If you have read “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens, you should know the variety of topics it deals with. This novel was written during the Industrial Revolution, where the differences between social classes grew even more, almost taking middle class out of picture. This seems to be the main point in Dickens’ novel. Currently this factor has not changed at all, what Dickens criticized is still present nowadays. Considering this fact, is it possible that the author wrote a novel which has broken the barrier of time? Which didn’t stay in past? Maybe Dickens, without noticing, wrote a novel that can adapted to all future times and places.
We know that Dickens had a difficult childhood, with an absent father and having to work from a very young age, only for a minimum reward. I think that’s why, in all his novels, he shows so much contrast between classes. While reading I could feel his hatred, his pain and sadness. There is not doubt that behind the pencil there was a person with a lot of scars. As I said before, Dickens showed the differences between high and low class, but he also criticized in “Great Expectations” how feelings get involved in every little thing we do. There isn’t a thing we do that is not motivated for a feeling, it maybe ambition, love, hate, guilt, shame, responsibility, loneliness, scare, aspiration, expectations, etc. All of these feelings and more are shown in this novel. So, this brought me to the following question: is there a way to separate feelings and actions?
Dickens thought there was no way of doing that, what makes me think he wrote this novel knowing it would fix to every period of time. He, in my comprehension, believed that feelings are the rulers of our lives, and is in human nature to be this way. He strongly shows in his works that ours choices, no matter how rational they might be, are always chosen with the heart, not with the head.
For example in Great Expectations he put the main character “Pip” in a situation where he can escape from what he feel shame of (which is his social class, that include his family and whole life), however Dickens offered him a future of pain, and nevertheless Pip fall in love with it, and started desiring it, and working hard to be at its high. We can see how Charles is shown trough Pip; the author gave us a piece of his own life, of his heart in the novel. Pip did all sort of thing, waiting to the promising future to come. For it, he committed crimes, felt guilt, kept secrets, and even hurt his family. We now see how Pip’s ambition started acting against him, making him more and more loner, and provoking his family hatred and even desire of revenge.
To sum up, because of what I think is Dickens’ hidden reason behind everything that happened in his novel (feelings), I consider this work as timeless. Feelings won’t change not in a million years, love will always be love, an ambition will always make us do estrange things. In my opinion, Pip falls in love with his own ambitions, pursuing it with all his will. This novel is still relevant for the only reason that in any moment we can be a new Pip, we can easily be blind by an expectation, and chase it until the end, forgetting what we left in the way to the top. To be clear, feelings are the main theme of “Great Expectations”, while someone can identify with those feelings, the novel will be relevant.
