Pipis a problem:he's a character you like and hate. His harrowing childhoodbegs our sympathy, while his behavior as an adult makes us embarrassed for him and angryfor those he wrongs. That he narrates his own life makes the difficulty noeasier to resolve. The hardest part is his ownadmissionof weakness and his outrageous humor, which undercut his lousy behavior.
The true difficulty with Pip is that he's so real. The hero of Great Expectations isn't a bad guy, he just exhibits a very human propensity to not try very hard to be good, even at great cost to others. And of course we're ready to point to evil Orlick, or crazed and vengeful Miss Havisham sitting like a ghost amid material ruins, or cruel Estella, and remind ourselves we aren't as bad as all that, when in fact we (like Pip) treat those we love worse than they treat their enemies.
Dickens' gothic masterpiece signalled the end of his sentimental period and the beginning of his darker, more realistic and mature work. Pip isone ofthe most realistic heroes the novelist ever conjured, and the first we follow from childhood to adulthood as well as from innocence to fall and back to redemption. This isn't just a story about failed romance, mysterious parentage and rags-to-riches, it's the universal strugglefor self-identity and moral integrity with its attendant sadness and pain. What ultimately keeps us on Pip's side isn't his likability buthis refusal to capitulate to circumstances and to finallyunderstand the superiority of a life well lived to a mere grasping at supposed happiness.
If you only like booksthat endwith singing birds and "happily ever after," find something else to read. Great Expectations isn't all gloom and shadow, but it isn't a happy book. The end satisfies (the original, that is), and there are scenes of joy among bitterness, but Pipdoesn't geta happy ending. Even his reconciliation with Joe Gargery is melancholic, despite their great mutuallove. Pip becomes a grown-up the wayall of us do, at great cost and withoutassurance thateverything turns out.
Dickens' use of first-person perspective lends animmediacy that helps us identify more deeplywith Pip. We laugh with Pip, we cry with him, we hope things willend welland are disappointed but resolute when they don't. And while Pip's journey toward self-awareness is central, it's the goodness of Joe and the mysterious Abel Magwitch which ultimately move us—and the hero—toward renewed faith in thepresence ofgood even where it is not well-received.
Free Download:
Did you find this review helpful?