Book Review on Great Expectati
What can a great fortune actually bring to a person？What’s the taste of revenge？Is obedience always on the contrary of resistance? How to view the gap between dream and reality? These seemly completely irrelevant questions are to be answered by the book Great Expectations written by Charles Dickens.
Pip, an orphan brought up by his sister and brother-in-law who worked as a blacksmith and Estella, a beautiful girl brought up by a rich lady, Miss Havisham are the main characters in the novel. However, to take a clear look at this story, we had better divide the whole story into three clues.
The first clue is the “love story” between Pip and Estella. Pip was somehow invited to Miss Havisham’s home and had a crash on Estella when they first met, but Estella laughed at his cloths and dirty body which made him decided to learn knowledge in order to be a gentleman so that he could marry her in the same identity instead of being a blacksmith in the small village like his brother-in-law, Joe. And dramatically, Pip suddenly received a large sum of money from a mystery man and then went to London to acquire reputation, status and to receive a higher education with high status. However, when Pip got ready to marry Estella, she chose to marry another man who looked good but vulgar inside. In fact, Estella had always “practiced” on Pip as what Miss Havisham told her to do: let Pip fall into the trap of love. On the other side, Pip generally developed the ignorance to the poor so that he turned very indifferent to his brother-in-law as a blacksmith. Later, it was Joe who saved Pip after he lost everything. Actually we should think of this question: Can money really bring us true love? Wealth probably give us chance to gain status by showing off in public, however, it doesn’t have that much thing to do with love because love is sacred and is based on pure appreciation towards each other that cannot be stained by money.
The second clue is the “revenge story” of Miss Havisham. She was deceived by her brother Arthur and fiancé Compeyson a large amount of money. She no longer believed in love and then adopted little Estella, starting to put her vicious plan into practice. She invited Pip to come to her home to love Estella but told Estella never to love Pip. Looking at the two young children suffering from the love taboo, Miss Havisham felt the thrill of revenge. However, evil will be recompensed with evil, Estella walked out on her after her marriage, leave her alone. At last Miss Havisham put on her wedding dress in front of the mirror and burnt herself. We will face tragedy in our life, if other people hurt us, we can take revenge for pleasure, but can this way really solve problems? I don’t think so. At the very beginning we may get pleasure but after that we may again wallowed in pain because actually there is no real compensation for us. What we did could only get the world stand on the contrary of us in the end.
The third clue is the story of the mystery man. He was actually a convict named Magwitch who had been helped by Pip who was a child at that time, but his wife and daughter faced desperation. Fortunately, they were saved by Miss Havisham’s lawyer. He took Magwitch’s wife as his servant for the rest of her life while leaving the little girl to Miss Havisham and no prizes for guessing that the girl was little Estella. All of these were out of Magwitch’s knowledge. He earned a lot of money later in another country and then began to financially supported Pip to repay Pip’s kindness towards him many years before. However his appearance that let Pip know he is the mysterious supporter was saw by a squire and was reported. So Pip had to help Magwitch to escape. Unfortunately at last, Magwitch was arrested and the legacy Pip inherited from him was handed in. Pip had no choice only to went to another country to make a living. Many years later, he went back to his hometown and met Estella again. This time, without any external obstacles, they finally became companion.
Charles Dickens wrote the novel in later of his life and this novel which has educational significance expose many problems such as what do poverty and injustice bring to the youth of the English bourgeois society at that time.
But I want to talk about two main points that I have been thinking about after reading the book.
Firstly, I want to refer to the topic of the relationship of obedience and resistance, especially on the youth. Many parents have a strong desire to control their children to guarantee their better future like the famous tiger mom few years ago, but the outcome may not be pleasant because if children are suppressed under the environment of obedience, they may develop a desire that once they got the chance to get rid of parents’ control, they will hostile towards their dads and moms and make them heartbroken, just like Miss Havisham in the story.
Secondly, I am thinking about the gap between dream and reality. In the novel, Pip’s was meant to be a blacksmith, inheriting his brother-in –law’s property. He changed his mind after being invited to Miss Havisham’s house, dreaming to become a knowledgeable rich gentleman but dramatically, this seemingly impossible dream may come true when the lawyer came to tell Pip that he can receive a legacy from a rich person. Of course Pip was glad to get the chance to realize his dream, his great expectations. However, the sky will not fall pie, after the whole experience in London, Pip, again, turned penniless. In the end, actually he couldn’t bridge the gap between dream and reality. In fact ,it’s quite like a long dream that last for decades till Pip woke up to find out what kind of life really suitable for himself. So, the novel tell us the world is fair, we don’t ought to expect for a sudden fortune to hit us, the best way to make our dreams come true is always to work hard and strive honestly.
Thanks to the great novel, I learn to cherish more about what I have now, to work hard to realize my dream without thinking about luc
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