Cycle of Revenge: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

When I first saw this Novel, Great Expectations, in the Hands of a Friend, it looked weird to me. The characters and font did not do justice to what I was going to get within the pages. So I ditched it a couple of times. I reluctantly decided to read it once I ran out of materials to read and when I finally did, I hated myself for waiting that long.

Screenshot
You see, this book brought tears to my eyes, every character made me teary. Pip, Estella, Abel Magwitch, Miss Havisham, etc. Each of them had a special teary spot in my eyes. I vowed never to part with that book and to read it again. I never did. And I don't know how I lost that book.

But this morning, when I saw Great Expectations on Blinklist, my heart skipped. It's been such a long time but this book still had the same effect it did on me many years ago. Everything about Pip came to me. It was a weird way to start my morning with tears because that's exactly what happened.

Every time I think about the word, Gentleman, in the context of this book, I can't help but wonder how class was so important in England at the time Charles Dickens wrote this book.

Author Biography

Great Expectations was written by Charles Dickens known to be an important novelist during the Victorian era. He's popularly known for his book, Oliver Twist. He was born in 1812 and died in 1870.

Anyone who enjoys a rags-to-riches story, a betrayal story, classic literature, family feud, one-sided love, webs of circumstances, etc., will enjoy reading Great Expectations.

Plot

Pip, is a young man who lost his parents and was taken care of by his sister and Joe, his sister's husband. He learned to be a blacksmith under their care. But once he met Estella, the adopted daughter of Miss Havisham, he wanted to become a gentleman.

He wouldn't have minded being the common blacksmith that he was had it not been for Estella's cruel assessment of his appearance and his choice of clothing. Estella's mockery sowed a seed of discontentment in his heart, and he wanted to become a gentleman to please her. To measure up. To be accepted into the circle that Estella and her adopted mother, Havisham, belonged.

His dreams were made true when a lawyer, told him, he had an anonymous benefactor who wanted to educate him enough to become a gentleman.

The only way, Pip met Estella was when Miss Havisham requested a playmate for her. Pip came highly recommended. But Estella treated him with scorn and disdain because her adopted mother had trained her to treat every man in that manner. Pip had the chance to learn the details of this hurtful behavior exuded by Estella and Havisham.

He found out, Miss Havisham, was the daughter of a very rich man. Her father had made her the heir to all of his assets and cut off her half-brother, Arthur, out of the will because he was badly behaved. It turned out, Arthur wanted revenge or should I say a piece of the pie? He collaborated with Compeyson to swindle his sister out of a portion of the fortune that she received from their father.

Miss Havisham had planned a wedding, trusted Compeyson, and even bought shares in her dad's company for this new husband-to-be. Little did she know that he was a con artist, employed by her half-brother to swindle her. It was exactly twenty minutes to nine that Compeyson called off the wedding.

Pip finally figured out the reason all of the clocks in the deserted room that Miss Havisham never left nor cared to dust off the cobwebs or have it cleaned had the same time - Twenty minutes to nine. He understood why she wore the same yellowed, crumpled bridal dress. He figured out why her room looked as though it was prepared for a big feast years ago but was never tidied. And why he saw dusty bouquet, and untouched, wedding cake covered in cobwebs.

It was this betrayal that made Miss Havisham trained Estella to hurt men. No matter who courted her, she never led them on nor rebuffed them. She was cold as stone.

Lessons

This book made me realize that the world is a small place. All my tears were sprouting because Pip finally realized that Abel Magwitch, who trained him to be a gentleman he couldn't be because he lived a life of crime, was somehow connected to Compeyson and now he is a convict. Pip couldn't understand how the universe wrapped him around people whose lives were connected by an event that happened probably years before he was born...

Maybe, if he had not saved Abel from dying by stealing food and drink from his sister's house for him that night, maybe, just maybe, he would have remained an ordinary blacksmith and none of the heartaches he faced would have been possible. But I doubt it, since Pip came highly recommended to be Estella's playmate, meeting her and falling hard in love with her was inevitable.

The only thing that could have saved him would be not getting to see Estella again after she went off to train to be a lady. But the fact that he helped Abel who returned the favor by educating him to be a gentleman too brought him all the way back to Miss Havisham's cobwebs. A cobweb that he met people who knew her story, who taught it to him, and helped him realize he was a pawn in Havisham's game. So he clearly had no chance with Estella even if he finally became a Gentleman.

Spoilers? Yeah!

I am trying hard to not give you spoilers for this book. But I think I have. The only thing I left out is the ending. What happened to Estella, to Joe, to Abel, to Miss Havisham, these are the questions that you need to read Great Expectations by Charles Dickens to find out.

When you do, you will realize how hurting betrayal can be and how it can influence our decisions moving forward. Most importantly, the feeling of being hurt can affect generations unborn when we decide to take revenge on someone who probably had gone on to live their lives.

The best thing anyone can do when betrayed is to move on from the hurt instead of trying to hurt the person back. It doesn't always end well. What I propose would be to let the person go and try to stay far away from them so you can heal.

Even Robert Greene advised us to disdain things we can't have and that ignoring them is the best revenge. Apply to all the things you want but you can't seem to have it, whether it's a friend's trust, a one-sided love, a business relationship, etc.

If you see that it eludes you, and you can't have it, the best revenge is to ignore them. Trying to take revenge by introducing other people will only cause more damage, to you and the new people in the situation. The person you are even trying to get revenge on might have gone on to ask God for forgiveness and even become a pastor😆. So leave vengeance for God.

I just realized this is what Pip did when he found out he was merely being used. He did not whine or try to take revenge as Miss Havisham did. He merely allowed Estella to go. Hah! I just gave you a new set of spoiler. Okay, I'll stop here, so you can read the book to find out more.

This book is a worthy read. And I give it a 4/5 rating.