Sissi
05-24-2005, 06:07 PM
GREAT EXPECTATION<br>--------Charles Dickens<br>How to appreciate the works Great Expectations? There are several parts to dicuss its content, author, reader. <br>Firstly, I want to introduce the content of the story very briefly. <br> Pip lives with his older sister and her husband. One day, while visiting his parents' grave, Pip encounters a convict, Magwitch, who he helps escape by providing him with a file and food. Pip is hired as a playmate for Miss Havisham's adopted daughter, Estella, who he falls in love with. Pip finds out that he has a benefactor and assumes that it is Miss Havisham. He moves to the city of London with great expectations of increasing his social status. During this metamorphosis, Pip neglects his friendships with Biddy and Joe.As time passes, Pip meets his true benefactor, Magwitch, who made a fortune after being exiled from England. Magwitch wanted to repay Pip for helping him escape earlier in the novel. Pip in return for the large fortune must keep Magwitch in hiding near a river, since he is forbidden in England. Pip learns that Estella, who he has long obsessed over, has married Bentley Drummle. Suddenly, Miss Havisham's estate goes on fire, and Pip courageously saves Miss Havisham. It is then revealed that Magwitch is Estella's father. In an attempt to flee, Magwitch is caught, but dies before his conviction. Pip falls ill, and is nursed back to health by Joe, who marries Biddy after the death of Mrs. Joe. It is also revealed that Estella is educated by suffering, and the two go off on their separate ways.<br>Secondly,I say something about relationship between author¡ªCharles Dickens and the book. This was Dickens' second-to-last complete novel ,Similar to Dickens' memories of his own childhood, in his early years the young Pip seems powerless to stand against injustice or to ever realize his dreams for a better life. However, as he grows into a useful worker and then an educated young man he reaches an important realization: grand schemes and dreams are never what they first seem to be. Pip himself is not always honest, and careful readers can catch him in several obvious contradictions between his truth and fantasies.<br>Thirdly,I should analyse main characters of the book.<br>1) Pip's life is influenced by several characters in Dickens' Great Expectations. Some of these influences affected Pip in a positive way; others were negative. Write an essay analyzing the characters who played an important role in Pip's life both in a positive and negative way.<br>2) Estella is as beautiful and cultured as she is cold and brutal, and Pip immediately falls in love with her at a tender age. The daughter of Magwitch the convict, she is taken in by Miss Havisham from the age of three and taught to hate and mistreat men of all kinds, Pip among them. The more Pip loves her, the more Estella seems to enjoy torturing and manipulating him. She is from even lower stock in the class system than he is, and one might think she resents his intrusion into the life she has found among the wealthy.<br>