Great Expectations – Charles Dickens – is one of my favorite books.
A glimpse of the story: A small boy named Pip, whose parents are deceased and he lives with his sister and her husband, who is a blacksmith. Pip once brought food for a fugitive later the fugitive got caught by the prison guard. Ms. Havisham is wealthy and cold-hearted. She adopted Estella(daughter of the fugitive) and trained her to break men’s hearts. Her story is that her stepbrother and her lover devised a plan to get some money and leave her at the altar that they did successfully.Ms. Havisham calls Pip to play with Estella, and later she sends her to study and relieve Pip from his service. Meanwhile, the fugitive inherits property because his boss died; he uses this property to sponsor Pip’s education, unknown to Pip. He is in the impression that Havisham sponsored it, and she tells him to love Estella. Nevertheless, she never had the intention of marrying both.Pip’s sponsor is revealed to be the same fugitive whom he helped in childhood. He gets caught again in London because of breaking the exiled decree and dies in prison. His best friend(Herbert) starts business in partnership with some other guy and gets married to his love, and later they settle in Egypt. Pip, after biddy and Joe’s marriage, and Estella got married to the person he dislikes most so he went to stay with his best friend in Egypt.
Let us start with things I liked the most :
1) Ms. Havisham misled not just the character but also readers too. Readers were misled by their expectations that Pip will be rewarded handsomely, even after receiving a few pounds at the termination of his service. Later, he got a patron, and we thought this was his final reward by Ms. Havisham and that Estella (her adopted daughter) will be married to Pip, or should I say prize fixed for him by Ms. Havisham until we get to know the real patron.
2) Biddy is a sweet and intelligent girl. She used to like Pip, but as usual, he overlooked her because of Estella’s admiration. Later he realized Biddy’s feelings for him and went home to propose to her, but Biddy already decided to marry Joe(Pip’s sister’s husband). She taught Joe to write, and eventually, she does start teaching in the new school as her dreams were.
3) Estella was cold-hearted because of Ms. Havisham’s teachings, and Ms. Havisham was cold-hearted because of her lover leaving her at the altar; it was all her stepbrother’s dubious plan. Estella was pretty, and her only motto was to break men’s hearts, and her husband’s too, but he was ruthless and arrogant as Pip deduced him to be and warned Estella before marrying him. Her husband dies mistreating a horse. Later she understood all the feelings Pip had. In the end, she becomes warm-hearted.
4) Mrs. Joe (Sister of Pip) was ruthless and used to insult Mr. Joe and Pip. She never respected her husband, but he always regarded her with the utmost respect and wanted to learn so he can be equal to her. Orlick(used to work with Joe in the forge) hit her from behind, and she never recovered from this incident; after a few years, she died. After the accident, Biddy came to Joe’s house and took care of Pip and Joe. After her sister’s death and after a long time, Joe decided to marry Biddy, later had two children, and one is named Pip.
5) Pip’s patron was a convict that he met and provided food in his childhood. He was exiled outside England but returned to see Pip. At the start, Pip feels disgusted about him, and as time passed, he put all in to save him from getting arrested and sentencing to death. The outcome was he lost his fortune to the government and him to death. Earlier, Pip disliked Joe and his manner as he considers himself elite now, but as events unfolded, his character evolved, and he helped his friend Herbert Pocket to set up the business. He also corrected Ms. Havisham’s mistake by recommending her to leave some fortunes to Mr. Pocket as he was honest and unlike her other relatives. Pip even made Ms. Havisham realize her mistake of making Estella cold-hearted. She died in remorse and repeated all the time, ‘what have I done.’ After Biddy and Joe married, Pip settled outside with Herbert and Clara(his wife) and got a clerk post in Herbert’s business. He lives frugally and saves his earnings to pay the debt, which was earlier paid by Joe and saved him from arrest.
Because of his expectation of marrying Estella, becoming a gentleman, and Ms. Havisham would be his patron, his whole life turned upside down. He meets Estella at the end of the book, but she hints at staying friends forever. (Two different ends in two different book)
Because of the Great Expectation he had from others, he lost Biddy, Estella, his fortune, and others.
P.S.Biddy to Pip – ” Tune faisle hi fasale badhane wale kiye, warna koi nai tha… tujse jayda kareeb mera.”
Pip to Estella – ” Tum Naa Huwe Mere Toh Kya,Hmm! Tum Naa Huwe Mere Toh Kya,Main Tumhara Main TumharaMain Tumhara Raha”
Thank you, Pranali Dalvi, for your honest feedback.
Penny Thoughts 