The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910 discussion

The End....

Alas, the book didn't end the way I wanted it to end. I was hoping for a happy ending. Pip and Estella get together now that both are aware of the errors of their ways. Blah, Mr. Dickens!

But, at least we know that Pip ends up with a good life, working for the firm that he helped Herbert get a start in, and living with Herbert and his wife.

Unmarried, and supposed content with that way of life, but he admits that he still keeps Estella close to his heart. Easy to deduce that he does not want to replace Estella in his heart.

I might say that they are both victims of Miss Havisham, but just like Miss Havisham, they allow the events in their life to define them rather than fighting back and defining their own lives on their own terms. But isn't that true of most of us, and most likely Dickens' point.

My favorite scenes in this last section were with Joe. I liked Joe, and happy to see him and Biddy get together (we could see that coming for a mile). I know corny, but brought tears to my eyes when Pip wishes Joe and Bibby well.

As for Pumblechook - what a donkey's behind.

And lastly, at least Miss Havisham showed some justice (and a bit of humor) in what she left her relatives.

Did we read the same book, or does yours have the alternate ending. He and Estella get together at the end, and he says, paraphrased "We will never part again."

Rochelle wrote: "Did we read the same book, or does yours have the alternate ending. He and Estella get together at the end, and he says, paraphrased "We will never part again.""

I have the B&N version. The editors of the B&N version did say that there was an alternative ending. I'll check to see if they included it in the book.

I have Washington Square Press, 1963, marked "60 cents." LOL

I remember when we read this in Jr High, we got the 2 endings, interesting that it's so little known. I think the first (unhappy) one is better and more original. Pip is really different from other main characters in that he doesn't die or get married. I wonder if Dickens no longer saw marriage as such a great thing. It's ok for the minor characters and we see 2 somewhat humorous marriages toward the end. At first I thought of Joe as old for Biddy, since he was a father figure to Pip, but of course he was around the age of Pip's sister (did she ever have a name?)

The healthiest relationships that Pip has are with Joe (except for his snob period) and with Herbert. He seems settled in as the doting uncle to the children of friends. I did like the scene where he meets little Pip.

Robin wrote: "I remember when we read this in Jr High, we got the 2 endings, interesting that it's so little known. ..."

Probably because most editions have the happy ending.

I am happy that Pip got some solace at the end after a pretty horribly hard life. In Dickens people have much harder lives than Pip, I suppose that was his style. I felt very sympathetic to the orphan Pip from when he was brooding over his parents grave to the abuse he suffered at home, his poverty and his treatment from Estella and Mrs. Havisham making up a terrible childhood. I found myself completely under Dickens's spell in that I was sympathetic towards Pip and emotionally invested.
After Pip found out about his expectations I was happy at the anomaly that someone could go through a transformation from poor to rich. I think that the way people like Joe, Pumblechook, shopkeepers and towns people treated Pip as he was suddenly important. I felt that people changed more than Pip did himself, reflecting the class structure that is such a big theme in Dickens that he demonstrates in all his novels. When Pip was about to be killed by Orlick I felt his vulnerability. And then when he squandered expectations I felt bad for Mr. Pip, fictitious or not. Despite being guilty of pretensions from his new status and being rude to his incongruous brother in law I thought that Pip was an example of good morals and a good human being. I think a lot of people would enjoy Great Expectations but hold reservations against it's protagonist. In the end it seems he is around family, the kind he wanted but never got growing up in the foreboding Gothic first chapter when first met him.

What? There are 2 endings? I only had the one where, after 11 years, Pip meets Estella again (after visiting Joe and Biddy) and they spend the rest of their lives together. What happens in the other ending? And which was Dickens preferred ending? I can't believe that there are actually different versions of this classical novel available for reading.

Yes, but most, maybe all, versions today use the 2nd one.

http://exec.typepad.com/greatexpectat...

Here is a good summary of why were are two versions...we can "thank" Wilkie Collins who didn't like the "not happy" ending.

http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/eng...

And I like the points the Professor makes for each of the endings.

Interesting discussion about the endings. As Lynnm I have the Barnes&Nobles Classics edition. It states the alternative ending in an appendix, but I never really interpreted the shown ending as a happy one. Maybe I focused too much on the sentence "friends apart". I think Dickens leaves it a little open. There is more room for interpretation towards a happy ending than in his alternative version, but it is not as clear as usual. David Copperfield describes as the narrator his life when he is writing his story to point out that everything is well and happy at last, but Pip does not do that. Would not he have been very proud to describe his happiness with Estella after all this years if he had really gotten that?
It is funny as I interpreted the ending this way with my first read of the novel some years ago and was almost a little annoyed that some tv / movie adaptations showed a clear happy ending. Maybe Dickens really wants to leave this to the minds and hearts of his readers.

In general, I really love this novel. I think that Pip is a quite realistic protagonist though he might not be the most likable all the time (e.g. His treatment of Joe), but he develops and realizes his faults. If the characters are too good to be true, we usually complain, so we should not complain if the protagonist is not always acting the way we would like him to act or? ;-) The most important is that you can see a development/ growth in personality. We all go through highs and lows and learn from it.