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Unit 14: Great Expectations: Detailed Study of Text-III

In essence, Pip has made the past a part of his life and has more realistic expectations of the Notes
future. He can now live more fully in the present, developing and appreciating relationships.
Pip seems to have finally learned all he needs to learn. But we have one more chapter...

Part III: Chapter 20

Being out of the country working for Herbert’s firm, Pip has not seen Biddy or Joe in eleven
years. He visits them finally and meets their son, a little Pip, sitting by the fire with Joe just
like Pip himself did years ago.
Pip tells Biddy that he is quite the settled old bachelor, living with Clara and Herbert and he
thinks he will never marry.
Nevertheless, he goes to the Satis House that night to think once again of the girl who got
away.
And there he meets Estella. Drummle treated her roughly and recently died. She tells Pip that
she has learned the feeling of heartbreak the hard way and now seeks his forgiveness for what
she did to him.
The two walk out of the garden hand in hand, and Pip “saw no shadow of another parting
from her.”

Analysis

The final chapter of Great Expectations remains a controversy with critics even today. Dickens
had initially written a different ending in which Pip runs into Estella on a London street but
she has not changed at all and he, in turn, feels none of the old feelings for her. Though much
more depressing, many critics consider the first ending more true to the story’s themes. Their
argument, in some cases, is that the entire point of the book was that Pip must come to realize
happiness through his own internal process and not through some external situation (such as
position or wealth) or person (like Estella).
Nevertheless, there is some justice in Estella and Pip finally finding love in each other. Because
of their difficulties, they seem both to have come to a realization of what it means to be happy
and therefore are ready for a healthy relationship with each other. Chapter Nineteen demonstrated
that Pip had been living an upright life for 11 years when he finally runs into Estella again.
Estella might be seen as the final reward for a true Victorian gentleman.
And, although we are not witness to Estella’s transformation from ice queen to sensitive lady,
we, as readers, must in the end forgive her for her treatment of Pip. Estella, moreso than Pip,
represents the abused child, the true victim of circumstance that Dickens presents in many
other characters throughout his novels. Estella had no choice in her lot in life — she was born
to criminals and brought up to be emotionless by a cold, vengeful woman. Even Estella’s
marriage to Drummle, and her abuse in that relationship, is predesigned by powers beyond
her control. While Pip had good friends in Joe and Herbert and Wemmick, Estella had only
jealously bitter relatives.
Estella’s life, in fact, is nearly identical to the lives of both her criminal parents. She has been
trapped, nearly imprisoned, throughout her life, but literally and figuratively. Estella is trapped
in a house without daylight for her entire childhood and then moved, like a prisoner herself,
to houses in Paris and then London. Finally, she ends up trapped in an abusive marriage.
Estella’s past, her roots, her beginnings, are symbolized not by the warm fire of the forge, as
is Pip’s case, but in the barren empty lot where the Satis House once stood.
Estella is the true victim of society’s values. It is a miracle that she emerged sane or with any
feelings at all. And so, like Pip, we must forgive her and wish the two of them well.

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