expectations of wealth are as unfortunate as those suffered by Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, and bear an equal punishment. Pip, like Scrooge, has suffered as a child, a theme common to many of Dickens’ works and reflective of his own boyhood experiences. Thus Pip, like Scrooge, is not entirely responsible for his actions according to Dickens, and is therefore worthy of redemption.

Great Expectations holds so much more for the reader, including Dickens comments on the prison system, the courts, and English society of the day. His wonderful prose is reason enough to read the novel; it flows from word to word, each seemingly the perfect choice to convey his thought in an eloquent and precise manner.

Perhaps you read this book in high school or college as a requirement for a literary course, but I implore you to read it again as an adult. The meaning will be much clearer to you, and you will discover that there is relevance in reading about characters from such a long time ago. For as much as the world may change around us, people, in the final analysis, do not.