The second and third will be released successively every Friday (Editor’s note j, Ré Crivello)
When I was a little girl of 8 years old, my sister, Hayley, was born. Hayley was a dreadful baby, she cried all the time, and she would not sleep, ever.
My dad was sleeping in the spare room, so I moved in with mom to help her with the baby. I did get Hayley to go to sleep a few times by walking her around for a few hours while she wailed non-stop.
One evening, Mom and I watched Great Expectations. I’m not sure if I would have been allowed to watch it if Mom hadn’t been very tired, but watch it I did, and I never forgot the opening scene when Pip meets Magwitch in the graveyard. I also remembered Miss Havisham in her wedding dress living in her spooky dark house with the banquet table covered in rotting food among which rats played and spiders nested.
During my first year of high school (12 turning 13), I read the original of Great Expectations with a dictionary by my side. I looked up words I didn’t know and some of them, like countenance, I’ve never forgotten.
This is the opening scene from the original movie of Great Expectations that I never forgot:
I have re-read Great Expectations a few times over the years, it is my favourite Dickens by far, and I listened to the audio book recently.
I thought I would write a few posts about it, and this is the first in which I will share an overview of the book. If you haven’t read it and know nothing about the story, but wish to read it in the future, don’t read this overview as it will contain spoilers for the story.
An overview of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Pip is an orphan boy who lives with his older sister an her husband on the marshes in Kent. His sister is an overbearing woman who abuses Pip physically and mentally and also mentally abuses her kind and gentle husband, Joe. Joe tries to protect Pip from the worst of his sister’s unkindness, but he is not willing to be overly confrontational with his wife so his protection is limited. Joe reminded me a lot of gentle Matthew Cuthbert from Anne of Green Gables although Pip’s sister, referred to as Mrs Joe in the book, makes Marilla Cuthbert seem kindly and pleasant by comparison.
Pip has a habit of visiting his parents’ graves in a lonely graveyard on the marshes. While he is visiting their graves on Christmas Eve of his 7th year, Pip is discovered by an escaped convict. This convict, who we later find out is called Abel Magwitch, uses vile threats to compel Pip to bring him a file and food early on Christmas morning. Pip’s conscious smites him all night, but his fear forces him to steal food, in particular a beautiful pork pie, and alcohol from his sister’s pantry and take it to the graveyard. On the way, Pip comes across another escaped convict, who we later discover is called Compeyson. Pip tells Magwitch about Compeyson, thinking they are friends, but it is quickly obvious they are not.
Later on Christmas Day, Pip witnesses both convicts being recaptured while fighting each other in a ditch.
Pip’s pompous Uncle Pumblechook, a man of some financial means and obsessed with social standing, arranges for Pip to go to the home of an aging wealthy woman who is very odd and reclusive but who has an adopted daughter, Estella. Pip is to play with Estella and amuse the older woman, Miss Havisham.
When Pip arrives, he discovers that Miss Havisham was jilted at the altar by her fraudulent fiance who conspired with her jealous half-brother, Arthur, to swindle her out of a sum of money. Miss Havisham never recovered mentally and still wears her wedding dress and the wedding feast is still laid out in the great hall. All the clocks in her decrepit and decaying house were stopped at twenty to nine in the morning which was the time Miss Havisham discovered her fiance’s treachery. She is eccentric and embittered and seeks revenge on all men for her fiance’s and brother’s betrayals. She raises her daughter, Estella, to be cold and plotting an an instrument for her future revenge on all men.
Pip is greatly influenced by the wealth he sees in Miss Havisham’s house, Estella’s beauty and haughty manner and dismissal of him as a labourer who is far beneath her in social standing. He wishes to uplift himself in her eyes and sets about trying to improve his own education and standing in life. Pip becomes disgruntled with his own proposed future of becoming an apprentice to Joe and learning his trade as a blacksmith. An arrangement Pip had previously looked forward to but after working for Miss Havisham for several months, seems to keep him in his place as a lowly labourer.
Pip sister is meanwhile attacked and sustains a serious injury which leaves her brain damaged. His teacher, Biddy, moves in with him and Joe to help look after Mrs Joe.
Miss Havisham lets him go from her employment some months later, after ensuring he is indentured to Joe as an apprentice.
Not long after Pip starts working for Joe, he is visited by a prominent London lawyer, Mr Jaggers, who tells him he has a secret benefactor who wishes him to be brought up to be a gentleman. Arrangements are made for Pip to leave Joe’s employ and his sister’s home and go to London to live as a gentleman and obtain an education. Pip wants to go and turns his back on his old life in order to try to win Estella’s affections. Pip is convinced Miss Havisham is his secret benefactor and intends for him and Estella to ultimately marry. Pip does not make any attempt to gain employment or use his better education to earn his own living, preferring to live a life of idleness and runs of debt. Pip expects to settle this debt when he comes into his ‘expectations’.
This is the scene when Pip meets Miss Havisham and Estella from the original Great Expectations:
The next post will discuss the second part of this book.
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