An Analysis of Great Expectations - Essay Example

An Analysis of Great Expectations: Pip’s Encounter with Miss Havisham A British scholar and novelist, C.S. Lewis once remarked, “Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.” (Holmer, 1978). Indeed, the purpose of literature is not simply to amuse us or make us while away our time. It makes us be open to reality. It teaches us more about the lessons in life that we must learn so that we will grow in wisdom. It is in this context that we are going to analyze a certain part of Great Expectations, a classic novel written by Charles Dickens in 1860. In order for us to fully analyze this part of the novel, let us first review a short summary of what Great Expectations is all about. The story is about the life of Pip, a young orphan who met a convict on the village churchyard one Christmas Eve. He was threatened by this man to steal food and to free him from his shackles. Pip does these two things and the convict delights in him and escapes. Pip continues on to live a poor, battered life. One day, luck finally came to him, when he was invited to the house of a rich old woman named Miss Havisham to work. His family members have high hopes for him, considering that he would soon change his life while he lives in better surroundings. Pip also seems excited at this part of the story. However, his expectations soon changed when he was greeted by her sight after he opened the door to her house, “This was very uncomfortable, and I was half afraid. However, the only thing to be done being to knock at the door, I knocked, and was told from within to enter. I entered, therefore, and found myself in a pretty large room, well lighted with wax candles. No glimpse of daylight was to be seen in it….. In an arm-chair, with an elbow resting on the table and her head leaning on that hand, sat the strangest lady I have ever seen, or shall ever see.” “She was dressed in rich materials,--satins, and lace, and silks-- all of white. Her shoes were white. And she had a long white veil dependent from her hair, and she had bridal flowers in her hair, but her hair was white. Some bright jewels sparkled on her neck and on her hands, and some other jewels lay sparkling on the table.” This is a very remarkable and vivid presentation of Charles Dickens. Upon reading this, we have a clear picture of a bride in a lacy dress with riches all around her. Yet, Dickens soon reveals the true person behind the veil, “It was not in the first few moments that I saw all these things… had lost its lustre and was faded and yellow. I saw that the bride…had withered like the dress… had no brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes. ….Now, waxwork and skeleton seemed to have dark eyes that moved and looked at me. I should have cried out, if I could.” This is the opposite of what we all expected. It seems that instead of a young fresh bride, the wearer of the dress was an old woman with white hair and with a frail body. This is one of the “expectations:” of Charles Dickens which had gone wrong. This woman is Miss Havisham. Miss Havisham is an old woman who was abandoned on her wedding day by her lover who only tricked her and ran off with her money on her wedding day. As a result, she refused to move on from her past. She wears her yellowed wedding gown and roams around her old house, almost everything of which was unchanged since her wedding day. She lives with her adopted daughter, Estella, to whom she passes on her coldness and cruelty towards men. Dickens continues to portray further the character of Miss Havisham. "Do you know what I touch here?" she said, laying her hands, one upon the other, on her left side…Broken!" After saying these words, Dickens continues on to portray that initially, Miss Havisham was proud of her being cold-hearted. Yet she soon gave in to her sadness. And soon she expressed her boredom with her way of life. “She uttered the word with an eager look, and with strong emphasis, and with a weird smile that had a kind of boast in it. Afterwards she kept her hands there for a little while, and slowly took them away as if they were heavy. "I am tired," said Miss Havisham. "I want diversion, and I have done with men and women. Play" Going back to the gist of all these, Miss Havisham and her possessions represent wealth and social status. The depiction of their decayed appearance represents corruption of wealth and of youth. Miss Havisham is a picture of greediness for wealth and selfishness. Dickens seems to point out to the reader that men are driven by wealth and social status. The decayed house of Miss Havisham and her graying self seems to depict the disease within her. The stopping of the clock at twenty to nine symbolizes that Miss Havisham purposely stopped the hands of time in her life. She succumbs to anger, self-pity and revenge in the process. Her relationships with other people are also decaying. The people around her feed off her and she feeds off their envy as a result. The feeding is being illustrated with mice feeding on the bridal cake, which she also claimed to have hurt her heart. Feeding for self gratification is one manifestation of dehumanization or depersonalization. (Schlick, 1999) Miss Havisham seems to delight in depersonalizing others. She is decaying both in her outside appearance an in her health and well-being. (Ackroyd, 1991) Yet, after all these things, Miss Havisham seems to show readers how she is tired of the game she plays. She remarks, "I sometimes have sick fancies," she went on, "and I have a sick fancy that I want to see some play. There, there!" with an impatient movement of the fingers of her right hand; "play, play, play!" These words and actions seem to make Pip more of an object than of a human being. She did not take into account what the boy feels. She uses people to her own advantage. This is reflective of the real selfishness of Miss Havisham. She uses people to her advantage. She uses her money, wealth and social status to exploit other people. She does not take into account people’s feelings-- this is a real act of depersonalization And what is depersonalization? It is madness, a disease within individuals. According to medical books, depersonalization disorder is a dissociative disorder in which the sufferer is affected by persistent or recurrent feelings of depersonalization and/or derealization. The symptoms include a sense of automation, going through the motions of life but not experiencing it, feeling as though one is in a movie, feeling as though one is in a dream, feeling a disconnection from ones body; out-of-body experience, a detachment from ones body, environment and difficulty relating oneself to reality. (Simeon, 2006) Miss Havisham is one depersonalized person. But many of us are guilty. How many of us go through this life like numb… without feeling for our fellowmen; without concern for other people and without effort to change their subhuman conditions. We are indulged in our own successes that we sometimes fai8l to look at other people’s plight. We should consider that each of us are important members of society and we are interdependent. We cannot survive on our own. We need to help each other if we want to succeed as a nation. Pip realizes this grotesque reality in his young mind. He says to himself, “For a moment, with the fear of my sisters working me before my eyes, I had a desperate idea of starting round the room in the assumed character of Mr. Pumblechooks chaise-cart. But I felt myself so unequal to the performance that I gave it up, and stood looking at Miss Havisham in what I suppose she took for a dogged manner, inasmuch as she said, when we had taken a good look at each other,--"Are you sullen and obstinate?" And, it is but proper that the youth boy should utter his beliefs on the matter, by saying, "No, maam, I am very sorry for you, and very sorry I cant play just now. If you complain of me I shall get into trouble with my sister, so I would do it if I could; but its so new here, and so strange, and so fine,--and melancholy--." I stopped, fearing I might say too much, or had already said it, and we took another look at each other. But sad to say, many of us are so stubborn that we remain in our selfish motives. Like Miss Havisham, we say, "So new to him, so old to me; so strange to him, so familiar to me; so melancholy to both of us! Yet, there is still hope for people to change. If we could just be patient and reach out to them with words of wisdom and be a good example in out r won right, maybe they will change soon from the most selfish capitalist to the most loving and loved of all men. References: 1. Ackroyd, Peter (1991). Dickens: A Biography. Harpercollins 2. Dickens, Charles (1968) Great Expectations. Ed. Janice Carlisle. Bedford St. Martins. 3. Drabble, Margaret,(1997) The Oxford Companion to English Literature, Oxford University Press 4. Holmer, P. (1978) The Grammar of Faith. San Francisco: Harper and Row, p219-231. 5. Schlicke, Paul, ed. (1999). Oxford Readers Companion to Dickens. Oxford: Oxford U. P 6. Simeon, D., & Abugel, J. (2006). Feeling Unreal: Depersonalization Disorder and the Loss of the Self. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. (p. 3) Read More

Miss Havisham is an old woman who was abandoned on her wedding day by her lover who only tricked her and ran off with her money on her wedding day. As a result, she refused to move on from her past. She wears her yellowed wedding gown and roams around her old house, almost everything of which was unchanged since her wedding day. She lives with her adopted daughter, Estella, to whom she passes on her coldness and cruelty towards men. Dickens continues to portray further the character of Miss Havisham.

"Do you know what I touch here?" she said, laying her hands, one upon the other, on her left side…Broken!" After saying these words, Dickens continues on to portray that initially, Miss Havisham was proud of her being cold-hearted. Yet she soon gave in to her sadness. And soon she expressed her boredom with her way of life. “She uttered the word with an eager look, and with strong emphasis, and with a weird smile that had a kind of boast in it. Afterwards she kept her hands there for a little while, and slowly took them away as if they were heavy.

"I am tired," said Miss Havisham. "I want diversion, and I have done with men and women. Play" Going back to the gist of all these, Miss Havisham and her possessions represent wealth and social status. The depiction of their decayed appearance represents corruption of wealth and of youth. Miss Havisham is a picture of greediness for wealth and selfishness. Dickens seems to point out to the reader that men are driven by wealth and social status. The decayed house of Miss Havisham and her graying self seems to depict the disease within her.

The stopping of the clock at twenty to nine symbolizes that Miss Havisham purposely stopped the hands of time in her life. She succumbs to anger, self-pity and revenge in the process. Her relationships with other people are also decaying. The people around her feed off her and she feeds off their envy as a result. The feeding is being illustrated with mice feeding on the bridal cake, which she also claimed to have hurt her heart. Feeding for self gratification is one manifestation of dehumanization or depersonalization.

(Schlick, 1999) Miss Havisham seems to delight in depersonalizing others. She is decaying both in her outside appearance an in her health and well-being. (Ackroyd, 1991) Yet, after all these things, Miss Havisham seems to show readers how she is tired of the game she plays. She remarks, "I sometimes have sick fancies," she went on, "and I have a sick fancy that I want to see some play. There, there!" with an impatient movement of the fingers of her right hand; "play, play, play!

" These words and actions seem to make Pip more of an object than of a human being. She did not take into account what the boy feels. She uses people to her own advantage. This is reflective of the real selfishness of Miss Havisham. She uses people to her advantage. She uses her money, wealth and social status to exploit other people. She does not take into account people’s feelings-- this is a real act of depersonalization And what is depersonalization? It is madness, a disease within individuals.

According to medical books, depersonalization disorder is a dissociative disorder in which the sufferer is affected by persistent or recurrent feelings of depersonalization and/or derealization. The symptoms include a sense of automation, going through the motions of life but not experiencing it, feeling as though one is in a movie, feeling as though one is in a dream, feeling a disconnection from ones body; out-of-body experience, a detachment from ones body, environment and difficulty relating oneself to reality.

(Simeon, 2006) Miss Havisham is one depersonalized person. But many of us are guilty. How many of us go through this life like numb… without feeling for our fellowmen; without concern for other people and without effort to change their subhuman conditions. We are indulged in our own successes that we sometimes fai8l to look at other people’s plight.

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