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Great Expectations
- Hyperbole/Monologue: "And now, because my mind was not confused a thousandfold before, I complicated its confusion fifty thousand-fold, by having states and seasons when I was clear that Biddy was immeasurably better than Estella, and that the plain honest working life to which I was born, had nothing in it to be ashamed of, but offered me sufficient means of self-respect and happiness."
- Imagery/Metaphor: "For an hour or more, I remained too stunned to think; and it was not until I began to think, that I began fully to know how wrecked I was, and how the ship in which I had sailed was gone to pieces."
- Monologue/simile:"My sister's bringing up had made me sensitive. In the little world in which children have their existence whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt, as injustice. It may be only small injustice that the child can be exposed to; but the child is small, and its world is small, and its rocking-horse stands as many hands high, according to scale, as a big-boned Irish hunter."
With our lecture in class, aid of the above quotations , as well as my personal reading thus far, Charles Dickens Great Expectations its contemplative pacing, reflective tone indeed imbued his works (as any master of the written word) with a plethora of themes, underlying connotations, layers. Deriving from the eponymous title, Great Expectations chronicles the bilsdungroman, coming age tale of a young, naive, boy by the name of "Pip" and his own expectations as he ambles thru childhood in an adult world. Although i haven't as of yet completed my reading of Great Expectations, the deliberation upon Pip's perspicacity, his maturation and development as a character clearly delineates the author's (never so presumptuous to absolutely know what another individual has thought however) purpose whilst writing the novel. The (granted-marginally) hyperbolic monologue of quote 1 (with "...the plain honest working life to which I was born, had nothing in it to be ashamed of, but offered me sufficient means of self-respect and happiness.") blatantly supports Dickens' desire to not only depict his character Pip's realization of reality, but so to his purpose to detail his maturation, shifting from a naive perspective to more rationalistic, realistic, expectations rather than the lofty innocence common to children. Quote two's vivid imagery/metaphor likening Pip's recent station in life/perspective to the marshland ships he once witnessed in younger days so too supports this idea of Dickens' forcing Pip to confront himself, and again realign his reality, expectations on life beyond his once simpler view. Quote three is the piece de resistance upon the connotative cake, Dickens' cementing his purpose here with Pip's rumination on his days raised as a child, his once simpler, untainted perspective, with great expectations. Charles Dickens Great Expectations, thru Pip, seeks as all bilsdungroman to depict the maturation, evolution of a child across the oftentimes tumultuous trek of adult hood. As the above excerpts comment, Dickens sought to achieve this as well as portray the shift of perspectives and expectations from that of an innocent, naive child to an arguably more realistic, adult world view. Yet Great Expectations greatest (one that I'm expecting as i near book completion) feat is the lack of cynicism present in Pip even as the world juts its jaded fangs, piercing his peter pan like reality. He remains stalwart in his positivity thick and thru even when at times he may falter, his reliance upon personal morality, his persistence to sustain a kinder behavior, relationship with the harsh real-world speaks to what i believe Dickens ultimate impetus for writing this novel: to mature in to adulthood while always remaining a child (to some extent), always endeavoring to perceive life/reality more positively, always have great expectations.
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