Dickens' Image of Women Exposed in Great Expectations

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Dickens' Image of Women Exposed in Great Expectations

Much can be said about Dickens' view of women according to the way he constructs his female characters in Great Expectations. There are many of them in the novel. However, none of them are deeply focused on throughout the novel. Estella, who is one of Pip's "great expectations," does not even have a major role. Nevertheless, his attitude concerning women is still reflected through his female characters as well as his word usage towards them. Of course, studying his life is also helpful. A great deal of criticism has connected Dickens' female characters in novels with women in his life. It should be noted that Dickens' novels go beyond characterizing the people he knew. His words also bring to light his views on the women of his time. In Great Expectations one can see how the women who fit Dickens' ideas were rewarded with happy lives, usually in the form of marriage. On the other hand, the women who did not conform to these ideas were punished in one way or another. Even though not all of Dickens' attitudes reflected what was typical of the period, many did. Great Expectations is a reflection of those attitudes that were most likely encouraged by the women in his life.

The first woman in Dickens' life was his mother, Elizabeth. He resented his mother greatly for the way she treated him as a child. Her actions toward him as a child filled him with anger because he felt she was not as loving and encouraging as she should have been which, in turn, held him back. As Michael Slater points out in his book, Dickens and Women, "Dickens' wife noticed his greater harshness towards Elizabeth. . . . [E]ven his father's imprisonment is made to seem the direc...

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...hould not be assumed that the whole of each and every character is based on the women in his life. The women in Dickens' novels clearly reflect the traditional Victorian ideals of his time. This is usually seen through the negative treatment of women who did not conform to his ideals.

Works Cited

Barickman, Richard, Susan MacDonald, and Myra Stark. Corrupt Relations. New York: Columbia UP, 1982.

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Ed. Janice Carlisle. Boston: Bedford, 1996.

Holbrook, David. Charles Dickens and the Image of Woman. New York: New York UP, 1993.

Ingham, Patricia. Dickens, Women, and Language. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1992.

Slater, Michael. Dickens and Women. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1983.

Taylor, Anne Robinson. Male Novelists and Their Female Voices: Literary Masquerades. Troy, NY: Whitston, 1981.

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