The Endings of Great Expectations
Charles Dickens had written an ending to Great expectations that he revised to better tie up the novel. I prefer the revised ending. This is the one that Dickens agreed to put into print. It ties together the way the novel was portrayed to me, the many things that happen that show characters separate and reconcile through out the novel. Pip and Estella are able to come back together after years of being apart, much like Pip and Joe. They are able to salvage the relationship they once had into one that will grow. But, by giving them an opportunity to have a relationship, I think that Dickens had to overlook many of the other themes in the novel that he emphasized in his original version of the ending. In the revised ending, Pip and Estella meet again in the garden at Satis House, but the possibility of them being together, even married, and is left open in contrast to the original.
Charles Dickens, a former resident of Lant Street.
English: Miss Havisham, Pip, and Estella, in art f...
Charles Dickens (1812-1870)By this point in the novel, Estella has suffered enormously, and is made into a better, more sympathetic person for it. Although this comes through in the original version, it is made even clearer in the second version. After everything that Pip has gone through, it seems quite a stretch that he and Estella can be happy together, or even have a possibility of being together after everything they have been through. Throughout the novel, Dickens has made it quite clear that Estella is above Pip, socially and financially. This gap is what causes Pip to attempt fitting in with the upper classes so he can be with Estella, but it also makes them an unlikely pair. Although Estella repents for her past actions, it is hard to believe that she can...