The more I contemplate the similarities between Pip and Miss H., the more convinced I become that Dickens is reiterating an important theme for a reason.
This theme is, mainly, heart-break. Although the theme is easy enough to understand as it is told throughout the book, it takes on a more complicated form when you compare the heart-breaking experiences of Pip to Miss H.'s. Both are spurned by the person they love the most and both begin that love with hope; a hope that is fueled by denial until it is completely crushed. The main difference between their experiences is that Miss H. had no control over the outcome of her heart-breaking experience, whereas Pip willingly continues his pointless courtship, although he is fighting against an outcome that has been insured in so many ways. He fights against many years of taught harshness and coldness; he fights a heart that refuses to succumb to love.It is perhaps this difference that leaves the reactions between Pip and Miss H. to part ways. Miss H. abandons love and revenges herself on the world, eventually leaving the world a broken person. Pip, although by no means happy, eventually accepts the inevitable. Anybody else have thoughts on this topic?
5 comments:
I absolutely agree with you. If I may add to it, I believe Dickens is also contrasting the difference in age and naivety between Mrs. Havisham and Pip. Mrs. Havisham has “seen it all” when it comes to heartbreak and has been destroyed by it. In contrast, Pip is brand new to it all and has nothing but the possibility of heartbreak and pain awaiting him, ultimately resulting in a life like Mrs. Havisham’s if he continues down the path he’s headed. It’s almost like a before and after view of a similar situation. Sort of like a “what is Pip going to do with his situation that differs from Mrs. Havisham’s” kind of thing. It also entices the reader’s curiosity concerning Pip’s emotional outcome.
I agree with you too. Miss H. is actually my favorite character in the book because of this. I think she's really interesting because of the way she reacted to heartbreak. Also, I noticed a lot of parallels like this in the book and it was easy to connect characters to each other because of it.
I would, in a way, slightly disagree with that final bit of the assessment of Pip. While it may seem from Pip's words towards the end of the novel that he has accepted the inevitable, intimating that he realizes that Estella is beyond his reach, I feel that this is merely a seemingly rational front which he places before him to satisfy those around him, who have already come to that same conclusion, or possibly to act as an emotional shield against further pain from that direction. However, I got the impression that his acceptance is only skin deep; deep down, Pip still had an emotionally based hope that he could someday, somehow be with Estella. Pip states on multiple occasions that Estella had always occupied a place in the forefront of his mind. I think that the skin-deep element of his acceptance of the inevitable is also shown by his 11 years working as a bachelor with/for Herbert in the firm. In all those 11 years, Pip, while not wealthy per-say, but not poor, and by no account a bad match in any way, fails to find any other person to fill that place in his heart. This is a full 11 years after the last time he even spoke to or corresponded with Estella, and after she had been married to another man (although I suppose the last 2 years he may have known that her husband was dead). To me it seems that a relatively suitable bachelor near the prime of his life would have been able to find somebody who he could have loved, if his heart were not already filled. I'd say that it was a hope that someday him and Estella might be together that kept him back all those years. Although rational and emotional thought do not really need to coincide, it would seem to me that someone who had truly accepted then inevitable would eventually have been able to rein in their emotional hopes after so long a period of time, and such a gulf between them and the object of their affection. Furthermore, I think that it is this hope which truly sets Pip apart from Ms. Havisham. That is the hope which allows him to fight his way forward in affection of Estella even through great spurn and disappointment of his youth, and in a way,which drives him to make the connections of her parentage.
I don't think that Miss H. ever gave up on love. After all she had all the clocks stopped at the time of the wedding and dressed in her gown every day, its as if she was always waiting, hoping that her groom would return.
I agree with Will and Connor. Miss Havisham was ultimately consumed with finding true love. Since her epic failure of a wedding day, she has never given up on it. She dresses and keeps everything the same in hopes that she will one day have true love. Pip is directly parallel to Miss H in this way. As Will said, Pip's admittance that Estella would never be his is only skin deep. In the end of the novel, Pip ends up walking in the garden hand in hand with Estella. This does not sound like someone who had given up on love. All his life Pip could think of none other than Estella. He was holding out for her the entire time, and when that time finally came, he was ready.
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