Revenge in Great Expectations

Great Expectations is a story about the life of Phillip Pirrup, more commonly known as Pip. He transforms from a blacksmith’s apprentice into a gentleman because of an unknown benefactor. Though the book has several themes and lessons to be learned, I believe that the main theme is about revenge and all of its destructiveness. The passage that follows is an early foreshadowing of the theme. Herbert Pocket says this during Pip’s first visit to his house:

I don’t say no to that, but I meant Estella. That girl’s hard and haughty and capricious to the last degree, and has been brought up by Miss Havisham to wreak revenge on all the male sex. (Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations Ch.22, pg.186)

In this passage, Pip is asking for information on Miss Havisham, who he believes is his unknown benefactor, and Estella, the girl whom he admires and wants to impress. Herbert gives him the information, which should be a warning to Pip. It was intended to be a warning, but Pip doesn’t listen to the advice. This is an important passage in the book because the book has been dropping hints that Miss Havisham is using Estella as revenge, but this is the first time Dickens has it stated outright.

One reason to support that Estella is meant to wreak revenge on men is when Herbert tells you her characteristics. Up until this point, there has only been enough evidence to support that Estella was “hard and haughty and capricious” to Pip, but she may have acted different around other company. In this passage it clearly tells that she is “hard and haughty and capricious” to everyone.

Dickens has the character, Herbert, describe how Estella is a stuck-up and unloving person. The phrase “to the last degree” would imply that Estella is incapable of any compassion because she is so completely consumed by Miss Havisham’s revenge. The words “hard and haughty and capricious” are very descriptive of Estella’s personality. They give you a close picture of how she acts. Dickens also makes good use of alliteration in this passage by the phrases “hard and haughty” and “wreak revenge.”

The tone of the passage is informative and friendly. Herbert was telling Pip this as a warning. Herbert is trying to prevent Pip from being hurt by revenge. The way the character Herbert stated the passage leaves no alternate interpretations. I suppose it is all a matter of opinion that Estella is the way she is, but the way Herbert said it in the passage doesn’t leave much, if any, room to disagree. He states it as fact and I’d assume that he would only have said it this way if he had been sure that he wasn’t the only person with that conclusion.

This quoted passage supports an overall theme of the novel- revenge. This is because one of the main plots throughout Great Expectations is how Estella, because of being raised a “hard and haughty” girl by Miss Havisham, is incapable of loving anybody. Miss Havisham had been hurt by her fiance and so she lives out her life in revenge to the world, but especially to men. Estella’s coldness ends up hurting many people emotionally, including Pip and even Miss Havisham herself. It is she who was responsible for Estella ending up like that. Miss Havisham, having been hurt by her own tool of revenge, realizes her mistake, and is extremely distraught.

Revenge never gets you anywhere. This book is only one of many books to have repeated that message. Still, our world today continues to revolve around many things and one of them is revenge. With a world in which revenge is such a large factor, the novel, Great Expectations, is still a great reminder to us of the danger that you risk by participating in revenge.

Sad, But True!

Well, Third term is over! We're on the home stretch of fourth term. Has anyone noticed, but this school year has gone by so fast? Why? This has been the only school year that I've wished could've gone a little bit slower because next year the ninth grade gets split. Is it because I want it to go slower that it goes faster? I've given up trying to find the answer to that particular mystery.

I've noticed in myself that as the school year goes on, it becomes harder and harder to blog about something. It's not that I'm running out of ideas to blog about! I've got plenty of those. It's just that as the year rolls on, I find myself not writing nearly as much as I was at the beginning. I'm not sure if it's because I'm feeling like I don't have the time or if I'm just stressed about school. Has anyone else come across these "writer's blocks"?

The Infamous "Flu"...with a little Bubonic Plague.

I just never seem to get better. A week ago I had "The Black Plague" (actually, it was Shingles)... this week I have Influenza. As a result, I've completely given up any hope of being a total optimist(which I wasn't ever all that good at anyway because I was always too skeptical.) Instead, I figure that I should continue down the much more effective role of sarcastic optimist. That way my disappointment will hopefully be less disappointing...but who knows? Anyway, my week has been terrible. I hereby state that if you want to be freezing and burning to the extreme at the exact same time, you should get the "Flu". If it doesn't kill you first, you'll find out just how miserable that experience is. So, if any of you start feeling really bad about this time, you might want to go see your local doctor and maybe book a spot for yourself at the morgue...O.K., it isn't that bad. Not that any of you at school should worry about catching it at school. I knew it was possible that I would get it because my brother had it, so I distanced myself and warned most everybody. See, I DO care! Anyway, since I've got nothing better to lecture you on, I might as well "knowledgify" you all on Influenza.

O.K., so the flu dates back two thousand four hundred years, maybe even longer, in Italy. The Italians, known at that time as the Hippocrates, were the first ever to recognize the symptoms of the "Flu", and named it Influence, which has since changed to Influenza. However, the first proven epidemic of the flu was in the 1500's. It started from Asia and came from there to Europe. The next major flu epidemic was dated in the late 1800's and titled as the "Russian Flu". Unfortuanely, next to nothing is known about it, other than approximately 1 million people died. This lack of information was likely due to a lack of organization in Russia at the time.

The next "Flu" epidemic was the infamous "Spanish Flu", which was by far the most deadly of all the flu epidemics. It was dated at 1918-1919, right smack dab at the end of World War I. The close quarters of the soldiers and the intercontinental transporting of troops provided a perfect spreading opportunity for the virus. It killed approximately 25 million people in its first 25 weeks and overall killed 50-100 million more people. This was a very strange flu epidemic. Not only did it have an unusually high death toll among its victims, but it seemed to spread exceedingly fast and was more contagious than other strains. It also had hemorrhagic properties. This version of Influenza hit almost every part of the globe and equaled the death toll of the Bubonic Plague. Although Influenza didn't kill 90% of everyone who got it like the Bubonic Plague did, Influenza had a much longer period where a person did not yet shown symptoms but was already contagious. This allowed for a all together larger number of people to get it over a much longer time. The Bubonic Plague however, killed its victims so fast that as soon as it reached Europe's boundaries, there weren't enough masses of people to keep it alive.

Anyway, I hope you learned something about Influenza and didn't fall asleep! So, get a flu shot before the flu spreads to you. At least wash your hands a lot.