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An essay about victorian society
Society's views in the Victorian era
An essay about victorian society
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Estella is Miss Havisham’s puppet because she has no control over her life. Miss Havisham devoted a period in her life to raising Estella to be exactly who she wanted her to be. Miss Havisham made Estella into a heartless doll of her creation. Miss Havisham told Estella to be especially cruel to Pip. Estella shows non-sentimental emotions toward Pip. She tells him she doesn't remember anything from their childhood. This showed Pip that Estella did not care enough about him to reflect on the times that they had spent together. Miss Havisham's bleakness made Estella a terrible person. Miss Havisham taught her student to break hearts, so she hurt Pip because he loved her. Furthermore, her groom abandoned Miss Havisham on her wedding day. Miss
In Great Expectations, Pip is set up for heartbreak and failure by a woman he trusts, identical to Hamlet and Gertrude, but Pip is rescued by joe who pushes Pip to win the love of his life. Similar to Gertrude in Hamlet Miss Havisham becomes a bystander in Pip’s life as she initiates the play that leads to heartbreak several times and she watches Pip’s life crumble due to her teachings. The next quote shows Miss Havisham explaining to Pip the way she manipulated his love Estella to break his heart every time. “‘but as she grew, and promised to be very beautiful, I gradually did worse, and with my praises, and with my jewels, and with my teachings… I stole her heart away and put ice in its place’” (Dickens, 457). This quote makes it clear the Miss Havisham set Hamlet up for failure by making him fall for a woman he could never have.
After Estella defies Miss Havisham and breaks Pip’s heart by announcing her marriage to Drummle, “the spectral figure of Miss Havisham, her hand still covering her heart, seemed all resolved into a ghastly stare of pity and remorse” (Dickens, ). In this moment, several significant changes happen to Miss Havisham. For one, she sees the heartbreak and agony she experienced when she was left at the altar mirrored in Pip. Instead of feeling satisfied and healed, Miss Havisham’s pain is only deepened by her guilt. Many other things also backfire. Miss Havisham realizes the monster she created from Estella by filling her with only pride, not love, is her ultimate downfall. From this, her delusion is vanished as she sees the world for what it truly is with Pip as a mirror for seeing the wrong in her actions. Trying to redeem herself, Miss Havisham begs for forgiveness, helps Herbert Pocket, and leaves a fortune to Herbert’s father. These actions display maturity because she sacrifices her pride by begging for Pip’s forgiveness and giving away the weapon she used to enthrall people- money. Additionally, after Pip shows her grace even after experiencing Miss Havisham’s pain, it is possible that she could realize that she should forgive herself and everyone else too. By being able to overcome her pride and her unforgivingness, we can infer that Miss Havisham is able to move on from the
Since both Estella and Pip were kids Estella showed no compassion towards Pip. After going to Miss Havisham’s for the day, Estella is told to feed Pip. He tells the reader that she basically throws everything at him and treats him like a dog then watches him cry and enjoys it. (Dickens p.68). Young Pip also narrates, “But, I felt that the kiss was given to the coarse common boy as a piece of money might have been, and that it was worth nothing.”(Dickens 102) Estella always knew that Pip was in love with her, yet she never reciprocated the feeling and simply exploited his weakness. The reader can understand and somehow excuse her behavior because she has Miss Havisham as her main example. Estella even explains how amusing it is when people are surprised by the way Miss Havisham treats them in chapter 33. This shows how cruel Miss Havisham is and how cruel Estella is as a result of
and bad characters, as Biddy is said not to have a bad bone in her
By this point in the novel, Estella has suffered enormously, and is made into a better, more sympathetic person for it. Although this comes through in the original version, it is made even clearer in the second version. As Estella herself says, "I have been bent and broken, but--I hope--into a better shape" (439; ch. 59). This not only ties into the theme of blacksmithing in the novel, but also is different from the first ending because she is actually mentioning her change, as opposed to Pip remarking of it to the reader (Sadrin 176). Since Estella has suffered, the reader is meant to see that now she will be able to be with Pip. In a sense, she has suffered in order to be a worthy match for Pip. However, this goes against the "tone of pessimistic irony which pervades and helps to unify the novel" (Sucksmith 112). After everything that Pip has gone through, it seems quite a stretch that he and Estella can be happy together, or even have a possibility of being together after everything they have been through. Throughout the novel, Dickens has made it quite clear that Estella is above Pip, socially and financially. "She called me 'boy' so often, and with a carelessness that was far from complimentary" (70; ch. 8). By having Estella act snobbishly towards Pip, Dickens creates a huge gap ...
Pip judges Estella for her beauty and turns her into an object instead of a person, therefore what he feels for her is not love; Estella is objectified by everyone in her life and can therefore never love because she is more of a doll than a person. Because love is a relationship based on trust and mutual respect, all that Pip is experiencing is infatuation. And just as inanimate objects are not treated as human beings, Estella is unable to love others because they doesn’t treat her as a human being. As a result, both of them are living a life void of love. The plot and characters of Great Expectations all illustrate that love and infatuation are not the same thing, but are inherently different. Although characters and people in real life “fall in love”, they really only scratch the surface of what love truly is. Love at first sight remains a popular trope in fiction and it ultimately portrays love as physical attraction rather than time and care; love is accepting people’s flaws and trying to help them. In the end, people must let go of the simplicity of infatuation and learn to love for more than
One key similarity between Pip and Miss havisham is that they both have influenced Estella as a priority. Miss Havisham influenced her from a young age to hate men because of the mortification
In order to make more money Pip’s uncle sends Pip to a psychotic old lady’s house named Mrs. Havisham. Mrs. Havisham is a mean and nasty character who constantly bickers at Pip and tells him of his unimportance. Pip continues to be mild mannered and respectful to Mrs. Havisham yet he begins to see that he will never get ahead in life just being nice. Mrs. Havisham uses Pip as sort of a guinea pig to take out her passion of revenge against men. She does this by using her daughter, Estella to torment Pip.
With the opportunities that came with her enormous wealth, Miss Havisham abused her power and broke poor Pip’s heart, merely because she found similarities between him and a commoner of her past, Compeyson, who hurt her. She oppressed Pip’s feelings by training Estella to “break [his] heart and have no mercy” (Dickens 58). Throughout Pip’s life, he continued to love Estella against reason, even “if she [favored him]...If she [wounded him]...If she [tore his] heart to pieces” (127). Along with Pip’s growing affection for Estella, Miss Havisham continuously crushed Pip’s spirit. Miss Havisham made sure to shatter Pip’s dreams of
In the novel, Miss Havisham’s negative thinking causes her to evoke feelings of manipulativeness and arrogance. For example, Miss Havisham states, “Here me, Pip! I adopted her to be loved. I bred her (Estella) and educated her, to be loved. I developed her into what she is, (arrogant and proud) that she might be loved”(240). Why does Estella have to become a tool for Miss Havisham’s revenge? Estella’s negative influence comes from Miss Havisham. Finally, Estella states,”who taught me to be hard? Who praised me when I learnt my lesson? “But to be proud and hard to me!” Miss Havisham quietly shrieked, as she stretched out her arms” (305). Miss Havisham brainwashed Estella to break the hearts of men, but when she questions Miss Havisham, they act in accordance for one
Adopted by Miss Havisham as a baby, Estella rises to a high social standing. Raised to be protected from Miss Havisham’s mistakes in love, she is trained to repress notions of romantic love. By “[stealing] her heart away and [putting] ice in its place,” Miss Havisham thus prevents Estella from gaining the ability to achieve true happiness in life. The true meaning and feeling of love is unknown to Estella. Condescension and insensibility to others is sowed into her being early on, and she only can become more incapable of loving as she matures. When Pip is hired to become her playmate, she revels in the opportunity to exercise her prowess. Encouraged by Miss Havisham, Estella hones her ability to break hearts with Pip, but he is only the first of the many destined to befall that fate.
Miss Havisham is a old lady that is dieing off and does not want people to just be there so when she dies they can get her money. People like that will make her uncomfortable and will make her not want to see anybody or talk to anyone. Miss Havisham talks to Pip and Estella because she knows that there no just their for the money there their because they actually care about her and what she is living through. The reason why Dickens included this incident into his novel is to clearly show Miss Havisham feelings throughout the story to show off how her character acts and why she acts a certain
Pip is an abused orphan living with his ungrateful and prideful sister and her husband who is a blacksmith. Uncle Pumblechook took him to see Miss Havisham and Estella. To entertain the lonely old lady, Pip would play with Estella, her adopted daughter. During these times, Pip gets called out on his course hands, dirty clothes, and his commonness by Estella. On page 43, Pip says, "I had never thought of being ashamed of my hands before; but her contempt
Miss Havisham's has what can only be called a grotesque fetish towards women who hurt men, this is due to her herself being broken by a man. Pip detects Miss Havisham's strange desire to have Estella constantly mentally & emotionally abuse him very early on, however when Estella treats Havisham coldly as well, she goes ballistic. The confrontation addresses the elephant in the room, Estella's mounting cruelty towards people. Estella declares that her "mother by adoption" has made her cruel and incapable of love. In response Miss Havisham claims that Estella is being "proud" or "hard," Estella responds by saying, "Who taught me to be hard?" Estella had not chosen the life thrust upon her by her bitter caretaker but after the confrontation she has embraced as her own and even perfected it.
Miss Havisham is this way because of Compeyson, the man who left her at the altar. Compeyson broke Miss Havisham’s heart, and because of this Miss Havisham molds Estella to break men’s hearts as revenge. Miss Havisham tells Pip, “‘If you knew all my story…you would have some compassion...and a better understanding’” (400). Although Miss Havisham takes her revenge very extreme, she is a believable character. She suffered from heartbreak and wanted revenge, but without realizing she made Pip feel like she once did with Estella. Miss Havisham relates to Pip and Estella more than she first realizes. Miss Havisham trains Estella to be like Compeyson, and like her, Pip’s the victim. When Pip confronts Estella, Miss Havisham realizes, “‘I saw in you a looking-glass that showed...what I once felt’” (399). Pip’s relationship with Estella ended like Miss Havisham’s relationship with Compeyson, but even though it was supposed to end with Estella breaking Pip’s heart, Miss Havisham suddenly realizes what she had done. She had made someone innocent feel what she felt, and because of this, she was no better than