Fire Symbolism In Great Expectations

At the end of Dickens’ novel that follows the growth of a promising English boy, the protagonist, Pip, declares to Estella, a formerly cold, unattainable girl, that “You have always held your place in my heart” (484). Pip, who finds Estella after over a decade of separation, makes this declaration on a bench by the Satis house in his old hometown. This sincere, affectionate remark confirms Pip’s constant, eternal love for Estella. This constancy, however, contrasts the rest of Pip’s extraordinary life full of death, crime, and guilt. In Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, the author uses fire to represent the warm, tranquil setting of the hearth as well as the transforming, purifying threat of death. Dickens often depicts a fire at the center …show more content…
One day, he invites Pip to his “castle” to discuss matters outside of his business. As Pip strolls up to the moat, he says “I nodded at the old gentleman as Wemmick himself might have nodded, and we went in and sat down by the fireside” (293). Once one crosses into the castle and the drawbridge is lifted, he is quite literally cut off from the city, leaving his work and stress behind. Around the fireplace in the central room of the house, Pip enjoys Wemmick’s “Walworth sentiments” as they gather with Aged P to discuss friendly matters. The fire serves literally as warmth for the friends, but also as part of the peaceful environment in which one is safe to relax and enjoy himself. Similarly, there is a central hearth in the childhood home of Pip. Joe tends to smoke his pipe and relax by the …show more content…
Upon starting his apprenticeship with Joe as a blacksmith, Pip quickly has misgivings about his new work. One night at the forge, Pip narrates, “Often after dark, when I was pulling the bellows for Joe, and we were singing Old Clem, and when the thought how we used to sing it at Miss Havisham’s would seem to show me Estella’s face in the fire, with her pretty hair fluttering in the wind and her eyes scorning me…” (108). Having met Estella, Pip feels ashamed of his social class as a whole. He looks down at his black, dirty hands and scorns the thought of manual labor. After seeing Estella’s face in the fire, Pip feels guilty of being too common and decides to end his apprenticeship with loyal Joe. He has fallen victim to Mrs. Havisham’s trap, and will do anything out of his desire to please Estella. Later, after Pip has become accustomed to his new life and expectations, he looks back upon what his life could have been. Simply by contemplating at the foot of the fire in his room, Pip is reminded of the forge and his home. Pip reveals that “many a time of an evening, when I sat alone looking at the fire, I thought, after all, there was no fire like the forge fire and the kitchen fire at home” (272).
In his fit of guilt caused by looking at the fire, Pip wishes that he had never met Mrs. Havisham, whom he thought was his benefactor. The flames remind Pip of the easy, common life