The Effects of the Past in Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations Essay Example

📌Category: Books, Dickens, Great Expectations, Writers
📌Words: 1036
📌Pages: 4
📌Published: 20 April 2022

The past leaves scars that are influenced by memories, impacting the experiences in the present. In Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, a recluse whose life is defined by a single tragic event, named Miss Havisham resides in Victorian England. She has a failed wedding that damages her mentally, causing her to raise her adopted daughter, Estella, to have no sympathy. This leads to the heartbreak of Pip, a young boy who ends up loving Estella with all his heart. Miss Havisham allows the pain and suffering of her past to define her present, which drives her to use Estella as an instrument of revenge on men at the cost of her daughter’s and Pip’s heart.

Because Miss Havisham molds her daughter into a weapon to seek vengeance on men, Estella sacrifices her happiness to protect those she cares about. During Herbert and Pip’s dinner, Herbert explains Miss Havisham’s past: “The marriage day was fixed, the wedding dresses were bought, the wedding tour was planned out, the wedding guests were invited. The day came, but not the bridegroom. He wrote her a letter—” (Dickens 182). Because of her tragic wedding day, Miss Havisham shuts herself away from society. She suffers from psychological damage, which directs her to freeze her life and despise men. The pain and betrayal she felt influences her to choose a lifestyle, a life full of hate and revenge, that transforms her life forever. At Satis House, while Pip and Estella play cards, Miss Havisham observes and whispers something in Estella’s ear: “Miss Havisham would embrace her with lavish fondness, murmuring something in her ear that sounded like ‘Break their hearts my pride and hope, break their hearts and have no mercy!’” (95). Instead of raising Estella as a loving daughter, Miss Havisham uses Estella as a weapon to carry out her only goal in life: to break men’s hearts. She sets up Estella’s life, planning every detail for her quest for revenge. She enjoys training and confusing Estella into charming Pip. Neglecting how others feel, she continues with her plot of revenge, obsessing over the past. When Pip visits Satis House, Miss Havisham questions him about his thoughts of Estella and constantly pesters him about loving her: “I adopted her to be loved. I bred her and educated her, to be loved. I developed her into what she is, that she might be loved. Love her!” (240). Estella is Miss Havisham’s second chance for success in life. Because of her last chance at true love, she puts it all onto Estella, which shapes her into someone who cannot be broken by what she experiences. She thinks she is protecting and doing what is best for Estella, but little does she know that ruins her. The life that Miss Havisham creates and chooses to live in makes Estella endure the pain and destruction of her own life.

Although Miss Havisham has a realization of the pain that she has caused, it is too late for her to fix the damage. Miss Havisham wants Estella to show more affection toward her, but Estella cannot because of how she is raised: “‘You should know,’ said Estella. ‘I am what you have made me. Take all the praise, take all the blame; take all the success, take all the failure; in short, take me’” (304). Because of her mother’s harsh words, Estella clearly understands what her purpose is and the reason for her existence. She knows Miss Havisham uses her and is aware of what her mother wants her to become. This hinders her ability to feel compassion toward others, especially Pip, who loves her. Because she was raised to be loved in the definition of Miss Havisham’s love, Estella cannot give Miss Havisham any love or affection, leaving her with a cold, manipulative heart and a painful life. After finding out about Estella’s marriage to Drummle, Pip begs her to choose any other man to marry, but she refuses to listen:

Out of my thoughts! You are part of my existence, part of myself. You have been in every line I have ever read, since I first came here, the rough common boy whose poor heart you wounded even then. You have been in every prospect I have ever seen since — on the river, on the sails of the ships, on the marshes, in the clouds, in the light, in the darkness, in the wind, in the woods, in the sea, in the streets. You have been the embodiment of every graceful fancy that my mind has ever become acquainted with… (364). 

Estella sacrifices herself by throwing away her future with someone who can care about her. Miss Havisham’s encounter with Pip triggers a complete change that transforms Pip’s life. The power in these words conveys a new perspective, showing the destruction of Pip’s heart. Her actions weaken him, affecting his relationships with those he cared about. She is the one who breaks his heart, not Estella. By manipulating him into loving Estella, she can finally succeed in her vengeance. After finally realizing what she has done wrong, she breaks out of her sanity and feels remorseful about how she raised Estella: “Until you spoke to her the other day, and until I saw in you a looking-glass that showed me what I once felt myself, I did not know what I had done. What have I done! What have I done!… I stole her heart away and put ice in its place” (399). By the time Miss Havisham realizes that all she has done is ruin Estella’s life, she cannot fix her mistakes. Estella cannot show compassion and love, no matter how hard she tries. All that Miss Havisham has accomplished is destroying Pip and condemning Estella, which leaves herself to suffer in her own hands. Although she tries to fix her relations with those she has hurt, the damage done to her daughter will haunt her, just like what her wedding day did to her. Her past changed her present too much for her to change anything back to normal.

Miss Havisham is a heartless person who cannot think about anyone else but herself. Even though she has a breakthrough, she cannot hide what she has done. She abuses Estella, who enters a marriage that ends up exactly how Miss Havisham’s did: broken and damaged. The trauma that she endures passes onto Estella and Pip, destroying their lives, while not being aware of the impact of her actions. Because of this, she allows herself to suffer through the pain of that betrayal. Instead of leaving her past behind, she lives in the past, and brings others in as well, making the present just as difficult to live in.

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