One part of Great Expectations that I found interesting was Pip and his family’s experience with the convicts, and specifically, Pip feeding the convict. Of course, Pip feeding the convict was done out of fear, but when the convict is being led off and admits he stole the food, Pip’s father sympathetically notes that Pip does the right thing in feeding him. To me, this denotes a communal safety net in the less fortunate, a mutual network of sustenance that has to be maintained, no matter who desires it, because the government, or any other larger social entity, is not doing it for them. Herein comes England in 1819, and specifically, the lines “Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay/ Religion Christless, Godless– a book seal’d/A senate– Time’s worst statute unrepeal’d.” This seems the most apt analysis of England during the Victorian period, for it portrays England as a place that is left without a protector, and moreover, the poor are left without a protector. Because of this then, and since larger social entities have abdicated their responsibility to protect the marginalized or simply chosen not to, the lower classes (Pip and his family) have had to create a social network between other lower class families to create a support system. Interestingly, this social network is not limited, and spans to the class of felons. This is important for two reasons. First, it demonstrates that the social welfare network was not limited, and attempted not to marginalize itself (obviously, this is not true in whole), and second, it demonstrates a certain lack of faith in the legal system. Already, Shelley has underlined the fact that laws are for the most part classed against the poor and this distrust carries on in Pip and his family. As such, the connection here formed is that of the social network Pip and his family symbolize, while also receiving context of why this had to happen from London in 1819.

“Proud, pretty, and insulting,” these are the traits that Pip assigns to his tormentor, Estella. Upon this first interaction, Pip is astutely aware of her condescension and describes feeling: “humiliated, hurt, spurned, offended, angry, sorry,—I cannot hit upon the right name for the smart—God knows what its name was,—that tears started to my eyes” (Chapter VIII), simply because she has pointed out the coarse texture of his hands and the thickness of his boots. Estella’s acknowledgment of the traits that make him “common” and beneath the rank of herself and Miss Havisham aloud makes Pip suddenly regards these qualities as “vulgar appendages.” As a result, he hosts a rage of animosity on this part, and cries himself into a fit of self-pity. This sudden awareness of class hierarchies and high brow mannerisms reminds me of William Blakes’s poem, “London,” particularly the lines: “Marks of weakness, marks of woe. /In every cry of every Man/The mind-forg’d manacles I hear.” Blakes’ observations seems a fitting description for Pips despair after being degraded by Estella. Like the men Blake observe, Pip is bound by the mind-forg’d manacles that distinguish him as a “commoner” and is ashamed of the coarse texture of his hands and thickness of his boots because it insinuates he does not indeed, spend his time playing cards by the fire but rather, engages in manual labour that makes him “ignorant and backward.” 

Interestingly enough, Pip’s  reaction to Estella’s remark by wishing to return home in an attempt to escape from her mean criticisms resembles Heathcliff’s reaction to Catherine when she returns to Wuthering Heights after her confinement in the Grange and proceeds to laugh at him about his appearance: “What are you sulky for?  It was only that you looked odd. If you wash your face and brush your hair, it will be all right: but you are so dirty!” (Chapter VII). Unlike Pip, who remains calm until out of sight of his bully, Heathcliff declares to Catherine: “‘You needn’t have touched me! I shall be as dirty as I please: and I like to be dirty, and I will be dirty” and then rudely dashes out of the room to nurse his wounds. What I find interesting about Pip and Heathcliff’s shared circumstance is the methods in which Blakes’ “mind-forg’d manacles” begin to represent the shame both Pip and Heathcliff feel after being criticised by young girls of the upper class and the ways in which the shame that restricts them to the lower class guides their desire for self-improvement.  

Looking at Chapters 1-3 of Great Expectations, we can see some similar alignments with Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights and P[hil]ip, the main character in Great Expectations, Pip, as he calls himself due to not being able to pronounce neither his first nad last name, is recounting a tale of his childhood during Christmas time when he encounters a convict. In my perspective, I can see how these two characters, both Pip and Heathcliff, have a similar childhood background. We find out that Pip is an orphan who lives with his sister and her husband, a blacksmith, and Heathcliff was a homeless Gypsy living on the streets, adopted by a wealthy family on Mr. Earnshaw’s behalf. Pip had been threatened to help a convict and with compassion, he helped the man recover a bit when he returned. Heathcliff, although adopted by Mr.Earnshaw, was not treated fairly and kind by all members of his family. In fact, he was abused in more ways than one. He did not lash out until his adulthood, meaning he was a pushover, just as Pip was when this convict bullied and threatened him into doing something for his own benefit. Something I thought about by analyzing these two characters is, does living with strangers or guardians who aren’t your biological parents affect the way you are brought up or does that align with the experiences created from your childhood?

The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley was written a little before before the Victorian period in the 1810s, but it displays potent examples of unreliable and manipulated narration. The original version of the tale was the draft of the letter written by the captain to his sister. But, Victor Frankenstein towards the end is noted to have edited it, which erased the captain’s original perspective, and biased the novel to favor Victor’s narrative and presumably increasing the written hostility towards the monster. This is an obvious example of the loss of other perspectives, a “could have been,” or insights withheld from the reader. In Wuthering Heights, written in the 1840s, the narrators are primarily Lockwood and Nelly, with Isabella Linton as a arguable third narrator, while the main characters focused upon are Heathcliff, the Catherines, and the Lintons. In Wuthering Heights, there is a lack in the “true” perspectives of Heathcliff and Catherine for the details are biased by Nelly and Lockwood telling their points of view, much like how Victor Frankenstein wrote over the captain’s perspective. In Great Expectations, written in the 1860s, the main character and the narrator is one and the same: Pip. This first person narration, seems a bit more modern-YA-novel-protagonist, since the perspective of only one character is conveyed. What seems to be lacking in Great Expectations (so far) is those other “true” perspectives of characters such as: Joe, Mrs. Joe (which I might add, there has been no obvious notation of her own name), Estella, Miss Havisham, and other prominent characters. The machinations concealed in their minds, the reader will only be able to discover when Pip notices or through details he may note but not recognize. Both Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights utilize the manipulation and omission of the main characters “true” perspectives –the loss of Heathcliff’s, Catherine’s, and the monster’s perspectives– while Great Expectations, is utilizing the more familiar (dare I say modern) first-person-and-protagonist sole narrator. Is this indicating a post-1850s shift of the narration style in novels? Or perhaps, am I, the reader, biased and picking up on a false pattern created by the few novels I have read?

While reading the beginning of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, I experienced a fair amount of anticipation with regards to meeting the infamously eccentric character, Miss Havisham. I knew that Miss Havisham would be dressed in her signature yellowed, grandiose gown since, when I was younger, my grandmother gave my brother a copy of Great Expectations that portrayed Miss Havisham and her interesting choice of dress on the cover. Indeed, when Pip first meets the iconic woman, he is confounded by her appearance and by the state in which the room she occupies is in. According to Pip, Miss Havisham is clad in all “satins, and lace, and silks” (Dickens 18) with white shoes, a fine assortment of jewels, a veil, and wears flowers in her hair. However, Pip also observes that all of these fine objects have either faded to yellow or have withered, as is the case with the flowers in Miss Havisham’s hair and Miss Havisham herself. Additionally, Pip notices that Miss Havisham only wears one shoe and that she has never worn the other, which rests on the table. As evidence of this lack of use, Miss Havisham’s stocking on her unshoed foot is worn away.

Prior to making these observations, Pip informs his audience that the clock and the watch in the room are permanently stopped at the particular time of “twenty minutes to nine.” Thus, Pip muses that, though time seems to have stopped for Miss Havisham, the effects of time, the yellowing of her clothes, the withering of her flowers, have persisted. Pip thinks to himself that Miss Havisham would crumble to dust with the “admission of natural light,” as he has heard to be the case with recently discovered ancient corpses. The word “dust” and the juxtaposition between Miss Havisham’s appearance and the clock and watch’s establishment of frozen time both cause me to think back to Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem, In Memoriam. The epic elegy mentions the word “dust” 18 times and it is often used to reflect themes of decay, loss, insignificance, and the relentless passage of time. The word “dust” seems to be serving a similar purpose in Great Expectations, as well. Indeed, the mention of “dust” demonstrates the effects and amount of time that has ravaged Miss Havisham’s outer appearance, presumably against her will, as the reader may be lead to assume that she has forcibly stopped time for the room’s clock and her own watch.

Furthermore, both Tennyson and Miss Havisham seem to be mourning the passage of time. In the case of Tennyson, it is known that In Memoriam discusses the tragic loss of Tennyson’s dear friend. The elegy laments the fact that Tennyson’s grief inevitably ebbs and flows, grows and fades, across the span of many Christmasses, in turn, causing Tennyson much frustration and chagrin. One can similarly assume then that Miss Havisham’s desire to stop time is spurred by a tragic incident from her past. However, as observed through Tennyson’s repetition of the word “dust” and Pip’s hyperbole that one beam of the sun would turn Miss Havisham to dust, the passage of time ultimately appears to “win” over Tennyson’s and Miss Havisham’s desire to preserve the memory of the past and what they have each presumably lost.

When reading the first few chapters of Great Expectations I began to think further into how children are used in a lot of different ways in Victorian Literature. Due to the fact that I am writing my critical essay on the poems “The Chimney Sweeper” and “The Cry of the Children”, I recall the way the writers use the point of view of the child to guide their writing. I enjoyed the first section of the book a lot, where Pip explains to the reader how his name formed into Pip. I believe that this made the reader connect to Pip, the speaker of the novel. This reminded me of the poems because the goal of those poems was to connect the reader to the children and their emotions. This is a connection that we can see expanding across a lot of literature written during the Victorian Era. Since Pip is the main character of Great Expectations, we are being told the story through his eyes and his point of view. This can change a lot about a story, by simply knowing who is telling it. The poem “The Chimney Sweeper” would almost lose its effect if it was not written from the voice of the child. The reader would not be able to connect to the story or grasp the scenario that the writer is trying to portray to them. Remembering this aspect of the poem and how it had an immense impact on the literature brought me to think about the opening section of Great Expectations and how it would have been changed if a different character was delivering the reasoning behind Pip’s nickname. This carried with me throughout the first few chapters of the novel that we read. I was reminding myself of the importance of the voice of the child in Victorian Literature, and how this can connect us more to the story and send the message. In Great Expectations, when the story was being told from Pip’s perspective we could really feel and connect to his emotions as he was afraid of what was happening and afraid of what could possibly happen when he encountered the man with the metal leg. Hearing it from the “I” point of view makes the emotion seem more real to the child itself. This is exactly the same as the strength of the “I” in the poem “The Chimney Sweeper”. As I continue through reading through the novel I will be curious to see how the point of view in which the story is told remains prevalent.

As I read the first ten chapters of Great Expectations, one of the prominent themes that I noted was social class. Pip is an uneducated, rough looking, working class boy who is sent to the wealthy Miss Havisham’s home to “play.” The emergence of this drastic class difference between the two in the novel sheds light on this theme. Being that this is a common theme in Victorian Era literature, it makes sense that social class is also a prominent theme in Wuthering Heights. Already, Pip’s relationship with Estella reminds me of Hareton and Cathy’s relationship in Wuthering Heights. Firstly, similarly to Hareton, Pip was raised harshly and violently and without much love. Both Pip and Hareton share a coarse appearance; Pip’s appearance from living in a working class family and Hareton’s from his neglect throughout his childhood. Both are also uneducated as a result of their upbringings. When Pip meets Estella at Miss Havisham’s, she treats him very rudely. She makes it clear that she is disgusted by Pip because of his working class characteristics like his, “thick boots” and “rough hands.” We see a similar dynamic between Cathy and Hareton for a large portion of the novel. Cathy is cruel to Hareton; she makes fun of him for being uneducated, rough and foolish. Both Pip and Hareton are deeply affected and offended by Estella and Cathy’s treatment. As a result, they both decide to improve themselves. At the end of these first ten chapters, Pip, who was brought to tears by Estella’s hurtful words and actions, decides that he will change himself for the better; he wishes to not be “common” anymore. Thus, we see the emergence of the theme of self-improvement in the novel. Pip talks to Joe about his wish to be “uncommon” and asks Biddy to teach him what she knows from school. Similarly, in Wuthering Heights, after Cathy embarrasses and insults Hareton, he also sets out on a mission to improve himself. For example, Hareton reads books and acts kindly towards Cathy. Evidently, self-improvement is also a theme in Wuthering Heights. When it comes to Hareton’s pursuit of self-improvement in the novel, he ends up successfully educating himself with books and the help of Cathy and he seemingly becomes a happier and gentler person. By the end of the novel he even ends up happily together with Cathy. Based on these observations from Wuthering Heights, I am curious to see where Pip’s self-improvement efforts will take him. Will Pip and Estella will form a similar relationship as that of Hareton and Cathy? Or perhaps their rivalry will continue to grow. It will be interesting to see what message emerges about social class through Pip’s self-improvement and his relationship with Estella and Miss Havisham.

In Great Expectations, Pip is too young to be an apprentice to his sister’s husband, the blacksmith, so he completes random jobs to make money, none of which he ever sees. This money is assumed to be used to help contribute the household. When Pip is told he is expected to go to Miss Havisham’s house to play with her daughter Estella, Pip’s sister sends the boy with hopes that the rich matronly lady will pay Pip for his service, thus extending his fortune for the household. Pip is too young to be an apprentice, yet is expected to work odd jobs to help with the family’s income. This reminded me of the poem The Chimney Sweeper by William Blake where the child is sooty and broken spirited from laboring at such a young age. These young children shouldn’t be forced to work under such circumstances, and although Pip is only expected to play with Miss Havisham’s daughter, he undergoes beratement and humiliation, all for his sister’s hope that he will be paid.

Evidently, the situation of a lower class orphan boy having feelings for an upper class female occurs in both Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Notably, Heathcliff and Catherine develop a certain connection over the course of the novel that was only able to really be possible when they were younger; at a young age, they were unaware of their different social standing and were able to play around together. However, after Catherine comes back from Thrushcross Grange, she becomes aware of their difference, and the possibility of her and Heathcliff ever getting together diminishes greatly. Importantly, she admits this fact when she tells Nelly that she would consider marrying Heathcliff, if Hindley didn’t cast him to be so low. Hence, because of their initial difference in class, they could never make it work. Comparatively, Pip in Great Expectations shows signs of having interest in Estella, with him calling her pretty and saying that even though she was rude to him, he could still see himself wanting to see her again at some point in the future. Heathcliff and Catherine were able to play around together because they were young, innocent, and unaware of their difference in standing. In contrast, Pip and Estella can’t get through a game of cards without Estella’s judgement and insults towards Pip. Specifically she mentions, “He calls the Knaves Jacks, this boy!… and what course hands he has! And what thick boots!” Thus, social class gets in the way of Catherine and Heathcliff’s development of a relationship, and Pip and Estella’s development of even a friendship, as well.