Great hopes. The theme of education in Charles Dickens' novel Great Expectations
In Great Britain, in particular near the city of Rochester, there lived a boy Pip, who was 7 years old, and his older sister. He was left without parents and was raised strictly by his sister. She had a husband, Joe Gargery, a good-natured and simple blacksmith who always protected Pip.
The story that Pete tells begins with the fact that in the cemetery he meets a convict who has escaped from prison. He forces the boy to bring him food and planks to remove the shackles. Pete manages this with difficulty, tormented by internal experiences and fears. Some time later, a stranger in a tavern gives him 2 pounds.
Meanwhile, Pip begins to work in the house of Miss Havisham, who was abandoned by her groom on her wedding day. His duties included not letting Lady Hashivem get bored, entertaining her and her pupil Estella. She inspired her to break the hearts of men. Pip began to feel sympathy for Estella. With the money he earned, he became an apprentice to Joe, but was in every possible way afraid that Estella would see him doing menial work and would despise him.
Some time later he met Mr. Jagger, who told him that he would inherit a large fortune if he left the city. And Pete agreed.
In London, Pip was rented by Herbert Pocket. He easily manages to integrate into society. He imitates his friends, takes lessons from mentors. At the same time, Pip's sister dies.
When Piya was alone in the apartment, a man came to his doorstep, the same escapee from prison. Thanking Pip, he said that Pip’s condition was his doing. And from this Pip experienced great disappointment. The man's name was Abel Magwitch.
From him, Pip learned that he was being pursued by a second convict, who was Miss Havisham's fiancé. Gradually, Pip realizes that Abel is Estella's father, but does not tell anyone about this for the benefit of Estella, who is at that time married to Drumle.
Pip receives a letter asking him to come to the swamp. It was written by Orlik, Joe's assistant. Orlik started a grudge against Pip and wanted to kill him. When it seems that there is no way out, Herbert comes to his aid. Magwitch, who wanted to escape, was captured. He was sentenced to death, but died from his wounds. Until his last breath, Pip was next to him, expressing deep gratitude to him and telling him about the fate of his daughter.
Eleven years later, Pip returns to his native place. He works with his friend Herbert, who has his own family. Joe also got married and has children: a son and a daughter. Pip really wants to see his first love. He hears rumors that she is divorced. In hope, he comes to the old house and meets Estella there. They leave hand in hand.
The novel “Great Expectations” teaches us how to find our happiness no matter what, not to lose ourselves by getting more money, and how resentment and envy can turn a person into a beast.
Picture or drawing Great Expectations
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Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is the greatest English writer of the 19th century. The works of Charles Dickens have not lost their popularity in our time. But if in childhood our parents read his books "Oliver Twist" And "David Copperfield", then today film adaptations of the works of this writer are no less popular. So, not only children, but also adults watch Christmas based on “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. However, this article will focus on another famous work by Dickens, written by him at the peak of his fame. And it's so contradictory and multifaceted novel "Great Expectations"
Great Expectations is Charles Dickens' favorite novel. The success of the novel was obvious, Charles Dickens thought through everything to the smallest detail, he not only managed to make his novel interesting for everyone, but also accessible. After all, in the 19th century, few could afford to buy books; this required money, and most people lived on very little money. Then Dickens decided to publish his large novel in editions. The work was divided into 36 parts, and they were published every week. It would seem that one problem has been solved, but will people buy this novel? Will they follow the releases? To attract the attention of readers, and then maintain it, Dickens combined in one work different types of novel.
Types of novels in Charles Dickens's work "Great Expectations"
1. Gothic Novel
As you know, people have always been drawn to something mysterious, and Dickens decided to add mystery to his work by adding features of a Gothic novel. Thus, the novel begins with a scene in a cemetery, where a lonely boy wandered one evening.
Imagine, there is no one around. Only graves overgrown with nettles and dark crosses. A piercing wind is blowing, and all around, wherever you look, there is a swampy plain, along which, meandering, a gray river slowly creeps towards the sea. The boy finds his parents' grave and is plunged into memories. How suddenly...
Also not least in the novel is a gloomy old mansion that looks like a haunted house. Beautifully furnished, with collections of butterflies, the house of the rich but crazy Miss Havisham is shrouded in darkness and mystery. It seems that the house is a reflection of the inner world of its owner. Long-standing dust, long-stopped clocks, as if the house had long been abandoned, and within its walls Miss Havisham was nothing more than a ghost. She, like the house itself, contains some terrible secret, the solution to which we will only learn at the end.
2. Secular Novel - Silver Fork Novel
3. Social novel - The Social Purpose Novel
Among other things, this is also a social novel - a morally descriptive novel. Here the writer raises such serious problems that concern society, such as class inequality and child labor. In general, it should be noted that the topic of “child labor” is touched upon by the writer in many of his works, for example, “Oliver Twist”, “David Copperfield”. Perhaps because his own childhood was crippled by the lack of that same family well-being. Thanks to his extravagance, the father of the Dickens family (by the way, Charles Dickens was the second child in their large family) ended up in prison for debt. In order to somehow support the existence of the family, Charles's mother sent him to work in a factory. For a twelve-year-old fragile and creative child, working in a blacking factory became backbreaking work. But even after his father’s release from prison, the mother forced her son to continue working, for which the future writer was never able to forgive her. The writer’s childhood can hardly be called joyful; he had to grow up early, which is probably why in his works we so often see pictures of happy families, where children enjoy their youth without worrying about anything. Having matured, Dickens himself created the family that he could only dream of as a child. He, the head of a large family, was proud that he was able to support his family and not deny them anything. Charles Dickens and Catherine Hogarth had 10 children. There is an interesting article about Charles Dickens on this site —> http://www.liveinternet.ru/community/1726655/post106623836/ After all, this is exactly what he himself once lacked. It must be said that the family occupied a central place in Victorian society. A large family was considered an ideal family at that time. An example of such a family was King George's familyIII(Queen Victoria's grandfather).
4. Detective novel - Newgate Novel
The work also included a detective novel. The first scene in the novel begins with the appearance of escaped convicts, then this episode is gradually forgotten, but the writer never does anything for nothing and, as is customary, if in a story there is a gun hanging in a room, then it will definitely fire in the end. Gradually the plot becomes more and more intricate and, therefore, more and more interesting.
5. Love Novel
And finally, where would we be without a love story? Pip and Estella's love story is complicated by the fact that they are people of different social classes. While still a very young boy, Pip was brought to the house of the wealthy Miss Havisham. Then Pip's poor family thanked fate for the fact that their boy was placed in this house. However, everything was not as rosy as it seemed at first glance. Estella looked down on him, as Miss Havisham taught her, because she was to become a lady, while Pip was to become a blacksmith. This love story runs through the entire novel.
A few words about the main characters of the novel “Great Expectations” and their prototypes
First of all, let us recall some facts from, notable in that they largely overlap with the lives of the main characters of the novel. So, at the very beginning of the work, the author paints us a bleak picture of Pip’s childhood. The protagonist's older sister Pipa remains in place of his mother. She is very strict, if not harsh, with her nephew. Already knowing about the writer’s childhood, it’s easy to guess that its prototype is Dickens's mother.
In addition to the prototype of the mother, there is a hero whose features remind us writer's father. And this is the convict Abvil Magwitch, as we remember, my father was also in prison for debt. Abvil Magwitch fatherly follows the life of a boy completely alien to him, and throughout the novel helps him. The writer’s father would also be happy to help his son; he did not demand money from him, as his mother did, so the writer did not have the same hostility towards his father that he had towards his mother.
We have already mentioned the love story between Estella and Pip. Let us note that this girl is being raised by a half-crazy woman who has doomed herself to a slow death in an empty house. Full of hatred and resentment, she tries to instill the same feelings in her pupil. As a result, Estella, obeying her “mother,” rejects Pip, the only one she loves. Charles Dickens himself suffered a similar disappointment, whom he rejected. Maria Beadnell, his first love.
And finally, in the novel, the noble blacksmith Joe, the husband of Pip’s sister, already at the age of 40 marries the young girl Bidda and this marriage turns out to be happy; Charles Dickens himself cherished a similar hope. In 1857, already in adulthood, he also fell in love with a young 18-year-old actress Ellen Terman.
In conclusion, I would like to say that Charles Dickens’s novel is not just great, but the greatest work of all time! Reading the life story of a poor boy and experiencing all the ups and downs with him, we cannot contain our emotions. Although life is sometimes cruel and unfair to the heroes of the work, they manage to overcome all adversity and achieve their goal. Turning page after page, we cannot tear ourselves away from the book, and now, at first glance, a voluminous novel is already lying on our table, read.
Philip Pirrip or Pip lives in a marshy area with his older sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery, the wife of a blacksmith. She runs everything in the house, including her husband.
On Christmas Eve, the boy meets an escaped prisoner in the cemetery, who orders him to bring food. In the morning, Pip steals supplies from the storeroom and takes them to the convict. The psalm-reader Wopsle, the wheelwright Hubble and his wife, and Uncle Joe, Mr. Pumblechook, come to the Gargery family for Christmas dinner. Lunch is interrupted by the arrival of soldiers looking for a fugitive prisoner. Pip and Joe take part in the raid. The captured convict defends Pip, saying that it was he who stole food from the blacksmith.
At Pumblechook's suggestion, Pip is sent to Miss Havisham. The latter turns out to be an old lady in a wedding dress, yellowed with age. Miss Havisham forces Pip to play cards with Estella, a proud, beautiful girl his age. Estella's contemptuous attitude brings tears to Pip's eyes. After meeting Mrs. Havisham, he decides to “get out into the world.”
At the Three Jolly Sailors inn, where Pip goes to pick up Joe, the boy meets a convict who, at the request of his cellmate, gives him a shilling wrapped in two pounds.
Pip spends 8-9 months with Miss Havisham. He fights with a boy his own age, gets a kiss from Estella, and pushes Miss Havisham around the house in a lawn chair. Having learned that Pip wants to be a blacksmith, the old lady gives Joe 25 guineas and sends the boy as an apprentice. After training with Miss Havisham, Pip begins to feel ashamed of his home and blacksmithing.
Mrs. Joe is attacked. Due to a severe blow to the head, she remains confined to the bed. She is taken care of by Biddy, who moved in with the blacksmith's family after the death of Wopsle's great-aunt. One evening, Pip confesses to Biddy that he wants to become a gentleman.
London solicitor Jaggers informs Pip that he will become the owner of a considerable fortune. He will receive money and education only if he keeps the name Pip and never finds out who his benefactor is. Mr. Matthew Pocket is chosen as Pip's mentor.
After receiving the money, Pip begins to change. The tailor and Mr. Pumblechook fawn over him. The boy moves away from Joe and Biddy.
A week later Pip leaves for London. Claire Wemmick accompanies Pip to Mr. Pocket Jr., who turns out to be the boy with whom the main character once fought in Mrs. Havisham's garden. Herbert Pocket tells Pip about how Miss Havisham was abandoned on her wedding day.
The main character constantly lives and studies in Hammersmith - with his father Herbert. He becomes close friends with clerk Wemmick, who outside the office is a kind and honest person.
In London, Pipa visits Joe and informs him of Estella's arrival. Before leaving for his hometown, Pip encounters convicts on the street. One of them is a man who once gave him two pounds.
Estella became a wonderful lady. She confesses her heartlessness to Pip and says that she has never loved anyone.
Pip tells Herbert about his feelings for Estella. Together with a friend, Pip becomes a member of the Finches in the Grove club and begins to waste money. Young people are falling into debt.
Pipa's sister dies. The funeral reminds the young man of a farce.
On the day he comes of age, Pip receives 500 pounds and learns that this is how much he can live on per year. With Wemmick's help, Pip arranges Herbert's future by paying the merchant Clarriker to take him on as his partner.
During one of his visits to Miss Havisham, Pip observes a scene of a quarrel between the old lady and Estella. Miss Havisham wants to receive love from the girl, which Estella is not capable of.
In London, Pip quarrels with Bentley Drumle, a former “classmate” who decided to drink to Estella’s health at the club.
At 23, Pip learns that he owes his education and fortune to an escaped convict whom he pitied as a child. The young man is plunged into a state of shock.
Convict Abel Magwitch served his time in America, but returning to England faces the death penalty. Pip feels an insurmountable disgust for him, but still tries to help him settle in London. Herbert is initiated into the secret of Pip's inheritance.
Magwitch tells Pip and Herbert the story of his life. Abel knew Compenson and Arthur. Compenson is the man who abandoned Miss Havisham. Magwitch and Compenson were convicted together of fraud, but the latter laid all the blame on an uneducated convict and received a much shorter sentence.
Pip learns of Estella and Drummle's engagement. Herbert, on Wemmick's advice, hides Magwitch in the house that his fiancée Clara shares with her disabled father.
At Mr. Jaggers's dinner, Pip sees a clear resemblance to Estella in the lawyer's housekeeper Molly. The young man decides that Molly is the girl's mother. Wemmick tells him that Molly was tried for murder and Jaggers got her acquitted.
Miss Havisham gives Pip 900 pounds to arrange Herbert's fate. When Pip comes in to say goodbye, he sees the old lady begin to burn. He saves her from death, but she dies a while later from her burns.
From Provis's story to Herbert, Pip understands that Magwitch is Estella's father. Mr. Jagger confirms Pip's version.
Joe's former apprentice, Orlik, lures Pip to the swamps in order to kill him. Herbert saves him.
Magwitch's escape, planned by Pip and Herbert, ends with the latter's arrest and the death of Compenson, who betrayed his former accomplice to the authorities. The court sentences Magwitch to death. In the last month of his life, Pip visits him every day in prison. Before his death, Magwitch learns that his daughter is alive.
Charles Dickens
"Great Expectations"
In the vicinity of Rochester, an ancient town southeast of London, there lived a seven-year-old boy nicknamed Pip. He was left without parents, and he was raised “with her own hands” by his older sister, who “possessed the rare ability to turn cleanliness into something more uncomfortable and unpleasant than any dirt.” She treated Pip as if he had been “taken under the supervision of a police obstetrician and handed over to her with the instruction to act to the fullest extent of the law.” Her husband was the blacksmith Joe Gargery - a fair-haired giant, docile and simple-minded, only he protected Pip as best he could.
This amazing story, told by Pip himself, began on the day he encountered an escaped convict in the cemetery. He, under pain of death, demanded to bring “grub and filing” in order to free himself from shackles. How much effort it took the boy to secretly collect and hand over the bundle! It seemed that every floorboard shouted after them: “Stop the thief!” But it was even more difficult not to give yourself away.
They had barely stopped gossiping about the prisoners when in a tavern some stranger discreetly showed him a file and gave him two pound notes (it is clear from whom and for what).
Time passed. Pip began to visit a strange house in which life stood still on the day of the failed wedding of the owner, Miss Havisham. She grew old, not seeing the light, sitting in a decayed wedding dress. The boy was supposed to entertain the lady, play cards with her and her young pupil, the beautiful Estella. Miss Havisham chose Estella as an instrument of revenge on all men for the one who deceived her and did not show up for the wedding. “Break their hearts, my pride and hope,” she repeated, “break them without pity!” Estella's first victim was Pip. Before meeting her, he loved the craft of a blacksmith and believed that “the forge is a sparkling path to an independent life.” Having received twenty-five guineas from Miss Havisham, he gave them for the right to become an apprentice to Joe and was happy, and a year later he shuddered at the thought that Estella would find him black from rough work and would despise him. How many times had he imagined her flowing curls and arrogant gaze outside the forge window! But Pip was a blacksmith's apprentice, and Estella was a young lady who should be educated abroad. Having learned about Estella's departure, he went to the shopkeeper Pumblechook to listen to the heartbreaking tragedy of "George Barnwell". Little could he have imagined that a real tragedy awaited him on the threshold of his home!
People were crowding around the house and in the yard; Pip saw his sister, struck by a terrible blow to the back of the head, and shackles with a sawn ring lay nearby. The constables tried unsuccessfully to find out whose hand struck the blow. Pip suspected Orlik, the worker who helped in the forge, and the stranger who showed the file.
Mrs. Joe had difficulty regaining consciousness and needed care. That's why Biddy, a pretty girl with kind eyes, appeared in the house. She ran the household and kept up with Pip, taking advantage of every opportunity to learn something. They often spoke heart to heart, and Pip admitted to her that he dreams of changing his life. “You want to become a gentleman to annoy that beauty who lived with Miss Havisham, or to woo her,” Biddy guessed. Indeed, the memories of those days “like an armor-piercing shell” shattered good intentions of entering into a share with Joe, marrying Biddy and leading an honest working life.
One day, a tall gentleman with a contemptuous expression on his face appeared at the Three Jolly Sailors tavern. Pip recognized him as one of Miss Havisham's guests. It was Jagger, a lawyer from London. He announced that he had an important mission to his cousin Joe Gargery: Pip was to inherit a considerable fortune on the condition that he immediately leave these places, leave his previous occupation and become a young man of great promise. In addition, he must keep the surname Pip and not try to find out who his benefactor is. Pip's heart beat faster, he could barely mutter words of agreement. He thought that Miss Havisham had decided to make him rich and unite him with Estella. Jagger said that Pip receives a sum that is enough for education and metropolitan life. As a future guardian, he advised him to seek guidance from Mr. Matthew Pocket. Pip also heard this name from Miss Havisham.
Having become rich, Pip ordered a fashionable suit, hat, gloves and was completely transformed. In a new guise, he paid a visit to his good fairy, who had accomplished (he thought) this wonderful transformation. She gladly accepted the boy's grateful words.
The day of parting has arrived. Leaving the village, Pip burst into tears at the road sign: “Farewell, my good friend!”, and in the stagecoach he thought how nice it would be to return to his native roof... But it’s too late. The time of first hopes has ended...
Pip settled into London surprisingly easily. He rented an apartment with Herbert Pocket, the son of his mentor, and took lessons from him. Having joined the Finches in the Grove club, he recklessly squandered his money, imitating his new friends in trying to spend as much as possible. His favorite pastime was compiling a list of debts “from Kobs, Lobs or Nobs.” That's when Pip feels like a first-class financier! Herbert trusts his business skills; he himself is only “looking around”, hoping to catch his luck in the City. Swirling in the whirlpool of London life, Pip is overtaken by the news of his sister's death.
Pip finally came of age. Now he has to manage his property himself, part with his guardian, of whose sharp mind and enormous authority he has more than once become convinced; even on the streets they sang: “Oh Jaggers, Jaggers, Jaggers, the most necessary humaneggers!” On his birthday, Pip received five hundred pounds and the promise of the same amount annually for expenses “as a pledge of hope.” The first thing Pip wants to do is to contribute half of his annual allowance so that Herbert can work for a small company and then become a co-owner of it. For Pip himself, hopes for future achievements fully justify inaction.
One day, when Pip was alone in his home - Herbert had gone to Marseilles - suddenly footsteps were heard on the stairs. A powerful gray-haired man entered; he did not need to take out filings or other evidence from his pocket - Pip instantly recognized that same escaped convict! The old man began to warmly thank Pip for the act committed sixteen years ago. During the conversation, it became clear that the source of Pip’s success was the fugitive’s money: “Yes, Pip, my dear boy, it was I who made a gentleman out of you!” It was as if a bright flash illuminated everything around - so many disappointments, humiliations, and dangers suddenly surrounded Pipa. So, Miss Havisham's intentions to raise him to Estella are just a figment of his imagination! This means that Blacksmith Joe was abandoned for the sake of the whim of this man, who risks being hanged for illegally returning to England from an eternal settlement... All hopes collapsed in an instant!
After the appearance of Abel Magwitch (that was the name of his benefactor), Pip, overcome with anxiety, began to prepare to leave abroad. The disgust and horror experienced at the first moment were replaced in Pip's soul by a growing gratitude for this man. Magwitch was hidden in the house of Clara, Herbert's fiancée. From there it was possible to sail along the Thames unnoticed to the mouth and board a foreign steamer. From Magwitch's stories it was revealed that Compeson, the second convict caught on the swamps, was the dirty deceiver, Miss Havisham's fiancé, and he is still pursuing Magwitch. In addition, from various hints, Pip guessed that Magwitch was Estella’s father, and her mother was Jagger’s housekeeper, who was suspected of murder, but was acquitted through the efforts of a lawyer, and then Jagger took the baby to the rich, lonely Miss Havisham. Needless to say, Pip swore to keep this secret for the benefit of his beloved Estella, despite the fact that by that time she was already married to the scoundrel Drumle. Thinking about all this, Pip went to Miss Havisham to get a large sum of money for Herbert. As he was leaving, he looked back - her wedding dress had flared up like a torch! Pip, in despair, burning his hands, put out the fire. Miss Havisham survived, but, alas, not for long...
On the eve of his upcoming escape, Pip received a strange letter inviting him to a house on the swamp. He could not imagine that Orlik, who harbored a grudge, became Compeson’s henchman and lured Pip to take revenge on him - to kill him and burn him in a huge oven. It seemed that death was inevitable, but his faithful friend Herbert arrived in time to answer the cry. Now on the road! At first everything went well, only a chase appeared near the ship itself, and Magwitch was captured and convicted. He died of his wounds in the prison hospital before his execution, and his last moments were warmed by Pip's gratitude and the story of the fate of his daughter, who became a noble lady.
Eleven years have passed. Pip works in the eastern branch of the company with Herbert, finding peace and care in his friend's family. And here he is again in his native village, where he is met by Joe and Biddy, their son, named Pip, and baby daughter. But Pip hoped to see the one he never stopped dreaming about. There were rumors that she buried her husband... An unknown force draws Pip to an abandoned house. A female figure appeared in the fog. This is Estella! “Isn’t it strange that this house has united us again,” said Pip, took her hand, and they walked away from the gloomy ruins. The fog cleared. “Wide open spaces spread out before them, not darkened by the shadow of a new separation.”
Seven-year-old Pip was an orphan and was raised by his sister and her husband, the huge, but very kind and affectionate blacksmith Joe. Once at the cemetery he met an escaped convict and, fearing for his life, brings him food and sawdust. A little later, the stranger secretly showed him the file and handed him 2 pounds.
Pip began to visit Miss Havisham, an old woman who was abandoned by her groom on her wedding day and has been wearing a wedding dress for many years. The beautiful Estela visits her with Pip. The girl, under the guidance of Miss Havisham, takes revenge on all the men for her, breaking their hearts. With the 25 guineas donated to Miss Havisham, Pip gets an apprenticeship to the blacksmith Joe, but now he does not like his craft, fearing that Estela will see him black from the soot at the anvil. Returning home, Pip sees his sister with a broken head, and sawn shackles lay nearby. He suspects the stranger who gave him 2 pounds and Joe Orlick's assistant. Biddy began to look after his sister, and she and Pip quickly got along and became friends.
One day, a solicitor from London, Jagger, whom Pip met at Miss Havisham’s house, announced that Pip had been bequeathed a huge fortune, but in order to receive it he must go to London and study. Matthew Pocket was appointed his mentor. Pip, dressed in a beautiful suit, went to Miss Havisham, thinking that it was she who had changed his fate. Miss Havisham accepted Pip's gratitude. Pip went to London in the hope that he could soon win the heart of the beautiful Estella. In London, Pip rents an apartment with his mentor's son Herbert, studies and spends money. His sister dies in his native village. On the day he came of age, Pip was given 500 pounds and a guarantee that the same amount would be transferred to him annually. Pip gave half of the amount to Herbert so that he could get a job in the company and become its co-owner.
When Pip was left alone, an elderly man came to him, whom Pip recognized as an escaped convict. It is he who supplies Pip with money for helping him 16 years ago. Pip is upset that it was not Miss Havisham who helped him. But Pip was grateful to Abel Magwitch, a former convict. Magwitch told his story and it turned out that the second convict with whom he escaped is still hunting for him and he is Miss Havisham’s ex-fiancé, and Magwitch himself is Estella’s father. Pip promised to keep everything secret for the sake of Estella's peace of mind, although she was already married. Pip helped prepare Magwitch's flight abroad. And everything went well, only Magwitch was captured right on the ship and he died from his wounds in the hospital at the prison, before he could see his trial.
After 11 years, Pip has become a successful man. He goes home, where blacksmith Joe and Biddy welcome him. They already have two kids. Pip goes to Miss Havisham's house, where he meets Estella. She is a widow. This house introduced them, and now united them forever.
Oshchepkova K.E.
Oshchepkova Ksenia Evgenyevna / Oshchepkova Ksenia Evgenyevna – Faculty of Humanities, Department of Foreign Philology, student
Moscow University of Finance and Law, Moscow
Annotation : education is a responsibility before God, society, the state and one’s conscience. The famous English writer Charles Dickens believed that this is an intimate contact between adulthood and childhood, which is fraught with various dangers. He raised issues of education in his novels, one of which was Great Expectations.
Keywords : Charles Dickens, novel, education, childhood.
Keywords: Charles Dickens, novel, education, childhood.
Behavior is a great mirror,
in which everyone shows their face.
I.V.Goethe
Where does human upbringing begin? It starts at birth, or even earlier. A person is educated by his entire environment: people, things, phenomena, but most of all - people. And the best upbringing teachers are parents.
The family plays an important role in education. In this unit of society, all the basic personality qualities that will be endowed with their “pupil” are laid down. The ability to live in society depends specifically on the family, because a person is a part of society.
If modern society is experiencing a decline, then this cannot be blamed solely on the mores of modern society. First of all, the person is to blame, as a result of his upbringing by his parents. It turns out to be a vicious circle: person-society-person.
Issues of education were discussed by Charles Dickens and E. Zola. The French writer developed the theory of naturalism in his novels, from which it follows that environment and heredity are factors that have a huge influence on the formation of personality. His predecessor, Charles Dickens, was also concerned with the problem of man in society. Everyone knows that the American writer was very concerned about the topic of childhood, because in each of his novels the main character is a child.
As a writer of the Victorian era, Charles Dickens used the following characteristics of an educational novel:
Autobiographical;
Origin story - a child character, most often an orphan, who is characterized by a loss of faith in the value of the concept of family;
Education (scientific and moral-ethical) - obtaining knowledge necessary for the development process, is the main core of the novel;
Trials and wanderings - a journey from home - are rather an escape from provincial or ordinary life, thanks to which the character's character is formed;
Mental conflict - the main conflict lies within the spiritual world of the character himself, and the main goal is to achieve harmony;
Financial independence - the hero’s financial development is achieved through education, gradual honing of skills and work experience;
Love conflict - most characters are tested not only by the environment, money, but also by love; as a rule, pure love is opposed to vicious.
Thus, the central point of education according to Dickens is the dependence of the moral character of the younger generation on the characteristics of the environment and upbringing, where the family plays a special role. It is this social institution that has the initial influence on the child’s character.
In an interview with the London Times, Dickens replied that from the experience of his own life, he knows that the development of such personal qualities as observation, perseverance, independence of thought and action, broadened horizons, the habit of accuracy, order, neatness, diligence, hard work, the ability to concentrate oneself on one goal is what is necessary for success. In other words, the writer explained, it is necessary to cultivate the true, strong, strong-willed character of the individual.
In matters of education, for Dickens, the primary tasks of the educational process in the family are the task of instilling true moral and moral values, as well as “raising a real person. Spirituality and humanism are the main criteria of an educated person, in contrast to the gentleman of the traditional English upbringing of the 19th century. .
This is where the main tasks arise - the search for individual methods and means of training and education. Education, according to Dickens, is an intimate contact between adult life and childhood, which is fraught with various dangers.
Charles Dickens's Great Expectations (1860-1861) is considered a classic educational novel. It retains in its content the defining components - the cyclical nature of the genre (childhood, adolescence, youth), as well as almost the entire range of genre characteristics (the history of the family, knowledge and education through life's trials, etc.).
I will consider Charles Dickens’s novel “Great Expectations” as an attempt to show how much upbringing and the environment influence the formation of personality, and I will also provide a comparative description of the main characters of the novel - Estella and Pip.
Theme of the novel: “Miseducation”
One of the main characters of the novel was left without parents as a child. He was taken into the care of his older sister with her husband Joe and “raised with her own hands.” Her treatment of the boy was excessively strict and cruel.
“My sister, Mrs. Jo Gargery, was more than twenty years older than me, and earned respect in her own eyes and in the eyes of her neighbors by raising me “with her own hands.” Because I had to figure out the meaning of this expression myself, and because I knew that her hand was heavy and hard and that she could not raise it not only against me, but also against her husband, I believed that Joe Gargery and I had both been brought up "with your own hands."
Another of the central objects of the novel is Estella, who grew up in the house of a half-mad aristocrat. Mrs. Havisham raised the girl according to her ideas about life, raising her to be a fatal beauty. I spoiled this girl from childhood and instilled in her a kind of hatred for men.
“Estella’s contempt was so strong that it was transmitted to me like an infection...
She beat me again and threw her cards on the table, as if abhorring the victory she had won over such an opponent.”
Pip's inner circle
Mrs. Joe.
Mrs. Joe was a very clean housewife, but she had a rare ability to turn cleanliness into something more uncomfortable and unpleasant than any dirt.
Always extremely busy, my elder sister attended church through proxies. So she didn't go to church.
“My sister, Mrs. Jo Gargery, was more than twenty years older than me, and earned respect in her own eyes and in the eyes of her neighbors by raising me “with her own hands.” Because I had to figure out the meaning of this expression myself, and because I knew that her hand was heavy and hard and that she could not raise it not only against me, but also against her husband, I believed that Joe Gargery and I had both been brought up "with your own hands."
Throughout the novel, Joe creates the impression of an easy-going man who feared his wife until her death. The result of such complaisance was the almost complete absence of an opinion or the inability to express it.
“My sister was far from beautiful, so I got the impression that she married Joe Gargery with her own hands. Joe Gargery, a fair-haired giant, had flaxen curls framing a clear face, and blue eyes so bright, as if their blue had accidentally mixed with the whites of their own. He was a golden man, quiet, soft, meek, flexible, simple-minded, Hercules both in his strength and in his weakness.”
Estella's inner circle
Mrs Havisham.
Miss Havisham is called a half-mad aristocrat in this novel. On the eve of her own wedding, her fiancé left her, which became the reason for her withdrawn and rather strange lifestyle. Every year she elevated the feeling of loneliness and contempt for people to a cult, passing it on to Estella.
“I have heard something about Miss Havisham from our city - everyone has heard about her for many miles around. They said that she was an unusually rich and stern lady, living in complete solitude, in a large gloomy house, surrounded by iron bars to prevent thieves.”
Problems of improper upbringing
The results of Pip and Estella's upbringing are disastrous. Pip chose a passive way to achieve his goal. He expected happiness to fall from the sky, like the wealth he had acquired thanks to his benefactor.
“Raising my sister made me overly sensitive. Children, no matter who raises them, feel nothing more painfully than injustice. Even if the injustice that the child experienced is very small, the child himself is small, and his world is small, and for him a toy rocking horse is the same as for us a tall Irish racer. Ever since I can remember, I have been waging an endless debate in my soul with injustice.”
Having moved to London, Pip began to lead a social life - namely, spending money aimlessly and spending his days idle. When he signed up as an apprentice to Joe, he knew for sure that he would find something to do, that “blacksmiths are a sparkling path to independent life, to the life of an adult man”
He begins to “do debts,” settle them, and organize dinners.
« we signed up as candidate members of the club, which was called “Finches in the Grove.”
I still don't know for what purpose it was established…»
As for Estella, she became exactly what Miss Havisham made her out to be. It is safe to say that the half-mad aristocrat pursued her own selfish goals, which she achieved. Miss Havisham chose Estella as an instrument for revenge on all men, raising her to be a fatal beauty.
“Break their hearts, my pride and my hope! Break their hearts without mercy!
Estella did not know how to love. Only contempt emanated from her... However, Miss Havisham herself paid for such an upbringing. She demanded the impossible from Estella - love.
“Should I ask you about this?...I am what you made me. You have no one to praise and no one to reproach but yourself; your merit or your sin - that’s what it is ... "
Thus, in the novel “Great Expectations,” the writer shows the “naked truth,” mercilessly exposing the shortcomings of his contemporary social order. According to Charles Dickens, human morality is formed in interaction with the social environment. And one of the main shortcomings of society is improper upbringing, as in the case of Estella and Pip.
Literature
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- Genieva E.Yu. Dickens. M.1989. p.124.
- Genieva E.Yu., Parchevskaya B.M. The Mystery of Charles Dickens // Collection of Bibliography. Research M., Book. Chamber, 1990. p.534.
- Katarsky I.M. Dickens // History of English Literature. Publishing house of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1943, 1945 and 1953. URL: (Date accessed 05/18/2013).
- Articles and speeches of Charles Dickens. [Electronic resource]. URL: (Date accessed 02/04/2013).
- Charles Dickens. Great hopes. AST, Astrel 2011 544 p.
- Chesterton Charles Dickens. M., Raduga.1982 280 p.
- Angus Wilson. The world of Charles Dickens. M., 1970.317 p.
- Clark, C. Charles Dickens and the Yorkshire Schools: With His Letter to Mrs. Hall/Cumberland, Clark. London: Chiswick, 1918.
- Watts, Alan S. The Confessions of Charles Dickens: A Very Factual Fiction / Alan S. Watts - New York: Peter Lang, 1991.
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