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An essay about victorian society
Society's views in the Victorian era
An essay about victorian society
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Estella is Miss Havisham’s puppet because she has no control over her life. Miss Havisham devoted a period in her life to raising Estella to be exactly who she wanted her to be. Miss Havisham made Estella into a heartless doll of her creation. Miss Havisham told Estella to be especially cruel to Pip. Estella shows non-sentimental emotions toward Pip. She tells him she doesn't remember anything from their childhood. This showed Pip that Estella did not care enough about him to reflect on the times that they had spent together. Miss Havisham's bleakness made Estella a terrible person. Miss Havisham taught her student to break hearts, so she hurt Pip because he loved her. Furthermore, her groom abandoned Miss Havisham on her wedding day. Miss
Havisham demonstrates that she is still scarred from this occurrence. Miss Havisham is so bitter that she brought Estella up a certain way to get revenge on males. She has chosen Pip as her victim when she orders Estella to break Pip’s heart. Additionally, Estella takes care of Miss Havisham when she does everything she says. Miss Havisham forces to entertain her when she could be doing something else productive. She is treated like a slave to Miss Havisham. Miss Havisham is even insolent enough to tell her how to act. She is selfish enough to control Estella’s life. Throughout her life, Estella has never had much freedom; she always has strings attached to her like a puppet.
Since both Estella and Pip were kids Estella showed no compassion towards Pip. After going to Miss Havisham’s for the day, Estella is told to feed Pip. He tells the reader that she basically throws everything at him and treats him like a dog then watches him cry and enjoys it. (Dickens p.68). Young Pip also narrates, “But, I felt that the kiss was given to the coarse common boy as a piece of money might have been, and that it was worth nothing.”(Dickens 102) Estella always knew that Pip was in love with her, yet she never reciprocated the feeling and simply exploited his weakness. The reader can understand and somehow excuse her behavior because she has Miss Havisham as her main example. Estella even explains how amusing it is when people are surprised by the way Miss Havisham treats them in chapter 33. This shows how cruel Miss Havisham is and how cruel Estella is as a result of
Miss Havisham passes along this jadedness to her adopted daughter, Estella, by teaching her to hurt boys and not become emotionally attached to them. Miss Havisham stays this was nearly until the end of her life when she realizes what she has done to Estella as well as Pip, whose heart was broken by Estella.... ... middle of paper ... ... In conclusion, in the novel Great Expectations, Charles Dickens points out that there are many people who are imprisoned within themselves.
One key similarity between Pip and Miss havisham is that they both have influenced Estella as a priority. Miss Havisham influenced her from a young age to hate men because of the mortification
and bad characters, as Biddy is said not to have a bad bone in her
By this point in the novel, Estella has suffered enormously, and is made into a better, more sympathetic person for it. Although this comes through in the original version, it is made even clearer in the second version. As Estella herself says, "I have been bent and broken, but--I hope--into a better shape" (439; ch. 59). This not only ties into the theme of blacksmithing in the novel, but also is different from the first ending because she is actually mentioning her change, as opposed to Pip remarking of it to the reader (Sadrin 176). Since Estella has suffered, the reader is meant to see that now she will be able to be with Pip. In a sense, she has suffered in order to be a worthy match for Pip. However, this goes against the "tone of pessimistic irony which pervades and helps to unify the novel" (Sucksmith 112). After everything that Pip has gone through, it seems quite a stretch that he and Estella can be happy together, or even have a possibility of being together after everything they have been through. Throughout the novel, Dickens has made it quite clear that Estella is above Pip, socially and financially. "She called me 'boy' so often, and with a carelessness that was far from complimentary" (70; ch. 8). By having Estella act snobbishly towards Pip, Dickens creates a huge gap ...
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
Miss Havisham raised Estella to use people, especially men, because men have been in and out of Miss Havisham's life. In reality, the earlier version would
When Pip starts to regularly visit Miss. Havisham’s Satis House, he gradually apprehends how low his placement is in the social class. Miss. Havisham is a wealthy old lady out of touch with reality. She and her adopted daughter, Estella live in a mansion that is, theoretically, stopped in time. Estella is a beautiful girl, but don’t be fooled by the eye, beneath her beauty lies a terribly rude, cold-hearted monster raised to trick and manipulate the hearts of men. She victimized Pip, and constantly criticized him, making comments to attack and destruct Pip’s self-esteem. She sees him as nothing more than a common boy, and she takes pleasure in emotionally hurting Pip. “He calls the knaves, jacks this boy, and what coarse hands and thick boots” (63). Previously, Pip had thought everyone had called knaves jacks, but now that he...
Miss Havisham's has what can only be called a grotesque fetish towards women who hurt men, this is due to her herself being broken by a man. Pip detects Miss Havisham's strange desire to have Estella constantly mentally & emotionally abuse him very early on, however when Estella treats Havisham coldly as well, she goes ballistic. The confrontation addresses the elephant in the room, Estella's mounting cruelty towards people. Estella declares that her "mother by adoption" has made her cruel and incapable of love. In response Miss Havisham claims that Estella is being "proud" or "hard," Estella responds by saying, "Who taught me to be hard?" Estella had not chosen the life thrust upon her by her bitter caretaker but after the confrontation she has embraced as her own and even perfected it.
In the novel, Miss Havisham’s negative thinking causes her to evoke feelings of manipulativeness and arrogance. For example, Miss Havisham states, “Here me, Pip! I adopted her to be loved. I bred her (Estella) and educated her, to be loved. I developed her into what she is, (arrogant and proud) that she might be loved”(240). Why does Estella have to become a tool for Miss Havisham’s revenge? Estella’s negative influence comes from Miss Havisham. Finally, Estella states,”who taught me to be hard? Who praised me when I learnt my lesson? “But to be proud and hard to me!” Miss Havisham quietly shrieked, as she stretched out her arms” (305). Miss Havisham brainwashed Estella to break the hearts of men, but when she questions Miss Havisham, they act in accordance for one
In order to make more money Pip’s uncle sends Pip to a psychotic old lady’s house named Mrs. Havisham. Mrs. Havisham is a mean and nasty character who constantly bickers at Pip and tells him of his unimportance. Pip continues to be mild mannered and respectful to Mrs. Havisham yet he begins to see that he will never get ahead in life just being nice. Mrs. Havisham uses Pip as sort of a guinea pig to take out her passion of revenge against men. She does this by using her daughter, Estella to torment Pip.
Pip is an abused orphan living with his ungrateful and prideful sister and her husband who is a blacksmith. Uncle Pumblechook took him to see Miss Havisham and Estella. To entertain the lonely old lady, Pip would play with Estella, her adopted daughter. During these times, Pip gets called out on his course hands, dirty clothes, and his commonness by Estella. On page 43, Pip says, "I had never thought of being ashamed of my hands before; but her contempt
Miss Havisham is a old lady that is dieing off and does not want people to just be there so when she dies they can get her money. People like that will make her uncomfortable and will make her not want to see anybody or talk to anyone. Miss Havisham talks to Pip and Estella because she knows that there no just their for the money there their because they actually care about her and what she is living through. The reason why Dickens included this incident into his novel is to clearly show Miss Havisham feelings throughout the story to show off how her character acts and why she acts a certain
With the opportunities that came with her enormous wealth, Miss Havisham abused her power and broke poor Pip’s heart, merely because she found similarities between him and a commoner of her past, Compeyson, who hurt her. She oppressed Pip’s feelings by training Estella to “break [his] heart and have no mercy” (Dickens 58). Throughout Pip’s life, he continued to love Estella against reason, even “if she [favored him]...If she [wounded him]...If she [tore his] heart to pieces” (127). Along with Pip’s growing affection for Estella, Miss Havisham continuously crushed Pip’s spirit. Miss Havisham made sure to shatter Pip’s dreams of
Miss Havisham is this way because of Compeyson, the man who left her at the altar. Compeyson broke Miss Havisham’s heart, and because of this Miss Havisham molds Estella to break men’s hearts as revenge. Miss Havisham tells Pip, “‘If you knew all my story…you would have some compassion...and a better understanding’” (400). Although Miss Havisham takes her revenge very extreme, she is a believable character. She suffered from heartbreak and wanted revenge, but without realizing she made Pip feel like she once did with Estella. Miss Havisham relates to Pip and Estella more than she first realizes. Miss Havisham trains Estella to be like Compeyson, and like her, Pip’s the victim. When Pip confronts Estella, Miss Havisham realizes, “‘I saw in you a looking-glass that showed...what I once felt’” (399). Pip’s relationship with Estella ended like Miss Havisham’s relationship with Compeyson, but even though it was supposed to end with Estella breaking Pip’s heart, Miss Havisham suddenly realizes what she had done. She had made someone innocent feel what she felt, and because of this, she was no better than