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Great Expectations
- 1. Great Expectations By Charles Dickens Brooke Bittel
- 2. “ I overheard Miss Havisham answer- only it seemed so unlikely- 'Well, you can break his heart .’ ”
- 8. “ I promised myself that I would do something one of these days, and formed a plan in outline for bestowing a dinner of roast beef and plum pudding, a pint of ale, and a gallon of condescension upon everybody in the village”
Editor's Notes
- This passage of the novel is spoken by Pip, a boy who falls in love with a young woman named Estella. As a child Estella is taught by her guardian, Miss Havisham, to break the hearts of men. This is because several years earlier Miss Havisham was stood up at her own wedding, causing her to develop a strong vengeance for men in general. Here Pip overhears Miss Havisham talking to Estella, convincing her to break young Pip’s heart, as compensation for her own personal desires. One of the most significant elements to this passage is that it portrays the personality of both Miss Havisham, and the narrator Pip. Here Miss Havisham is portrayed as conniving and cruel, and we see that Pip is in a sense naive and unaware of the true situation. The tone of this passage is cruel and emotionless. Some tone words that have been highlighted are ‘break his heart’ because this is such a harsh thing to say.
- In this painting, the young woman in the blue dress represents Estella, the old woman represents Miss Havisham, and the decapatated man represents Pip. This painting does a great job of illustrating the relationship between all three of these characters. First off, we see that ‘Estella’ has a blank and emotionless face here, even though she has just done something horrible to ‘Pip’. This is a perfect representation of how Estella can effortlessly crush Pip’s emotions without feeling the slightist bit of guilt throughout the novel. As for Miss Havisham in this painting, she is seen assisting Estella in the gruesome slaying of Pip. She appears to be encouraging the behavior of Estella in the painting by holding open the bag for her, just as she encourages Estella’s cruel actions in the novel. Also, the character that represents Pip in this scenario shows how helpless Pip really is. In the painting the man that has been killed was sleeping, making him extremely vulnerable to the woman with the knife, in the same way Pip is vulnerable when it comes to the cruel actions of Estella, therefore making it easier for her to break his heart, or in this case decapitate him. Lastly, the dark and morbid background of the painting is a good representation of the tone of the story, because it portrays the sense of an eminent doom.
- The reason that this poem relates to the preceding passage is because of the tone. As you can see the words ‘hopeless’ and ‘passionless’ have been highlighted. These two adjectives not only match the depressing and heart-wrenching tone of the novel, but they also suit Estella’s cynical and cruel personality. Throughout the novel Dickens portrays her as a woman that is past any point of changing her ways, making her seem hopeless. The word passionless relates to the painting as well, because like mentioned earlier, Estella’s expression in this painting is emotionless and also passionless.
- This passage was spoken by Estella to Pip, regarding their complicated relationship. Here she attempts to explain to Pip that she is a lost cause, claiming that she has ‘no heart’. The three tone words that have been highlighted are ‘condescending’, ‘beautiful’, and ‘no heart’. All of these tone words directly describe the personality of Estella, because she is very beautiful, which lures in Pip, but she is also very condescending and heartless, which cause most of the conflict throughout the novel. Another thing that this passage shows is how at the beginning of the book Pip had very low self esteem and believed that Estella was much better than himself. Proof of this is when he talks about how she is condescending, ‘as a beautiful woman might’, meaning that he wouldn’t expect to be treated any differently from someone as attractive as her, because he certainly doesn’t think he is deserving.
- As you can see this painting is of a landscape that has been covered over with snow, and there is a sun setting in the distance. In this painting, the landscape is a representation of Estella. The landscape here is dead, cold and empty, much like Estella’s personality. There is also a dead tree on the land, and I think that this represents Estella’s true self, the side of her that has been covered over by her cold and emotionless outer shell, represented by the snow. The dark clouds that most likely brought upon the snow are representative of Miss Havashim, because she is the reason that Estella has grown to be so cold. As you can see there are also birds flying overhead, which represent Pip. The birds here look as though they want to land nearby, but due to the cold snow they are unable to land on the ground. This in a sense displays how Pip desires to marry Estella, but because of her cold and cruel personality, he is unable to begin a relationship with her. As far as the tone of this painting goes, it could be described as desolate and depressing. Also, the red in the clouds, which represent Miss Havisham, is a way of showing her anger and hate towards men and most people.
- This next poem, Dead Love by Algernon Charles Swinburne, shares a tone similar to the previous piece of artwork and text. As you can see some of the tone words that have been higlighted include ‘cold’, ‘dead’, and ‘dark’. These are all adjectives that could be used to describe the painting of the winter landscape, because they share a similar tone of hopelessness and melancholy. Also, the words ‘strained’, ‘yearned’, and ‘strove’ all describe the actions of Pip as he tries to start a relationship with Estella.
- In this passage, Pip is gloating about his new wealth and prosperity. He discusses how he used to think that he would love to have a big feast with his village if he ever had the money, but now that he actually has the money, his attitude changes to snooty. This is shown in the words ‘bestowing’ and ‘condescension’. Because he says that he would ‘bestow’ a dinner upon the people of his village, it gives you a sense that he thinks he is better than everyone else, and that they should be greatly satisfied by receiving a gift from him. The word ‘condescension’ shows that he desires to not just make his wealth known, but to rub it in everyone's faces. This is seen in the way he says he would give them ‘a gallon of condescension’, sort of like saying ‘ a taste of their own medicine. I made the thematic color of this slide green, because it is known as the color of jealousy, and though Pip isn’t really jealous, he is very vengeful, which still portrays a similar emotion.
- This painting, titled ‘Beggars at a Doorway’ is a representation of Pip’s new condescending attitude towards the people of his own village. In the painting you can see the man shows no sympathy to the poor beggars, he simply looks at them with disgust, much like the way Pip treats the lower class people of his own village. Although Pip is not as wealthy as the man in the painting, it is a good way of showing how Pip really thinks of himself. He thinks that he is really an upper class man now, and he probably imagines himself at a similar social status to the man in the painting, when in reality he is not. This painting is more like how Pip imagines he looks to other people, because he developed a large and pompous ego once he obtained some wealth.
- This poem, titled ‘Cui Bono’ describes a man who shares similar traits to Pip later in the novel. Some of the tone words that have been highlighted to prove this include ‘foolish’ ,‘vain’ , and ‘demanding’. These are all personality traits that Pip begins to display towards the middle to end of the novel. One of the most interesting aspects to this poem is the line “Demanding all, deserving nothing;”. The reason this line is so significant is because it explains how Pip goes around demanding peoples respect because of his newly acquired wealth, even though he certainly not deserve it. Also, this poem can be shown to prove Pip’s immaturity, because it is saying a man can be a foolish baby, which is what Pip can seem like at times. As for the color of the slide, I made it a green tone to once again portray that sour attitude that Pip has, and how condescending and egotistical he becomes at this point in the book.