Preview

Cruelty In Charles Dickens Great Expectations

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
871 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Cruelty In Charles Dickens Great Expectations
Charles Dickens has written the story “Great Expectations” to show that cruelty acts as a bridge to a newer phase in one’s life and wants to show how one has or will become in that phase. In Great Expectations, Miss Havisham will present cruelty at its finest after one gets to know her more and learn what tragedies she has been through. Dickens also presents that cruelty comes at a different time later on after you assume you got to know someone really well. It will come as you are in someone’s “trap.” In Great Expectations, Miss Havisham’s expectations are rained upon. She turns into this “rich and grim lady” who in which refuses to take off her worn out, tattered wedding gown or to even hire a cleaning service for that matter. Miss Havisham …show more content…
Miss Havisham as shown encourages Estella to entrap Pip and break his heart. One may not exactly think that there is a “trap” if Havisham adopts someone and one thing is to break hearts. The trap is then hidden and would take someone really smart to see it right away. In this case then Ms. Havisham wants Pip to love Estella so a reader could think she feels bad but really it could be so there could be a further act of cruelty committed. "Love her, love her, love her! If she favours you, love her. If she wounds you, love her. If she tears your heart to pieces–and as it gets older and stronger–it will tear deeper–love her, love her, love her!" What this looks like is that it is a sketchy thing she’d like Pip to do and one could think that this is another act of cruelty. Overall what can be made from this is that one honestly does not have the right to treat someone like how Ms. Havisham did. Just because someone has hurt you doesn’t mean you get to treat them that way. Especially setting them up to someone else to be broken. You would never have someone assist you it is just vile, nasty, disgusting. It does just show that this type person has no breaks of any kind. No moral breaks whatsoever. This behavior could inflict dire consequences on the person in which is committing acts like these. Worst consequence is death. This shows that when you have fire going and are too close one can experience severe pain. Karma still exists no matter where at even in literature one will see it. Pip just could not save her in good

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the novel Great Expectaions Miss Havisham is an upper class woman who lives by Pips village in Kent. Miss Havisham has lived a very sad and isolated life where her only perferred company is her adopted daughter, Estella, who Miss Havisham has raised to hate the opposite sex. Miss Havisham started her own Isolation after being stuck up at her own wedding by a man who worked with her brother to steal her shares in a brewery.…

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout both ‘Great Expectations’ and ‘Macbeth’ surroundings are used to influence and define Miss Havisham’s and Lady Macbeth’s characteristics. These surroundings are not only physical, but also psychological; found in their relationships and trauma from past events. Although both women are presented in different forms…

    • 1344 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Miss Havisham is an immensely rich and grim lady who lives in a large and dismal house barricaded against robbers, and who led a life of seclusion. Mrs. Joe is very delighted to send Pip to her house because Pip’s future may be made by his going to her house. Also, a fortune may come out of it.…

    • 4153 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Miss Havisham Analysis

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages

    These points show that Dickens is trying to show, through the characters in his book, that money can make a person do terrible things. He uses Pip as an example that even friendships that have have lasted since birth can be ruined by money changing who people are. He uses Miss Havisham to show that people can take advantage of you in relationships just to get all your money, and not to be completely blinded by love. These…

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Earlier in the story when Miss Havisham's family is allowed into her home, there is a fire lit, but Dickens states “there is more smoke than fire and seems to make the room colder rather than warmer”. This is symbolic of Miss Havisham, allowing her family into her house but is not warm to them. She is not welcoming them, but tolerating them. She doesn’t really want them to visit, and she accepts them on false pretense because they come on false pretence. The family doesn’t really care for her, but are only concerned about getting their hands on her…

    • 368 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wedding and Ann Duffy

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A poem in which the speaker's personality is gradually revealed is "Havisham" by Carol Ann Duffy. The poem is delivered in the persona of Miss Havisham, a character from Charles Dickens' novel, "Great Expectations". In the poem, Miss Havisham was cruelly stood-up on her wedding day by her fraudster fiancé, and as a result she stopped all the clocks, stayed in her wedding dress and left the wedding banquet out for decades. Miss Havisham's bitter and violent personality is revealed by Duffy's use of word choice, oxymoron, inversion and structure.…

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Charles Dickens novel ‘Great Expectations’ presents a stinging social critique of the Victorian system of social class and ranking. It indicates that acceptance within an environment or society can highlight our sense of unity, security and morality, whereas a sense of disconnection from our peers can corrupt the human condition.…

    • 633 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Havisham's hatred of men and it is through her that Miss Havisham is able to…

    • 2499 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    'Havisham' Essay

    • 929 Words
    • 4 Pages

    ‘Miss Havisham’ is a bitter and twisted character from the novel ‘Great Expectations’ by Charles Dickens. Carol Ann Duffy takes this character and explores her tragic life in the poem ‘Havisham’. Duffy uses Dark themes, structure, symbolism and other poetic techniques to express Havisham’s hatred for men after her tragic wedding when she was rejected by her fiancé. Duffy’s use of these poetic techniques create a sinister character and makes Havisham feel real to the reader.…

    • 929 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Explore the ways Shakespeare and Dickens present Lady Macbeth and Miss Havisham as disturbed characters…

    • 910 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As Pip grows up her realizes that life is full of pain and struggle. Pip learns that, “Miss Havisham’s intentions towards me, all a mere dream; Estella not designed for me; I only suffered in Satis House as a convenience, a string for the greedy relations, a model with a mechanical heart to practise on when no other practice was at hand...”…

    • 449 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Of Mice and Men

    • 746 Words
    • 3 Pages

    One of the most significant and common tools that authors use to illustrate the themes of their works is an individual that undergoes several major changes throughout the story. In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens introduces the reader to many intriguing and memorable characters, including the eccentric recluse, Miss Havisham, the shrewd and careful…

    • 746 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    OF MICE AND MEN (CRUELTY)

    • 1215 Words
    • 5 Pages

    “All cruelty springs from weakness,” said Lucius Annaeus Seneca. To me, this quote means that cruelty comes out from a person who is feeling weak. A big question people ask each other is “Why are people cruel to each other?” In John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, there are many incidents of cruelty. Cruelty appeared in the book when George yells at the mentally handicapped Lennie in the beginning of the book. This trend of cruelty continues throughout the book. Characters that were notably cruel in the book are Curley, Curley’s wife, and George. The three things that motivate people to be cruel in the book are: when people feel they are powerless, when a person wants a feeling of short term enjoyment from being cruel to others, and when individuals feels like someone doesn’t belong with them.…

    • 1215 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Masculinity In Macbeth

    • 491 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The emotion of betrayal is also extended to the narrators relationship with her cousin, ‘If you stood where I stand, He’d not have won me with his love’, demonstrating that had there been a reversal of positions, the narrator would not have betrayed her cousin. In Havisham, we know that that the feelings of betrayal arise from Havisham being jilted by her fiancé before her wedding. Although Duffy suggests this ‘hate being a white veil’ and ‘I stabbed at a wedding cake, the writer relies heavily on the audiences previous knowledge of the character from Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations’. Again there is evidence of how emotions lead on to others including, jealously, hatred, anger, bitterness, and…

    • 491 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Today our world is filled with hate. There are wars between countries and groups of people, there are unloving relationships, and there are countless hateful insults that people are called daily. Unfortunately, indirectly or directly, teenagers get caught up in a lot of these issues and can have a devastating impact and fill the individual with hate. This is common in high school especially with the diverse group of personalities and different types of people. Teens can completely forget who they actually are or who they are striving to be and begin to conform with societies hate. By completing the secret benefactor experiment, based off the book Great Expectations by Charles Dickens', we will try and replace the hate with love and generosity.…

    • 869 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays