Introduction
We live in a materialistic society where people are so accustomed to judge others by their appearance. We care so much about how much money we make, what kind of car we drive, what brand of clothing we wear, and many more things that are visible to people around us. Most of us know that we should not do this but the temptation is too great. In his novel Great Expectations, Dickens makes us think what we should value the most in this materialistic world. Amanda Craig’s article on Charles Dickens’s “Great Expectations” reminds us on the importance of having love inside us and tells us that “it is love, not money or social graces, that makes you fully human” (Craig 52). In her article “’Sneaking You as Writes but One’: A Note on Forgery and Identity in Great Expectations” Marie McAllister tells us although it might seem that our society values more the external qualities of a person and it might seem to be failure from the society’s perspective, it is a true success if one is true to oneself and keep one’s “essential goodness” of human nature (McAllister 159). We should be very careful not to assess or criticize other people based on what is seen on the outside. We need to cherish and honor the internal qualities such as genuine love, honest, purity, and humanity which make us truly who we are.
The first article, on Charles Dickens’s “Great Expectations”, by Amanda Craig revolves around love. She brings out a couple of incidences where a given character is rescued by another due to the love that exists between them. Evidently, in the onset of the article, Pip falls in love with Estella at a very tender age. Pip also assists Magwitch, a convict, with a file and food when he gets hold of him unawares at Pip’s parents tombstone. Pip decides to help Magwitch due to the loving kindness and compassion that he had towards the convict. This would be very unlike what most of the readers today would do if they were faced by such a circumstance. In his novel, Charles Dickens points out that, Magwitch is so moved by the actions of the young boy that he decides to allow the young boy to inherit his fortunes back in Australia. The main idea that Amanda Craig is trying to articulate is the necessity of love in the assembly of the “gentleman” attribute that Pip had always desired. Craig says that “presentation, charm and manners are indeed worth learning but the gentleness, courtesy, truthfulness, and courage …should constitute the true gentleman.” suggesting that what is inside is more important than what is seen outside, and that it is internal qualities what makes one “fully human” (Craig 52).
The second article, “Sneaking You as Writes but One: A Note on Forgery and Identity in Great Expectations”, by Marie McAllister, focuses on Pip’s attempt and failure to write in fifty hands. Just as Orlick suggests being a gentleman is all about being able to “know how to write fifty hand, and not like sneaking you as writes but one” (McAllister 158). By saying this, he challenges Pip that he should know how to disguise himself to be a gentleman just like Compeyson did. Compeyson who does business in “the swindling, handwriting forging, stolen bank-note passing, and such-like” (272) successfully disguises to be a true gentleman, a true lover of Miss Havisham and a good partner to Arthur and Magwitch. He dresses like a gentleman. He speaks like a gentleman. He acts like a gentleman. People presume he is a gentleman because of his external qualities. But in truth, he is a “con man, the betrayer of Magwitch, and the breaker of Miss Havisham’s heart (McAllister 159). From Orlick’s point of view, Pip has failed to write in fifty hands because he could not dispel who he is. Although “he sought to shrug off his past and become another person – to write another hand”, he has not been able to be a real forger yet (McAllister 158). According to McAllister, his inability to forge reveals his “essential goodness” which differentiates Pip from Compeyson (McAllister 159). To reinforce this, McAllister points out in the last paragraph of the article that Pip was “the child who wanted to escape home to write his future in another hand” but “has become a man quite the opposite of the forger Compeyson (McAllister 159).
Comparing the two articles, one by Amanda Craig and the other one by Marie McAllister, the second article by Marie McAllister makes the more interesting and persuasive points with regard to the quest of being a “gentleman” which is the “great expectation” that Pip has been having since his childhood. By comparing Compeyson’ success and Pip’s failure, the article analytically and contrastively emphasizes the importance of internal quality. The article gives glimpse of stereotypical understanding of a gentleman at the time. Compeyson is protruded as an example of a gentleman. He is educated, very articulated, good-looking, and knows well about the lifestyle of the upper class (271). From what is showing outside, he is perceived as a gentleman in public. However, his business is “the swindling, handwriting forging, stolen bank-note passing, and such-like” (272) and indeed he is a “con man in a gentleman’s costume; the betrayer of Magwitch; the breaker of Miss Havisham’s heart” (McAllister 159). By using Compeyson as an example, the article shows that people’s perceived criteria for gentlemen is based only on the external elements such as wealth, attire, and refined manner. Like Compeyson did, in Pip’s society anyone can be recognized as a gentleman and can pose as a gentleman if one has the external features, money, nice cloths, and etiquettes. It is possible because qualification of a gentleman decided by material and acceptable appearance. In this kind of society a gentleman is no different from a snob and a snob is a gentleman. According to Orlick, Pip failed to be a gentleman because he failed to write in fifty hands. However, this inability to write in fifty hands reveals his “essential goodness” and it is what made him come to realize and recover his morality. Also it was his “essential goodness” that made him “recognize Joe’s worth, forgive Miss Havisham, and shoulder the burden of helping Magwitch escape” (McAllister 159). It may seem that he failed externally, however, indeed he truly succeeded internally: Pip has “learned to see through the fine appearances of a world” (McAllister159) and became a true gentleman in his heart. That is why McAllister said that Pip has become “a man quiet the opposite of the forger Compeyson” (McAllister 159).
Pip’s learning “to see through the fine appearance of a world” (McAllister 159) did not happen overnight. As soon as he finds out that he will receive a great expectation he starts pitying his hometown neighbors and start thinking he is superior. Especially, when Joe came to London to see him he felt shame and was embarrassed and treated him very coldly and snobbishly. He quickly conforms to the society’s standard frame of gentleman. It seems to be successful as McAllister points out that “the clothes Pip wears, the dialect he speaks, and the view he takes of the world are a gentleman’s” (McAllister 158). Pip is “taught to value form rather than content” (Craig 52), and accommodates himself to the corrupted values of the society and becomes a materialistic person. He wastes and spends his money extravagantly. He forgets about his old simplicity, innocent, honesty and rapidly slips into a refined materialistic snob that values material and appearances. It is obvious that it is his snobbish materialistic consciousness that caused such a strong hatred toward Magwitch when they reunited in London. However, innately Pip has good conscious and love for people around him.
Pip is a very generous and sympathetic in his heart. It is from his essential goodness that he helps Magwitch who was a criminal yet he had not met him in the past. This internal quality was very touching for Magwitch and this is the reason he defends him from the police by saying that he had stolen the file from the young boy. It is also the reason why he follows him to London so that he can be able to give him his property due to the compassionate manner that he treated him at the tombstone. It was because of the internal kindness and love that Pip possessed that he decided to protect Magwitch from the police. He decided to take care of him and hide him. Though at last Magwitch landed in the hands of the police, it is clear that Pip had done a lot to make sure that he was able to leave London safely.
Through his kindness, he comes to realize that one can only be judged within society by his or her kindness and the position he are she occupies with the social hierarchy nor his outer appearance. Pip understands and accepts Mathew Pocket’s advise “no man who was not a true gentleman at heart, ever was, since the world began, a true gentleman in manner” (141). Once he has learned these lessons, Pip recovers his true great expectation, true humanity and morality. This is shown in the scenes where he helps out Magwitch’s escape and when he was keeping Magwitch’s last moment after unsuccessful attempt to escape. He realizes that Joe who he felt ashamed of and Magwitch who he detested very much are actually better human beings than he is. It is a result of his introspection that the society’s understanding and criteria of gentleman reflects only the shell that true humanity is excluded. This can be seen when he blesses Joe who takes care of him even though he was very ungrateful and insensible of Joe’s kindness and indicates him as “gentle Christian man” (362). Pip was not successful getting the material great expectations but instead he received the mortal great expectation.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the novel Great Expectation by Charles Dickens tells us that what seems be true outside is not necessarily always the truth and that the essential goodness of human nature should be valued the most in this materialistic world. The article by Marie McAllister best captures this idea. It is hence reasonable to conclude that the central theme within this book is to cherish the internal qualities which make us truly who we are and to learn to value the qualities what are invisible.
Works Cited
Craig, Amanda. “Amanda Craig on Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations.” Rev. of Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens. Newstatesman (2008): 51-52. Print.
Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993. Print.
McAllister, Marie. “A note on Forgery and Identity.” Rev. of Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens. Heldref Publications (2008): 158-159. Print.