Suffering in Great Expectations
Charles Dickens uses suffering as a major theme in his anti-aristocratic novel, Great Expectations. In some cases, suffering is seen as heartbreak. While others, it is seen as a lesson being learned. It is shown throughout the story as the characters’ actions, talks, and descriptions of other characters’. Dickens, however, uses the theme of suffering to show that characters like Pip, Miss Havisham, and Estella, who all have their own miseries, never find happiness while wealthy.
When he first appears in the novel, Pip is physically and emotionally abused by his older sister, Mrs. Joe. Even as a young child, Mrs. Joe, Mr. Pumblechook, Mr. Wopsle, and the Hubbles all talked badly about him. An example of …show more content…
An example of this is when Miss Havisham learns that she accidently taught Estella not to love at all. Estella says,
“…mother by adoption, I have said that I owe everything to you. All I possess is freely yours. All that you have given me, is at your command to have again. Beyond that, I have nothing. And if you ask me to give you what you never gave me, my gratitude and duty cannot do impossibilities” (385).
Instead of being able to be a kid and play she was stuck inside an old house with an old lady in an old wedding dress. She didn’t have any motherly affection where she could learn to love others. Estella also suffers from her choice in marrying Bentley Drummle to fulfill Miss Havisham’s revenge on man. Pip explains to the audience that he “had heard of her as leading a most unhappy life, and as being separated from her husband, who had used her with great cruelty, and who had become quite renowned as a compound of pride, avarice, brutality and meanness” (610). From the beginning of the novel, Estella is portrayed as a strong, untouchable character. However, her abusive relationship with Bentley Drummel adds drama to story, because it changed her to be a kinder person. For example, Estella says to Pip, “I have been bent and broken, but—I hope—into a better shape” (613). Although Estella hurt Pip, she demonstrates the idea that she would like to be friends and be a better
Charles Dickens uses suffering as a major theme in his anti-aristocratic novel, Great Expectations. In some cases, suffering is seen as heartbreak. While others, it is seen as a lesson being learned. It is shown throughout the story as the characters’ actions, talks, and descriptions of other characters’. Dickens, however, uses the theme of suffering to show that characters like Pip, Miss Havisham, and Estella, who all have their own miseries, never find happiness while wealthy.
When he first appears in the novel, Pip is physically and emotionally abused by his older sister, Mrs. Joe. Even as a young child, Mrs. Joe, Mr. Pumblechook, Mr. Wopsle, and the Hubbles all talked badly about him. An example of …show more content…
An example of this is when Miss Havisham learns that she accidently taught Estella not to love at all. Estella says,
“…mother by adoption, I have said that I owe everything to you. All I possess is freely yours. All that you have given me, is at your command to have again. Beyond that, I have nothing. And if you ask me to give you what you never gave me, my gratitude and duty cannot do impossibilities” (385).
Instead of being able to be a kid and play she was stuck inside an old house with an old lady in an old wedding dress. She didn’t have any motherly affection where she could learn to love others. Estella also suffers from her choice in marrying Bentley Drummle to fulfill Miss Havisham’s revenge on man. Pip explains to the audience that he “had heard of her as leading a most unhappy life, and as being separated from her husband, who had used her with great cruelty, and who had become quite renowned as a compound of pride, avarice, brutality and meanness” (610). From the beginning of the novel, Estella is portrayed as a strong, untouchable character. However, her abusive relationship with Bentley Drummel adds drama to story, because it changed her to be a kinder person. For example, Estella says to Pip, “I have been bent and broken, but—I hope—into a better shape” (613). Although Estella hurt Pip, she demonstrates the idea that she would like to be friends and be a better