In Defense of the Original Ending of Great Expectations
Many critics prefer the original ending to the revised version because it is the ending that Dickens himself decided to write without consulting anyone. Many people believe that since Bulwer-Lytton gave Dickens input on the second ending that it is not as true. Although Dickens may have inadvertently been plagiarizing, the original ending is the way that Dickens felt the novel should end, as opposed to the way Bulwer-Lytton felt it should end.
Another reason that the original is preferable is because it seems to flow better with the overall themes of the novel. One of these themes is how people expectations differ from reality. Pip's expectations never seem to be what he thinks they are. He does not inherit money from Miss Havisham, it is really from Magwitch. In this sense, the fact that Estella has remarried to someone other than Pip is just another case of such luck. Although he had always hoped to someday be with her, it will never happen and this ending closes that possibility forever. However, the revised ending leaves the possibilities open. Because of this, Dickens' text loses one of it's major themes. Since Pip and Estella may be together in the future, Pip's mistaken perceptions lose their point. Dickens was using Pip's mistakes as a way to show that people should not expect things from other people, which is what Pip does throughout the novel. He expects money from Miss Havisham, Estella to fall in love with him, and his life to be easy. However, life does not work that way, and in the original ending Dickens does not let fictional life work that way either. Most of the problems that Pip finds himself in are the results of hi...
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...s loss, but the novel ends on an acknowledgment of the possibilities the future holds for Pip's redemption. However, such a theme also gives rise to a theme of separation. By this point in the novel, Pip had already lost touch with everything that was important to him as a young man. He had grown in a different direction than Joe and Biddy. He could never be with Estella, although the revised ending attempts to have them together. In this sense, Pip is completely cut off from everything that once gave him solace. His only hope for redemption lies in the hands of little Pip. If little Pip can "grow up a much better man than I (Pip) did" (435; ch. 58), then hopefully little Pip will not have to suffer as the older Pip has.
Works Cited
Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Ed. Janice Carlisle. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1996. 440-441.
Blumesfield uses giant sentences to get his point across. He makes very long sentences to prove his point. The way he incorporates many punctuation and word structure is very critical to the way you read the book. He does this throughout the book, from when he starts with Patton as a child her reflects on how he is living in the time and with his family and everyone else Patton is affiliated with. He uses Patton's Journal most of the time throughout the whole essay and is based off on. He uses the papers to improve your meaning of the book once you read it. I really think that he did an exceptional way of incorporating it and the order he puts his info seems like its really planned out.
It was July 30th around 11:30 at night. Hashimoto, the captain of the I-58 Japanese submarine climbed up on the bridge. He picked up binoculars. Hashimoto saw a ship because the moon was behind it and gave the order to dive. Hashimoto was very concerned that it was a destroyer ship coming to attack the submarine. Hashimoto could not get a good look at the Indianapolis because it was not zigzagging.
One can argue that they watch Jerry Springer purely for fun, but it is undeniable that the show is affecting society one individual at a time. The argument of whether the show has a positive or negative effect is still undetermined, but its changes are profound. It has created a society that is jaded, however more accepting yet our morals and values have deteriorated. However, without such extreme popular culture examples like this, our society would not evolve, thus it would not become better.
"George Patton." UXL Biographies. Detroit: U*X*L, 2003. Student Resources in Context. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
The settings of Great Expectations are Pip’s homes, one home that he lives in during his childhood in Kent, England, and the other that he lives in when he is grown in London, England. Social status was a big deal in the mid-nineteenth century. The rich were highly respected and liked by all, and the poor were treated unkindly and were sometimes made fun of. The rich could have any job that they liked, but the poor would almost always take over the job that their father had. The narrator of Great Expectations is Pip. If the novel were narrated from any other point of view, it would not have the same effect as it does now.
Originating in the Victorian Era, Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations continues to be a huge success. So much of a success, in fact, that it is being re-released as it originally was (in installments), but now in a digital format for reading on electronic devices.
The movie, Great Expectations, based on the book of the same name written by Charles Dickens, is about a poor, young boy named Pip who's luck takes a drastic turn for the better when he meets an escaped convict in the marshes near his home. He demands that Pip bring him tools and provisions to aid him in evading the law. However the plan soon fails and the convict is captured. He does surprise Pip though, by keeping his tongue and not turning him in.
As Pip grows throughout the novel, he develops and matures from a young boy that doesn’t know what to do to a young man who has a great outlook on life. In the first stage of Pip's life he is young and does not understand what it means to be a gentleman and how it can affect his life. During the first stage of Pips life, he only wants 3 things. He wants education, wealth, and social advancement. These three wishes are mostly so he can impress Estella, who is the symbol of this first stage. Pip does not want to be just a blacksmith like Joe. He wants to be intelligent and considered a person of high importance. At the end of this stage he moves to London and begins to have a different outlook on his future.
Charlie and Holden both struggle immensely with fitting into people’s standards. This is hard for the two protagonists to deal with because they are non conformists and do not change to fit into society. The two feel trapped in a world where they will not be accepted for who they are and what they want to do. One cannot truly change who they are, so Charlie and Holden continue to be individuals. They struggle to form relationships in which they can be themselves. Although they go through many hardships throughout their teenage years, eventually they realize what is important to them, allowing them to form better relationships in the future. Charlie realizes that he needs to be more commanding in relationships and that he has to be himself. Furthermore, Holden realizes that he needs to appreciate people in his life because they have more value to him than he initially thinks. Holden and Charlie both need companionship and finally realize what it takes in order to achieve their goal. Throughout their journey of self realization, both Charlie and Holden go through many hardships with abiding to society’s social “norms”. However, being different from society allows Charlie and Holden to be able figure out what they
Throughout the novel Great Expectations, Pip's character and personality goes through some transformations. He is somewhat similar at the beginning and end, but very different while growing up. He is influenced by many characters, but two in particular:Estella and Magwitch, the convict from the marshes. Some things that cause strength or growth in a person are responsibility, discipline, and surrounding oneself around people who are challenging and inspiring. He goes through many changes some good and some bad
Charles is actually Laurie which means that Laurie is arrogant because he talks about himself a lot. Every day, Laurie comes home and tells his parents about the day’s events, the topic that always comes up is Charles. The way Laurie talks about Charles makes him sound like he is someone who makes a great friend or that he is actually popular among other school children but his parents think that Charles is made up of “toughness and bad grammar” (1). Laurie talks about Charles to the point that it has become a “routine” (2). When children talk about someone very much, it usually means they either admire that person or the complete opposite like a child would go on and on about a superhero. The language he uses to describe Charles to his parents also suggests that he thinks Charles is not a bad influence. He mentions to his mother that even though Charles gets into trouble and the teacher warns the class not to play with him, everybody still does. Laurie makes it sound as if everybody thinks Charles is likable enough for everybody else t...
Great Expectations is one of many great books written by Charles Dickens, and in my opinion it will always be one of the great classics in English literature. Charles Dickens introduces Miss Haversham to the novel in the following way.
Pip didn’t know his parents, thus there love and comfort, he never felt. In the absence of parents there are plenty of people who tell Pip what to do, to bully him, in a self-satisfied, self-enhancing way, but there is no one to shield him or guide him, or give him the special kind of love that he seeks. Dickens’ child characters were impeded emotionally in some way: Most of his child heroes and heroines are born sound in their physical form, but a loving home is what they most obviously lack and need. Pip had his wicked sister as a mother figure, thus the warmth and love a stereotypical modern-day mother would give was absent. However, Pip didn’t feel pain for having this hole in his life, because he had never felt the power of unconditional love before. Pip was an orphan. Orphans were one of Dickens' favourite subjects; what could be more crippling emotionally, than not experiencing the support of a mother and father? Pip’s sister, Mrs. Joe, didn’t make this loss much easier. Although they had both lost their parents, Mrs. Joe, never openly displayed any grief for losing her parents and five brothers. Consequently, she complained about having to bring Pip “by hand” and dealt with him physically (with the Tickler) and emotionally. Mrs. Joe talked about him openly as if he had no thoughts or feelings of his own. But, Pip still had some bright...
Pip is able to mend his ways of life and return to his good-natured self, more mature as result of his experience. His discovery that his wealth came from convict and not Miss Havisham dissolve in the realization that things are not as he had thought. He learns that all his aspirations have been based on false assumptions and expectations that he could rise above his past. His great expectations were derived from a criminal who wanted Pip to have a better life than himself. He was not becoming a gentleman for Estella, but rather a gentleman for his own sake. He discovers that true wealth and worth come from inside a man and turns away from his once great expectations.
My mother often told my sisters and me stories of her childhood move from Virginia to North Carolina. She’d describe the heartbreak of being ripped away from her home, family, and best friends. Although it was painful in the moment, in hindsight she can honestly say that the move was one of the best things that even happened to her. Here she met the love of her life and gave birth to her three girls. The change of environment impacted her life forever. In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens writes of a boy named Pip as he grows and changes as he transitions from his home in the marsh to the hustle and bustle of London. In his novel he proves that our surroundings have a life-changing impact upon us.