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Great Expectations Summary 74874 Views


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Description:

Trying to live up to expectations can be stressful. Watching someone else struggle with it, though? That's just fine.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

Great Expectations, a la Shmoop. Pip pip, cheerio.

00:07

Charles Dickens novels are not generally what you would call uppers.

00:11

Anyone who's written a book called Bleak House could probably use a hug.

00:18

Great Expectations has an ambiguously happy ending.

00:22

but only because its author was persuaded to end the novel on a positive note by a good

00:29

friend of his.

00:31

Not everyone is in love with depressing endings like Dickens was

00:36

If it was up to him, Katniss probably would have been the first one offed in The Hunger

00:45

Games. When readers finish Great Expectations, they

00:49

are left with a sense of optimism and romantic hopefulness

00:55

After running all over the English marshes in Pip's tiny shoes.

00:58

It feels good to be granted a cheerful resolution to his story.

01:07

Why then was Dickens initially so intent on an unhappy ending?

01:12

Was he just a huge downer?

01:13

Was his own life so miserable that the only way he could make himself feel better was

01:17

to drag everyone else down with him?

01:20

He did have a rough childhood...

01:22

Éand his wife divorced him shortly before the writing of this novel, which was rare

01:28

in those days

01:29

so he definitely had some reason to be grouchy.

01:33

Or, did he think it was genuinely the best way to end his story?

01:39

The book was titled Great Expectations maybe he was trying to make a point about having

01:47

such expectations?

01:48

That, no matter how pure our intentions and no matter how hard we work

01:55

not everything is going to go our way, and you can't earn the love of someone who isn't

02:05

feeling it? Dickens wasn't a Hollywood screenwriter

02:08

there wasn't the pressure back then to drive audiences to a theater.

02:15

Or was Dickens just trying to surprise his readers, and throw them for a loop?

02:23

Great Expectations was written serially. In other words, it was released a chapter at

02:29

a time, rather than all at once.

02:32

Could it be that his readers were all anticipating a happy ending.

02:36

and he didn't want to seem predictable? Which way are you leaning?

02:42

Morbid downer

02:43

Conscientious writer

02:44

... or lover of spontaneity? Shmoop amongst yourselves.

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