Judgement of Pip and Havisham

I believe that it is very easy to be unfairly critical of the characters in Great Expectations in general. We often hold these characters up to how we think an ideal character should be, and we forget that Dickens has intentionally written common human faults and emotions into these characters.

It is easy, for instance, to write off Miss Havisham as a stereotypical crazy old woman, serving the same "purpose" as the Bronte mad wife in the attic. In reality, I believe Dickens' character to be posessing so much more realism than this soap opera stereotype. The main feeling the reader receives about Miss Havisham is not one of madness, but of bitterness. Miss Havisham is a direct victim of the evils and cruelty of the upper class, a cruelty that we see portrayed in so many ways in Great Expectations. Each of us as readers have expressed our dislike of the London characters, who have corrupted Pip and who treat the lower class Joe with disgust and distain. Miss Havisham is driven by feelings similar to our own. Her way of dealing with it may appear extreme, but her treatment and betrayal by the upper class is just as extreme. What we see as her madness is merely a more intense version of the similar reaction that which we ourselves feel towards the Londoners.

Similarly, it is easy for the reader to harshly judge Pip for his shame of Joe and the lower class in general, which some may call a betrayal. Once again, however, I view Pip as a victim. Throughout his entire life pip has been treated with disgust by those around him. As a child, his own sister and her friends called him a menace and said he was not worthy of their bringing him up as well as they did. Obviously he holds a bitterness towards those who have treated him so badly, and he seeks a way to overcome their cruelty. In meeting Miss Havisham, he notices that Pumblechook and his sister bow down to her very name, because of her wealth and standing. Finally, then, he sees a way to ascend above those who have done him so much wrong in his life, and his dream is to become a member of the upper class. However, when he finally attains his dream, his problems are not solved. He is not accepted by the upper class because of his "commonness". Once again he seeks to rise to their level by driving out all remaining connection to his previous life, namely Joe and Biddy. No matter what he does, however, he is not fully accepted into the Londoners' group. Worse, when he visits his old town, he discovers that in him absense, Pumblechook has been using Pip's advance for personal gain. Thus have all of Pip's attempts to escape the cruelty of others been used against him, and he has alienated the only characters who have always treated him with kindness, Joe and Biddy.