| |
| |
Charles Dickens |
|
|
|
| |
 |
|
 |
| |

Charles Dickens's novel Great Expectations is a tale of two endings, a book that can be read literally as leading us and its main characters to two different possible resolutions - one of which is considerably happier than the other. That this should be so should hardly surprise us: One of the greatest virtues of fiction, after all, is that it allows to author to create an internal reality that matches his or her needs - as well as those of the characters. Dickens engaged in a bit of early focus-group testing on this book (not unlike today's movies that are screened with two different endings and then released with whichever ending was better received). This may seem like a great violation of the spirit of the artiste except for the fact that Dickens never pretended to be an artiste. He was a storyteller above all, and this novel tells a marvelous story that, as Rawlins (2001) argues, is usually either seen as a story of the moral failings of the protagonist, a story of Pip's "error, purgatory, and salvation" (p. 667) or a story of how society failed Pip, "whereupon the novel becomes a myth of original sin and scapegoat atonement" (p. 667). The story is certainly one shot through with guilt and attempts at atonement, although we as readers are left in a fog most of the time as to whether this guilt is reasonable or not as we read the story of Philip Pirrip - called "Pip" - grows from a boyhood of shallow dreams (in which he is heavily influenced by Miss Havisham, who lives h
Related Essays
Charles Dickens Both Charles Dickens, in his novel Hard Times, and Abdullah Hussein, in his novel +migrT Journeys, remind us of something that most of us already know but .... (755 3 )
Life and Literary Work of Charles Dickens The Life and Literary Work of Charles Dickens According to Sylvere Monod (46-47), much in Charles Dickens' personal life directly shaped his literary efforts. .... (1872 7 )
Charles Dickens' Great Expectations There are a number of themes in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. Perhaps one of the most significant is the fact that individuals .... (870 3 )
Hard Times (Charles Dickens) .... Stick to Facts, Sir!" With these opening words of the novel Hard Times, Charles Dickens introduces us to the character and philosophy of Thomas Gradgrind, a .... (1805 7 )
Charles Dickens' Hard Times In Charles Dickens' novel Hard Times, the author provides us with a story of mill workers of Coketown, a hellish mill town that exists solely to exploit its .... (1435 6 )
Category: Literature - C
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Charles Dickens's, Pip Estella, Miss Havisham, Expectations Dickens's, Pip Lift, Miss Havisham's, Philip Pirrip, Child SEL, miss havisham, York Penguin, 667 story, failed pip, rawlins argues, rawlins suggests,
= 872
= 3 (250 words per page)
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
| |
 |
|
 |
| |
Click Here
to Get Instant Access to over 32,000 Professionally Written Papers!!!
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
"Thank you for making such a high quality site! Your papers are the best I have seen around"
|
Debbie B. |
| |
|
"Your site was very helpful and gave me the details I needed in order to complete my essay!!!"
|
Mike F. |
| |
|
"This site is an excellent vehicle for quick referrences. Thanks a bunch!"
|
Carla T. |
| |
|
"Great site, I got a lot of new ideas I would have never thought of before."
|
Nate A. |
| |
|
"I love this site!!!"
|
Marie H. |
| |
|
| |
|
|