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.
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