Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations”

A Must Read 300It’s been quite some time since I’ve reviewed a classic, and there is one in particular I’ve been wanting to give a second read now that I’m doing so for pure enjoyment, rather than classwork. This week I’m tackling Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, the great 19th century coming-of-age novel. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the story, Great Expectations is a first-person narrative following the life of a boy named Philip Pirrip, nicknamed Pip, who was orphaned at a very young age. As a young boy, Pip is enlisted by a local wealthy spinstress to be a playdate for her adopted daughter, who he inevitably falls in love with. The book follows Pip’s life over the course of decades as he is raised from rags to riches by an anonymous benefactor, only to find himself entangled in a web of secrets involving almost everyone around him, all while trying to elevate himself to a status high enough to win the hand of his childhood love.

So now we get to the real question: does it hold up as a classic? English teachers and literature professors everywhere might want to sit down: no, it doesn’t. Dickens is a master of description throughout this novel, but that doesn’t make him a master of plot, despite how much we may want the contrary to be true. The pacing in Great Expectations is atrocious, and is compounded by the fact that there are two, maybe three, characters in this book that are remotely likable. Thankfully, the protagonist is one of these three, so we avoid pulling a Gatsby. The simple fact of the matter is that nobody reacts like a person would actually react. There are dozens of moments where some basic dialogue would’ve resolved everyone’s problems. I appreciate what Dickens was trying to do by showing Pip claw his way up an ever-inclining slope due to the values of the people he associates with (and his own values), but the lack of a realistic response breaks down the message.

Before someone tries to point out the obvious, “But you aren’t supposed to like the characters,” it needs to be said that that is always a terrible idea. Books are at their absolute most effective when we employ empathy. It could easily be argued (in my opinion, correctly) that storytelling is effective as a cultural learning phenomenon because we empathize with the plight of the characters. I sympathize with Pip, sure, but an abundance of purely negative characters destroy any empathetic response from the readers. You get sympathy from such circumstances, but not any depth of empathy. Even the most abstract sci-fi novels employ characters that have a few relatable methods of thought. I have to be fair, here; Great Expectations is not a bad book. In fact, it’s an altogether decent read. Being decent doesn’t make you a classic. A classic should be timeless. If you haven’t read Great Expectations, don’t let people tell you it’s a must read. Also, promptly seek better reading advisers. Ultimately, Great Expectations is certainly leagues above our current crazes of teen-genre supernatural romance, but it doesn’t fit in with the greats, like Fahrenheit 451, Dracula, or To Kill a Mockingbird.

Source: Jake Depew, Assistant Editor