Warning: Use of undefined constant referer - assumed 'referer' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 102

Warning: Use of undefined constant host - assumed 'host' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 105

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays:102) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 106

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays:102) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 109
Great Expectations - Essay

Great Expectations


The hero is an orphan raised in humble surroundings, in the early decades of the nineteenth century, comes into a fortune, and promptly disavows family and friends.
When the fortune first loses its lustre, then evaporates completely, he confronts his own ingratitude, and learns to love the man who both created and destroyed him.
The story is told by the hero himself, and the challenge Dickens faced in devising this first-person narrative was two-fold.
He had to ensure that Pip¡¦s confession of his faults ring true, so that we do not suppose him to be admitting them merely in order to win our sympathy. And he had to validate Pip¡¦s redemption by showing that it produces good deeds as ...

Want to read the rest of this paper?
Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay
and over 50,000 other term papers

a little too thickly, and times when he appears desperate for our approval. By and large, though, he is hard on himself to exactly the right (the convincing) degree.
Redemption
The proof of Pip¡¦s redemption lies in good deeds rather than good words.: his secret acts of kindness, in securing Herbert a partnership in Clarricker¡¦s, and in securing Miss Havisham¡¦s good opinion of the long-suffering Matthew Pocket; his final refusal to accept money from MH, or from Magwitch; and, most significantly, his love for Magwitch.
The last of these good deeds, and the one hardest for the writer to authenticate, is made piercingly vivid by a subtle modification of narrative technique. This occurs in Vol III ch. XV, which describes the attempt to spirit Magwitch away down the Thames. Here, for the only time in the novel, the first-person narrative ceases to be Pip¡¦s way of thinking, however, honestly, about himself, and becomes instead an act of attention to others, and to the ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays.
Write better papers. Get better grades.


Already a member? Login

with Magwitch¡¦s bitter enemy, Compeyson. Orlick, in short, seems embarked on some great expectations of his own, sullenly tracking Pip¡¦s upward progress from the marshes to Satis House and on to London. Pip cannot rid himself of this obscene shadow.
In Vol III, Orlick lures Pip to an abandoned sluice-house on the marshes, meaning not only to kill him, but to overwhelm him with accusations. Pip, he claims, has thwarted him at every turn. But the charge he makes with the greatest conviction is that Pip bears the ultimate responsibility of Mrs. Joe¡¦s death, even though he himself struck the fatal blow. ¡§But it warn¡¦t old Orlick as did it; it was you. You was favoured, and he was ...

Succeed in your coursework without stepping into a library.
Get access to a growing library of notes, book reports,
and research papers in 2 minutes or less.


CITE THIS PAGE:

Great Expectations. (2008, March 29). Retrieved March 28, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Great-Expectations/81285
"Great Expectations." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 29 Mar. 2008. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Great-Expectations/81285>
"Great Expectations." Essayworld.com. March 29, 2008. Accessed March 28, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Great-Expectations/81285.
"Great Expectations." Essayworld.com. March 29, 2008. Accessed March 28, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Great-Expectations/81285.
JOIN NOW
Join today and get instant access to this and 50,000+ other essays


PAPER DETAILS
Added: 3/29/2008 11:46:47 PM
Category: English
Type: Free Paper
Words: 1712
Pages: 7

Save | Report

SHARE THIS PAPER

SAVED ESSAYS
Save and find your favorite essays easier

SIMILAR ESSAYS
» Great Expectations The Book Ve
» Great Expectations - The Book V...
» Great Expectations Vs. Oliver T...
» Great Expectations And Oliver T...
» Great Expectations And Oliver
» Great Expectations Vs. Oliver T...
» Great Expectations
» Great Expectations & Oliver Tw
» Universial Themes In "The Retur...
» Great Expectations: Injustices ...
Copyright | Cancel | Contact Us

Copyright © 2024 Essayworld. All rights reserved