As 2020 was winding down, and it was still the Christmas Holidays, I thought about reading something Christmas-y!!!!!!!!!! My first thought was of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," which I have read, but when I perused my shelf, I disovered that, while, as of this year, I have read the entire Dickens canon, I do not own certain works. And 'Carol' was one of those.
Then I recalled the opening of "Great Expectations" takes place at Christmas time. Since that, and "David Copperfield," are my two favorite Dickens works, I decided to give it another reading. This one was, at least, the fourth; and I am only guessing here; there are probabably several more. The hardbacked edition, picutred above, is the one I read. As always, the novel never ceases to amaze me, but it caused me to wonder about some aspects of myself.
Of course, I love the whole Gothic elements of Satis House, Miss Havisham, and Estella. I love how all connected threads come together. When I first read the novel, which was in my high school sophomore year of English class, the connective device was new, and amazed me. I have read many novels since that used it, but none so skillfully as Dickens.
It stirred guilt in me. Have I, at any time, been Pip, acting like an entitled snob, ashamed of my origins? I know I have gone on about how I felt my early education was mishandled, but was it? Did I ever treat anyone the way Pip treated Joe Gargery and Biddy? I have no remebrance of such, and, like Pip, I am certain if I had I would have asked forgiveness, as Pip asked theirs.
Loneliness....isolation....love, or the lack of it...all are thought provoking topics brought out in the novel. Is anyone here truly content? In the end, it seems only Joe Gargery and Biddy are. And possibly Herbert Pocket.
This time around, characters who may hitherto go unnoticed stood out for me. Wemmick, and his Aged Parent, (which I always forget is in THIS novel, not "David Copperfield") the imposing figure of that most rigid upholder of the law, Jaggers, whose manner conceals a humanity indicated by his treatment of his housekeeper, Molly, who turns out to be important for special reasons. Not to mention Abel Magwitch, the convict.
The sadness of Miss Havisham getting a comeuppance she really did not deserve resonated emotionally, with me. In raising to Estella to be heartless, to avenge what she felt was done to her by the male sex, she still wanted real love from Estella, a mother to daughter kind. All Estella could do was follow Miss Havisham's teachings, so how could she end up otherwise?
Which is why the ending is best left ambiguous. The romanitc in me wants Pip and Estella to end up with one another. But, just like Bud and Deanie (Warren Beatty and Natalie Wood) in 1961's "Splendor In The Grass," which turns 60 this year, I do not think the alliance would work. Better to leave Pip and Estella separate, with outlying possibilities.
Laughter, tears, Dickesn gives it his all in this book, considered by many his greatest. Every time I read it, I learn someting illuminating. If you haven't read it in awhile, you owe it to yourself to do so. If you have never read it, what is wrong? Get busy, right away.
"Life Begins At 8:40," was a musical revue, which opened on Broadway in 1934. For at least one character in this novel, life stopped at 8:40.
Beware rigid embitterment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hmm now I have to research Broadway plays from the thirties!!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteVictoria,
THere were quite a few.
And this was the decaade
that Ethel Merman came
onto the scene.