Great Expectations By: Charles Dickens

In Honors English for term three I had to read a Charles Dickens novel. I chose to read Great Expectations. Let me tell you, that book was not the easiest thing to read. I struggled for quite awhile while I was reading it. I am so glad that I’m done with it. So now, here is my review!

Pip is a young orphaned boy living with his sister and her husband. Pip is loving and impractical. One day when he is in the cemetery, he finds an escaped convict who makes him a thief. He meets Estella and falls in love with her but to his dismay, she does not share the same feelings. After going to school and becoming a gentleman, maybe she will give him another chance. The main theme is love, loyalty and consciences being more important than wealth and class. Charles Dickens shows this theme by Pip learning his lesson.

On page five hundred and sixteen is reads, “‘Of late, very often. There was along hard time when I kept far from me the remembrance of what I had thrown away when I was quite ignorant of its worth. But, since my duty has not been incompatible with the admission of that remembrance, I have given it a place in my heart.’
‘You have always held your place in my heart,’ I answered.
And we were silent again, until she spoke.
‘I little thought,’ said Estella, ‘that I should take leave of you in taking leave of this spot. I am very glad to do so.’
‘Glad to part again, Estella? To me, parting is a painful thing. To me, the remembrance of our last parting has been ever mournful and painful.’
‘But you said to me,’ returned Estella, very earnestly, ‘“God bless you, God forgive you!” And if you could say that to me then, you will not hesitate to say that to me now—now, when suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but—I hope—into a better shape. Be as considerate and good to me as you were, and tell me we are friends.’
‘We are friends,’ said I, rising and bending over her, as she rose from the bench.
‘And will continue friends apart,’ said Estella.
I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place; and, as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so, the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of another parting from her.”

In that passage it is describing Estella and Pip reuniting and telling each other that after everything that they’ve been through that they could still be each other’s friends. This is significant to the theme I presented earlier because it is showing his love for Estella and that though they both made mistakes they never forgot about them. Estella tells Pip that she made room for him in her heart and that she never could forget what had happened between them.

In the scene they are sitting on a bench in the old garden. They’re talking of what they feel and what they want. Pip loves Estella and is very loyal to her. He tells her that she’s always had a place in his heart. Wouldn’t you love to have someone say that to you? Pip knows that what his conscience told him was more correct than what others would tell him about wealth and class. Now Estella knows that too. Pip has learned his lesson and is still open to her. They will always be friends.

The voice in this passage is calm and sweet. They both are expressing their feelings about the past and the present. If you really think about it, Pip is very romantic. I quote, “You have always held your place in my heart.” This is my favorite line of the whole entire book. Can you see why? Charles Dickens italicized the word, my. What he’s meaning to say is that he’s always loved her and nothing is going to change that. Pip went through a lot to learn his lesson, but in the end. He definitely thought it was worth it.

So, all in all, it was a hard-to-understand but sort-of-romantic-in-a-weird-way-book. Charles Dickens has a different style of writing, but it’s unique. We shouldn’t push his books aside. Instead, pick one up and start to read it. It might be difficult but once you are finished with it, it might be better than you thought it would be. That’s what happened to me while reading Great Expectations!