In Great Expectations the narration is told by the present reflective Pip about the seemingly naïve past Pip. One of the several threads sewn into the narrative is the manipulation of young Pip and Estella by Miss Havisham. The reflective Pip seems very aware of her manipulations as in Chapter 29 he remarks: “She said the word often enough, and there could be no doubt that she meant to say it; but if the often repeated word had been hate instead of love—despair—revenge—dire death—it could not have sounded from her lips more like a curse.” (Dickens). This is present Pip noting her manipulation of his past self to fall in love with Estella. However, the naïve Pip, as noted towards the end of Chapter 29, he states:  “Far into the night, Miss Havisham’s words, “Love her, love her, love her!” sounded in my ears. I adapted them for my own repetition, and said to my pillow, “I love her, I love her, I love her!” hundreds of times.” (Dickens). This is the obvious result of Miss Havisham’s manipulation of Pip, to the young Pip the “I love her” might seem childish, hopeful, and perhaps even sweet, but the knowledge of the narrator Pip and the reader, puts a dark twist on those words. All that we can do is watch young Pip fall into Miss Havisham’s trap, helpless to do anything.

While present Pip as narrator can confirm that Miss Havisham is enacting revenge on men through her manipulation of young people, and likewise that Pip is eventually aware of this, is Estella is her youth at all aware that she is merely an instrument of revenge? Miss Havisham is recorded to have said in Chapter 29: ““Hear me, Pip! I adopted her, to be loved. I bred her and educated her, to be loved. I developed her into what she is, that she might be loved. Love her!” which explains a vital insight into how Estella was raised. Miss Havisham cultivated her “to be loved,” which an obvious example of that is to have men fall for Estella and subsequently have their hearts broken. But, there is another side to this coin, where Estella could be argued to also “want to be loved,” or in other words, be attention-seeking. Reflecting back to Chapter 12, Pip points out: ” Miss Havisham would embrace her with lavish fondness, murmuring something in her ear that sounded like “Break their hearts my pride and hope, break their hearts and have no mercy!” (Dickens). This ties in two elements: the first being an early statement of Miss Havisham’s plot for revenge, and the second is the “lavish fondness” bestowed upon Estella. It would appear that Estella’s cruel behavior towards men and her actions that please Miss Havisham are being positively reinforced. However, is Estella aware of this before Pip? Again in Chapter 29, Estella comments: ‘ “You must know,” said Estella, condescending to me as a brilliant and beautiful woman might, “that I have no heart,—if that has anything to do with my memory.” ‘ (Dickens). She is certainly aware of the effects of Miss Havisham’s manipulation on her own person, but I have yet to see any true indication of her self awareness. This moment after Pip and Estella leave the garden: “As Estella looked back over her shoulder before going out at the door, Miss Havisham kissed that hand to her,” is clear Estella yearns for affection and is being reinforced for leading Pip on. Is this just a childish need to impress a parental figure or has Estella consented to working with Miss Havisham in her plot for revenge against men?

While reading the next section of Great Expectations I was drawn to recount a certain aspect of Wuthering Heights. I wanted to point out a connection I noticed about the way in which both of the authors, Dickens and Bronte, choose to tell the stories of the different characters in their books. In Great Expectations, we see a situation where Herbert is talking to Pip in chapter 22, he is telling him the story of Miss Havisham. He tells the story of her life going all the way back to her childhood. When I was reading this section I could not help but think of Wuthering Heights and the role that Nelly serves in the book. She tells the story through her perspective and we almost have to instill a form of trust into her character to believe what she is saying. Bronte and Dickens both choose to tell stories through different characters in their pieces of literature aside from the normal narrators that are telling the story. I was wondering and reread this section a few times to see if this format of relaying the story to the reader changed anything in my perception of the information. I was thinking back the first chapter of Great Expectations when Pip the narrator is the one to tell his story and introduce his background and how this situation differs from the one in which Pip is not the one telling us the story. Pip tells his own story about his childhood in the beginning, yet we see the contrast when Herbert is the one to recount this story. It was interesting to see that multiple novels from the Victorian Era both had such a similar way of telling stories. We spoke briefly about the effect that Nelly’s storytelling had and when reading Wuthering Heights I was interested to see if Great Expectations was similar at all in this matter. Does the fact that Miss Havisham’s story is coming from Herbert take away from the authenticity or does it add to our understanding on the type of person and or character that she is? When the story comes from the perspective of another character, like Nelly and Herbert, how should the reader interpret this?

The presence of ghosts and the unknown was prominent in Wuthering Heights. Evidently, Heathcliff claimed to have numerous encounters with the ghost of Catherine and believed her to really be haunting him, which is what he requested of her right before she died. In popular culture, ghosts are usually perceived to be scary, and being haunted by one is never something that someone requests. Well, Heathcliff did request this of Catherine because of his attachment to her and his need to feel her presence. Notably, Catherine’s spiritual presence provided Heathcliff immense comfort and during one of his encounters with her he recalled, “a sudden sense of relief flowed from my heart through every limb. I relinquished my labour of agony, and turned consoled at once: unspeakably consoled. Her presence was with me: it remained while I re-filled the grave, and led me home” (59). Similarly, a ghost becomes present and witnessed by Pip in Great Expectations. Conversely, we do not know the name of the ghost and its relation, if any, to any of the characters yet. While Heathcliff was comforted by Catherine’s ghost, Pip was observed to be scared by the ghost because Estella witnessed this and asked him, “are you scared again?” We’ll have to see if this ghostly presence becomes more significant in the upcoming chapters of Great Expectations and if its identity is revealed to be significant to any of the characters.

One thing that struck my interest with the chapters for this weeks reading was the idea of honesty. The theme of honesty overall is very prevalent throughout Great Expectations. It is evident that Joes goodness and honesty is what makes him a special character, one that is a good reference point back to reality for other characters. Through Joe’s character and Pip’s character development, I thought of the honesty in Wuthering Heights as well. However, if we look at both texts, it is in fact the dishonesty of characters that is most prevalent, whether it be dishonesty to themselves or to others. Specifically, Pip is dishonest with himself in all that he pushes aside in order to advance himself socially, which includes pushing aside Joe, quite possibly the most honest character in this Dickens novel. Whereas, in comparison to Wuthering Heights, Catherine is dishonest with herself in advancing/keeping her societal standing when she chooses to marry Edgar over the man she truly loves, Heathcliff. I also think through these narratives and characterizations of dishonesty, self-realization aspects unfold. In Great Expectations this is seen in chapter 28 where Pip goes home intending to apologize to Joe, one aspect of him considering Joes feelings rather than only caring about advancing himself socially. In Wuthering Heights this is seen when Heathcliff sporadically returns, specifically through Catherines response to his return and her actions in keeping him in her life despite her choice to marry Edgar. So through certain characters honest and dishonesty in Victorian Literature, I think many thematic notions unfold. I’m curious to see how Pips character further develops and if he ever becomes truly honest.

In “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens, as Pip grows up, we start to see a change in his personality. We also start to see how social class is significant during this era and a popular topic in Victorian literature. In “Great Expectations”, Pip comes from a lower-class family and Miss Havisham and Estella seem to be from a higher class order. Pip and his guardians, Joe and Mrs. Joe, are excited to be taken under Miss Havinshaw’s wings, however, it all seems to be a ruse. It seems like Miss Havinshaw is training Estella to be a heartbreaker as she was heartbroken by her ex-fiance of lower-class status when he was in alliance with her brother and left her at the alter and took her share. Since she had fallen in love with this man and was used for her money, Miss Havinshaw’s revenge is taken up through another vessel, Estella, whom she adopted, and chose the target for her; Pip, a young man from a lower-class family; a family that would be ecstatic to have been given such good fortune after series of unfortunate events. We can connect this to “Wuthering Heights” because Heathcliff had been a victim of pure hatred and he became the benefactor of revenge through these occurrences and experiences Just as Pip’s personality is shaping into something that he has only seemed to experience.

One similarity I noticed when reading through Great Expectations is that the way Mrs Joe Christmas is described is very indicative of the overall attitude towards both women and the lower class in Victorian England that we’ve talked about in the past. One of the first paragraphs of the chapter is a slight joke about her social status and situation, stating that her position as a blacksmith’s wife is the same thing as “a slave with her apron never off”. This heavily reminds me of the way Carlyle spoke of the ‘lowly black woman’ in the passage of his we discussed far earlier in the semester. One interesting difference I see however, is that while Carlyle seems to look on in pity and admiration at the lower class woman he discusses, Dickens, or more accurately Pip, seems to do no such thing, playing her misfortune off for laughs.

While reading Great Expectations, I noticed that Pip shared many similarities with Hareton. Hareton, for example, was an orphan living in the house of the cruel Heathcliff. Hareton’s mother, Frances, was sickly and died of her illness. In a similar way, Pip’s mother also died of an illness. For example, Dickens writes, “From the character and turn of the inscription, “Also Georgiana Wife of the Above,” I drew a childish conclusion that my mother was freckled and sickly.” This can especially be reflective of the time period when both books took place. Hygiene was poor and people often died young of illness or during childbirth.

Another similarity is that both Hareton and Pip are abused by the person who raises them. Heathcliff for example, deprives him of any economic power and reduces Hareton to a servant in his own home. Pip is beat regularly by his sister who raises him. Dickens says that, “she had brought me up “by hand.” Having at that time to find out for myself what the expression meant, and knowing her to have a hard and heavy hand, and to be much in the habit of laying it upon her husband as well as upon me, I supposed that Joe Gargery and I were both brought up by hand.” This is yet another connection to Wuthering Heights because in Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff is repeating the abuse that he had been subjected to on Hindley’s behalf. The abuse seen in both Wuthering Heights and Great Expectations is cyclic, and within families.

One of the ideas repeatedly emphasized in Wuthering Heights was the opposing settings of Thrusscross Grange manor and Wuthering Heights manor. One is quiet, reserved, pleasant and sickly, while the other chaotic, abrasive and barbaric. I notice a similar dichotomy in the settings introduced during the opening chapters of Great Expectations. Like Thrusscross Grange, Pip’s house is a sort of safe haven. Joe Gargary is a strong, wholesome and honest man who seems to be a positive influence on Pip. Pip’s sister, although she is harsh on Pip, she seems to provide slapstick comic relief, ie. threatening Pip and Joe with her cane, “Tickler” or with “the tar water.” The overall atmosphere created by these characters is comfortable and safe, which stands in stark contrast to the other setting, the marsh. Like Wuthering Heights manor, the marsh is a mysterious and dangerous place filled with desperate and terrifying men. In the same way that the stormy weather of Wuthering Heights contrasted with Thrusscross Grange’s peaceful meadows, the weather in Great Expectations is also telling in regards to the setting and plot. Notably, the mist of the marshes seem to evoke the unknown and the unfamiliar.