Great Expectations-Suffering

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Suffering, as a theme, is evident throughout Great Expectations, and it’s especially emphasized in the quote, “Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but - I hope - into a better shape” (Dickens 450). The main characters are put in many situations where they are bound to struggle in some way. Charles Dickens brings in aspects from his own treacherous life and applies them to the novel to give it a unique twist. Suffering shapes Estella, Miss Havisham, and Pip; then, it directly affects the outcomes of different events. First and foremost, Estella has a very agonizing life. For example, the fact that she is raised by Miss Havisham …show more content…

For example, when the reader first meets Pip, he is miserable growing up. Pip faced the death of most of his family as a young child, so he is forced to be raised by his gruesome sister and kind husband, Mrs. Joe and Joe. They live a very common life in an average home that’s next to Joe’s forge. When Pip first visits the decadent Satis House, he encounters the breathtaking Estella who teases him about his “coarse hands,” “thick boots,” and his status of a “common labouring boy” (Dickens 63). Pip begins to “feel ashamed of home,” (Dickens 105) his life, his family, and his future, all because everything about him is so common, whereas Estella is anything but that. Consequently, Pip is ecstatic when he learns that someone is paying for his bringing up as a gentleman in London. Pip has never wanted anything more than to be a gentleman. He has dreamed about leaving his disgraceful house and family, and he can’t wait be seen as part of the high-class. But Pip soon realizes that having it all, means giving everything and getting nothing in return. He struggles with his relationships with Joe and the rest of his family, because he doesn’t see it appropriate to interact with people so far below him on the social scale. However, Pip also finds it to be a challenge to be like the other gentlemen due to their “foolish spending” that causes him to “contract a quantity of debt,” (Dickens 256) because, unlike most gentlemen, he didn’t have a family full of wealth. But, in his quest to win Estella’s dead heart, he ignores his financial problems and keeps expending his money like a girl in Sephora. Furthermore, it is no surprise that Pip’s love for Estella is unrequited; he is far too ordinary to be with Estella. At their first encounter, she refuses to play with him until Miss Havisham assures her that she can break his heart. But even when he does become a gentleman, Estella acts as if he is some

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