Amanda's review of Great Expectations
Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens
** spoiler alert **
Summary:
Pip, an orphan brought up by his sister and her husband Joe, the blacksmith, meets a convict in a graveyard one day and helps him. Despite Pip’s help, the convict is re-captured. Later, Pip is introduced to Miss Havisham, an eccentric old lady who was disappointed in love. She is bringing up her niece, Estella, to live out her revenge by disappointing the men who love her. Pip falls in love with Estella and feels ashamed of his common life. He is apprenticed to Joe and works as a blacksmith. One day his sister is attacked by Orlick, one of Joe’s workers, and is left an invalid. A while later, Mr Jaggers comes to tell Pip that he has been given a fortune by a mysterious benefactor and must come to London to be trained as a gentleman. Pip leaves behind his common life and goes to London, where he meets Herbert Pocket. Together, they spend several years living lavishly and spending foolishly. During this time Pip’s sister dies and he returns home for the funeral. He...more
Summary:
Pip, an orphan brought up by his sister and her husband Joe, the blacksmith, meets a convict in a graveyard one day and helps him. Despite Pip’s help, the convict is re-captured. Later, Pip is introduced to Miss Havisham, an eccentric old lady who was disappointed in love. She is bringing up her niece, Estella, to live out her revenge by disappointing the men who love her. Pip falls in love with Estella and feels ashamed of his common life. He is apprenticed to Joe and works as a blacksmith. One day his sister is attacked by Orlick, one of Joe’s workers, and is left an invalid. A while later, Mr Jaggers comes to tell Pip that he has been given a fortune by a mysterious benefactor and must come to London to be trained as a gentleman. Pip leaves behind his common life and goes to London, where he meets Herbert Pocket. Together, they spend several years living lavishly and spending foolishly. During this time Pip’s sister dies and he returns home for the funeral. He feels bad for the ruined relationship between himself and those he left behind, yet does nothing to fix it. A few years later, the convict returns and informs Pip that he is the mysterious benefactor. Pip feels as if the money is now tainted, but still tries to help the convict escape London. In the time between the return of the convict and the attempted escape, Pip learns that Estella is the convict’s daughter. He also begins to care for the convict. Estella gets married during this time. The day comes for the convict to escape London. Herbert and Pip sneak him down the river in a row boat, but they are caught by the police. The convict is sentenced to death, but dies of sickness before execution. Because of his benefactor’s death, Pip looses his fortune. He gets sick and Joe comes to take care of him. Joe and Pip’s relationship is mended, but Joe still leaves when Pip is recovered. Pip decides to return to his hometown and marry a childhood friend, but upon return discovers that Joe has married her. ORIGINAL ENDING: Years later, Pip runs into Estella in the street. They talk briefly and then go their separate ways.
REVISED ENDING: years later, Pip has been living abroad and working for Herbert. He returns to Miss Havisham’s property (she died years ago) and unexpectedly meets Estella there. Her husband is dead and she has changed. They leave together and Pip believes that they will not be parted again.
Quotes:
Some of these quotes I just found funny and others I chose because I find them to be so true.
“Mrs. Joe was a very clean housekeeper, but had an exquisite art of making her cleanliness more uncomfortable and unacceptable than dirt itself."
"I never had one hour's happiness in her society, and yet my mind all round the four-and-twenty hours was harping on the happiness of having her with me unto death."
"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade."
"We spent as much money as we could, and got as little for it as people could make up their minds to give us. We were always more or less miserable, and most of our acquaintances were in the same condition. There was a gay fiction among us that we were constantly enjoying ourselves, and a skeleton truth that we never did. To the best of my belief, our case was in the last aspect a rather common one."
" . . . No, the office is one thing, and private life is another. When I go into the office, I leave the Castle behind me, and when I come into the Castle, I leave the office behind me. . . ."
“I had seen the damp lying on the outside of my little window, as if some goblin had been crying there all night, and using the window for a pocket-handkerchief.”
“My sister… had established a great reputation with herself and the neighbors because she had brought me up ‘by hand.’ Having at that time to find out for myself what he expression meant, and knowing her to have a hard and heavy hand, and to be much in the habit of laying it upon her husband as well as upon me, I supposed that Joe Gargery and I were both brought up by hand.”
My Review:
I gave this book two stars because while I didn’t dislike it, I also didn’t love it. I found it to be very long and drawn out, which could possibly be my own fault for taking such a long time to finish reading it. I’ve learned that this was originally written as a serial, and I think it shows. Each chapter felt like its own story and this made it difficult to get caught up in the overall plot. The writing itself is well done, although it can get overly detailed at some points. I enjoyed the subtle humor in the story.
I’m not sure which of the two ending I prefer. Its human nature to want a happy ending, and because of this I find the original ending to be lacking. However, the revised ending feels like a forced happy. It seems out of place in this story of great expectations lost, to suddenly have Pip’s original great expectation come true.
...less
comments
(showing 1-1 of 1)
back to top
