The Negative Effects of Ambition

We have been reading Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations for the past few weeks (you can find an animated movie version of this book here).  This novel is about a boy named Pip who suddenly has the opportunity to become a gentleman because of a mysterious benefactor.  Pip is a very ambitious young man and is controlled by his desire to achieve great things in his life.  He is so consumed by his desire for wealth and status that he hurts many people who truly care for him in order to achieve this goal.  The person that he hurt the most was his brother-in-law/father figure/best friend Joe.  Pip says that “Whatever I acquired, I tried to impart to Joe…I wanted to make Joe less ignorant and common, that he might be worthier of my society and less open to Estella's reproach” (Dickens 105).  Pip looks down on Joe because he is poor and uneducated.  However, Pip does not realize that Joe’s incredible kindness is so much more valuable.  Joe says that “life is made of ever so many partings welded together… Diwisions among such must come, and must be met as they come” (215).  Joe is so kind that he assumes his separation from Pip is a natural occurrence in life and does not blame it on Pip. 

This idea of overwhelming greed and ambition is similar to that of Kurtz in Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness.” In this story, Kurtz is searching for ivory in Africa.  He becomes very greedy and is destroyed by this ambition.  He gives up his family, his health, and, eventually, his sanity for ivory.  His immense desire for increasing amounts of ivory causes him to slowly descend into a madness that eventually leads to death.  It is observed that Kurtz has “…a soul that knew no restraint, no faith, and no fear…” (Conrad 260). The idealistic man that Kurtz had initially been was slowly destroyed by the greed within him. (You can find an interesting summary/analysis of this novella here)

Unlike Kurtz, however, Pip eventually comes to realize that a person’s inner worth is much more important than their wealth or position in society and is much happier because of this. 

Works Cited:

Conrad, Joseph. “Heart of Darkness.” The Story and its Writer: an Introduction to Short Fiction. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2011. 208-269. Print.

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003. Print.

Poetry in the Romantic Period

We have been reading literature from the Romantic Period for the past few weeks.  The Romantic Period of English literature is characterized by its aesthetic and imaginative descriptions.  It also focuses on the unique experience of an individual.  Before the Romantic Period, philosophers believed that human nature was the same everywhere because everyone experienced and lived in the same world.  During this time, “poets began developing a new language for… individual variations in perception and the capacity the receptive consciousness has to filter and to re-create reality” (Greenblatt 13).  Poets began to write from individual experiences instead of just nature or common ideas. 

This new idea in Romanticism can be seen in William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience.  The poems in Songs of Innocence and Experience are divided into two sections, innocence (from the point of view of childhood) and experience (from the point of view of adulthood).  These two sides are each distinctly different from each other in Blake’s work.  Many of the poems in this collection show very similar events from two unique points of view.  This change in perspective demonstrates the shift in how poetry was written during the Romantic Period. It also allows us as readers to see how much it changes the poems themselves.

 In “The Chimney Sweeper” from Songs of Innocence, the chimney sweeper is optimistic even though he is in a very bad situation.  He cheers up another chimney sweeper who is upset and is eagerly awaiting the joy that he will experience in Heaven.  At the end of the poem he says “Tho’ the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm; / So if all do their duty they need not fear harm” (Blake 122).  The chimney sweeper is happy and content even though his life is so miserable. 

In “The Chimney Sweeper” from Songs of Experience, however, the chimney sweeper is not happy at all.  He understands how awful his situation is and shares none of the hope and optimism that his counterpart feels.  He blames his parents for his situation and doesn’t even hold out hope that things will be better for him in Heaven.  He says that his parents “are gone to praise God & his Priest & King, / Who make up a heaven of our misery” (Blake 128). 

The comparison of these two similar, yet strikingly different poems demonstrates the change that took place in poetry and literature in general during the Romantic Period. 

Sourcse: Blake, William. "Songs of Innocence and Experience." The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic Period. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: Norton, 2012. 118-135. Print.

Greenblatt, Stephen. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic Period. New York: Norton, 2012. Print.