I don’t know how long this book had been sitting, unread, on my bookshelf. I suppose it had been much too long, for when I picked it up, I read/devoured it with such voracity that I finished all 536 pages in less than four days. With me much of the time, the last book that I have read is instantly one of my favourite books. However, although I have read many books since Great Expectations, this one has kept me coming back for rereads, and I feel that it will stay with me for a long while. What I loved most about this book is that it kept me on the edge of my seat, jumping up and down with joy, heartbreak, and “I KNEW IT”s from beginning to end. And, this isn’t about a quest to slay a dragon or a daring heist by pirates in the dark of night. It’s simply about a boy who grows up, wanting some things to happen, not expecting what does happen, changing as a character but learning what had always been the same.
This book has one of the best beginnings that I have ever read. From the second sentence, I was immediately drawn into the world of Victorian England and eager to read more. At the grave of his parents, young Pip Pirrup encounters an escaped convict who asks for food and a file for the chain on his leg. From this first moment that I met him, I fell in love with the character of Pip, a witty boy who thinks much like an adult. Pip obliges to help the convict and steals the food and file from his guardians, his malevolent sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery, and Pip's "partner in crime", Joe Gargery. Pip later witnesses the recapture of the convict and that storyline seemingly ends.
Then, Pip is invited to play at the decrepit home of the lonely Miss Havisham, a rich yet eerie woman who wears the same wedding dress in which she was jilted at the alter years before and has stopped all the clocks in the house at twenty minutes to nine. There, he meets the beautiful Estella, Miss Havisham's adopted daughter, who is harsh and rigidly averse to being courteous to someone of Pip's social standing. Pip immediately resents his lowly upbringing, yet he trudges on as a common boy and, with pay from Miss Havisham, he becomes a blacksmith’s apprentice.
Soon though, Pip’s hopes and wishes are granted. A lawyer by the name of Mr. Jaggers appears at Pip’s home and tells him that a mysterious benefactor has given Pip great expectations, and he is to live in London as a gentleman. Sure that his benefactor is Miss Havisham and that she means for him to become a gentleman to marry Estella, Pip eagerly agrees and leaves Joe behind for London.
In London, Pip meets Herbert Pocket and they immediately become good friends. They live together, and Pip makes sure they live in luxury. Herbert teaches Pip how to act like a gentleman, and together they spend exorbitant amounts of money. Now that Pip enjoys a higher status, he is even more contemptuous of Joe and his lower class family. Estella returns to Pip’s life, more beautiful than ever, but still out of reach. She had been taught by Miss Havisham to break the hearts of men, and now she does just that. But just as Pip’s life seems grand, a mysterious visitor changes everything.
Dickens’ characterization is stellar. The character of Pip is one of my favourites. From the moment I met him, I loved him, his wit and cleverness, his eagerness to learn. And as I read of Pip’s journey to becoming a gentleman, I felt myself going on the journey too. Pip’s true character is shown greatly in his youth, and there, it is evident what makes Pip such an endearing character. But as he grows, he begins to forsake Joe, and I came to really dislike the person he becomes. What Pip doesn't realize is that there is a difference between the social status of gentleman and actually being gentlemanly. I started to hate this new “gentleman,” really hate him, because he was leaving behind who he truly was to become this false idea of a gentleman. I became so disappointed in him because I knew of the good he was capable of doing, and he was letting money get in his way. Yet I think for that reason, I was later able to like him more. He shows so much depth, and I don’t think I could truly love him if I never disliked him. It made him a better character because he was able to see his error, and in the end, he was not selfish; he was selfless, caring not about his own crumbling life, but finally putting all his energy into making those he loved happy.
Along with his great characterization, Dickens brilliantly crafts parallels between the characters. Though Great Expectations focuses on Pip's journey to adulthood, Estella makes quite a journey as well. It is important to note that Estella and Pip's lives are much interwoven.
Both Pip and Estella's youths are abusive. Pip is physically beaten by Mrs. Joe's cane, "The Tickler." Estella is emotionally abused by Miss Havisham's training to break the hearts of men because her own heart was broken. Pip is raised without money, but with love, not from his sister, but from Joe. Estella is raised with the money of Miss Havisham, but without love. (Of course, a lonely Miss Havisham would have adopted the young Estella out of love, but that love waned as Miss Havisham started using Estella against men in revenge for her own distrust of men.)
As both Pip and Estella grow up, they crave the thing that they were lacking early in life. When Pip sees Estella, he can no longer be content with the "coarse hands" and "thick boots" of his social class. He immediately wants wealth and is convinced that money will win Estella's heart. Estella wants to, but cannot let herself, love Pip because Miss Havisham “stole her heart away and put ice in its place.”
As it turns out, the thing that each of these characters want destroys them. Money causes Pip to become selfish and draws him into a hole of debt, and Estella’s unwillingness to let herself love Pip causes her to end up with an abusive husband. Both Pip and Estella are so damaged, from abuse in their childhood to misfortune as they grow, that they can never be truly healed. Maybe their brokenness makes them perfect for each other. Maybe they are so broken that they cannot fit together.
Dickens makes Great Expectations wonderful because it is the perfect combination of everything that a reader needs. It has the mystery of hidden pasts and connections between characters that has a reader guessing every chapter. It has romance that breaks hearts one page, then makes them glow the next. It is a story of a young boy who turns into a young man with whom you can truly empathize.
And might I just add that Dickens can string a set of basic words together into some of the most breathtaking and beautiful lines that I have had the pleasure of reading--“Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.”
Though the very mention of the novel might send some high school juniors to run for cover, Great Expectations is not to be feared. It is to be loved.