A Comparison Of Infatuation In Great Expectations

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People and writers often mistake infatuation with love. As a result, “love at first sight” is a common trope in film and literature. By nature, love is something that takes time and effort; people must choose to put in the care and understanding into a relationship for it to be love. While the two are similar, infatuation is the love of someone for what they look like, and is often idealized, whereas love is mutual affection and the act of looking beyond someone’s problems and flaws, and helping them become a better person. In Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens, the main characters all indulge in infatuation, but never love. Because Pip and Estella’s lives are built off of appearances rather than character, they cannot form healthy relationships
Pip judges Estella for her beauty and turns her into an object instead of a person, therefore what he feels for her is not love; Estella is objectified by everyone in her life and can therefore never love because she is more of a doll than a person. Because love is a relationship based on trust and mutual respect, all that Pip is experiencing is infatuation. And just as inanimate objects are not treated as human beings, Estella is unable to love others because they doesn’t treat her as a human being. As a result, both of them are living a life void of love. The plot and characters of Great Expectations all illustrate that love and infatuation are not the same thing, but are inherently different. Although characters and people in real life “fall in love”, they really only scratch the surface of what love truly is. Love at first sight remains a popular trope in fiction and it ultimately portrays love as physical attraction rather than time and care; love is accepting people’s flaws and trying to help them. In the end, people must let go of the simplicity of infatuation and learn to love for more than

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