A review of Charles Dicken’s novel “Great Expectations” by Hajra Sarwar
Great Expectations
Expectations make a person emotionally timid and insecure and psychologically invested in depending on other’s perceptions. Individuals under this influence continuously striving to fit in what society wants them to be.
Charles Dickens is one of the most prolific novelists of the Victorian age. As a keen observer of his society, he exposed various malpractices going on in the Victorian era like poor education system social and legal injustices, class stratification, ever increasing greed of money and nourishment of wrong notions among people. His noel Great Expectations is finest in the exhibition of such vices.
Charles Dickens has artistically elaborated these social flaws and exposed the society that comes under the difference of class. This so-called segregation of status and class made an orphan child Pip, an insecure person. He was quite satisfied with his job until he visited Miss Havisham’s house and Estella calls him “a common laboring boy”. He feels ashamed of his job as black smith. He tries to hide his dirty hands from Estella thinking she “might despise” him because he wanted to be friends with her, but their class difference was against their friendship.
He aspires to rise above his position and become a part of upper-class family. Joe Garjery, Pip’s brother-in-law, is a father like figure for Pip. He wanted to raise Pip under love and care. Whereas Miss Havisham represents the elite class. She brought up Estella in a very tense environment. She uses Estella as a bait for all young men. Estella is inculcated with this idea “break their heats and have no mercy”.
As Pip grew older, he is attracted towards Estella and wanted to have her but she rejects him. This shows how bad upbringing with wrong notions effects the generation and stigmatizes the society.
The novel elaborates how gentlemanliness is judged through wealth and appearance. People like Drummle, are regarded as gentleman because of their appearance whereas a morally good person like Joe is disregarded because of his poverty.
Dickens through this novel, brings to light how large-scale commercialization affected the notions of the masses. He satirizes the excessive greed for money. Its money that corrupts human beings and ruins relations. Pip, the protagonist of the novel becomes a snob under this crucial influence of monetary considerations. He starts regarding money and prosperity superior to human relations. His attitude towards his nearest and dearest ones undergoes a severe change. The work of blacksmith which he used to like once as a child now seems coarse and inferior to him. Here Dickens instructs the readers to regard relations as superior to every other consideration.
The title of the novel possesses the major theme of the novel as most of the characters have aspirations, though they prove mere illusions and are shattered in the long run. Pip has great expectations of marrying Estella for this very thing he goes to London, gets education, grooms himself but his dream shatters at the end when Estella disregards him.
As for the novel, it is a bildungsroman novel. The novel tells the story of a person’s growth from childhood to maturity. the protagonist of the novel grows from child to adult through the course of the novel. The novel also elaborates the growth in a way that how an innocent child who is confident feels secure in whatever he has whether its family or job or whatever the social status he has eventually becomes insecure and dissatisfied with his position.it shows how a person develops from simplicity to sinful youth but finally realizes that goodness comes from within a person.
Dickens’ style his way of painting a true picture of society is commendable. He is indeed a true social commentator. He sees things and provides a suitable alternative for malpractices of his era that are common in almost every society even nowadays. He employs technique of satire to reform society. He does not simply aim to eradicate all social vices but also prescribes a better alternative and his works are evident in this way.
Through the encapsulating illustration of this novel, we can conclude in this way that if a person wants to take part in social reform, he can at least use his insightful thoughts and delineate it in his works. The society can be a better place to live in if there must be a just legal system. And by putting an end to all type of class stratification. If there will be equality, there will not be any inferiority complex.
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