Great Expectations is...Realistic?

     Even if you are only one hundred pages into the more than 600 page novel, Great Expectations, anyone can tell that the book is completely and totally strange.  Let's be honest, we met a character who has had her wedding dress on for years and years after her wedding that she was forced to cancel.  We meet a character who falls in love at the age of only about eight, and is still head over heels in love with the same girl as an adult(not to mention the times and times she has tried to tell him that she was not in love with him).  We meet a character who spends her time using her very own daughter as a weapon of male misery.  But, even with all of the crazy scenarios that Charles Dickens creates for the novel, it is surprisingly realistic when you take a minute to look at the big picture.

    

     An incredibly realistic aspect is the influence of parents in the novel, particularly, Estella and her mother by adoption, Miss Havisham. Miss Havisham has gone through awful experiences with cruel men, and as a result she absolutely hates all men and trains Estella to break the hearts of as many as possible.  Miss Havisham's influence clearly rubbed off on Estella when she tells Pip that she actually lacks a heart; she is simply incapable of love. While parental influence isn't always present in children it definitely usually is.  For example, children with a extreme political views, tend to have the same views as the parents.  

     In addition, probably the most important message in the story, the harm of extremely high and unattainable expectations helps to make the novel very realistic.  After Pip's fantasies of being raised up to a gentleman by Miss Havishman and going off with Estella to live happily ever after, were crushed before his eyes, he was nothing but distraught.   The only part of his expectations that he actually got was money; the benefactor was not Miss Havisham. He was not to marry Estella.  Likewise, people always build up expectations to way to high and and are let down when they do not happen.  This may sound silly, but one of my mom's favorite stories to tell about me was when I was about five or so, and I asked Santa for a Barbie doll house.  Instead, what I got was a much better quality wooden doll house.   But, that was not what I expected, and it wasn't good enough.  Maybe we should all try to do what they all say: expect the worst.

     Sometimes it's just aggravating to read Charles Dickens because of his confusing plots and overly sophisticated language but we must appreciate just how much of a genius he is for creating such a crazy story that somehow is, at the same time, very realistic.  He is able to teach lessons through his writing that can benefit many, many people.