Great Expectations Background

About Great Expectations

"The name is Great Expectations. I think a good name?" Dickens to his editor before
he started publishing the novel.
When Dickens started his thirteenth novel Great Expectations in !"#$ he %as
alread& a national hero. 'e had come from humble beginnings %orking as a child in a
shoe polish factor& %hile his famil& %as in debtor(s prison to become the
)uintessential *ictorian gentleman. 'e %as involved in all aspects of English life+
%riting acting producing going on book tours publishing maga,ines and as
al%a&s active in social %elfare and criticism.
-midst all this ho%ever Dickens( private life had entered a dark period. Dickens had
.ust separated from his %ife t%o &ears earlier there %ere rumors of an affair %ith a
&oung actress in the ne%spapers and he %as spending more and more time at his
home in /hatham.
Dickens himself had risen to achieve greater expectations than an& clerk(s bo& could
expect but he had not found happiness. The idea that one must search be&ond
material %ealth and social standings and look %ithin themselves for happiness
becomes the ma.or theme in Great Expectations.
0ome time in !"#$ Dickens had started a piece that he found funn& and truthful and
thought it might do better as a novel+ "...it so opens out before me that I can see the
%hole of a serial revolving on it in a most singular and comic manner" he %rote.
Dickens had told friends that he had gone back and read David /opperfield and %as
)uite struck b& the stor& no% that he looked back upon it. /opperfield %as a happ&
novel the stor& of a &oung man %ho came into his fortune though hard %ork and
luck. Its influences and similarities are seen in Great Expectations. There are
ho%ever some ma.or thematic differences.
Though not considered as autobiographical as David /opperfield %hich he had
published some ten &ears earlier the character of 1ip represented a Dickens %ho had
learned some hard lessons in his later life. Especiall& strong throughout the novel are
the concepts of fraternal and romantic love ho% societ& th%arts them ho% a man
should find them.
2or financial reasons Dickens had to shorten the novel making it one of his tighter
and better %ritten stories. It %as published in serial form as %ere all of his novels
and the reader can still see the rh&thm of suspense and resolution ever& couple of
chapters that kept all of England %aiting for the next issue.
Though a dark novel Great Expectations %as deliberatel& more humorous than its
predecessor - Tale of T%o /ities and even %hile it presented Dickens( ever present
social criti)ue it did so in a %a& that made people laugh.
The greatest difference bet%een Great Expectations and Dickens( earlier novels is the
introduction of dramatic ps&chological transformations %ithin the lead characters as
opposed to characters that are changed onl& through their circumstances and
surroundings. The stor& of 1ip is a 3ildungsroman 44 a stor& that centers on the
education or development of the protagonist 44 and %e can follo% closel& the things
that 1ip learns and then has to unlearn.
-ll in all Great Expectations is considered the best balanced of all of Dickens( novels
though a controvers& still persists over the ending. Dickens had originall& %ritten an
ending %here 1ip and Estella never get back together. 5an& critics including George
3ernard 0ha% believe that this rather depressing ending %as more consistent %ith the
overall theme and tone of the novel %hich began continued and perhaps should have
finished %ith a serious unhapp& note.
6evertheless Dickens published the ending %here all is forgiven and Estella and 1ip
%alk out of the 0atis 'ouse garden together.
It %as perhaps an ending that Dickens %ould have like to have had for his o%n life.
Dickens published one more novel 7ur 5utual 2riend before d&ing in !"8$.