Consider the words of Tara Brach, founder of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, “Our attitude in the face of life’s challenges determines our suffering or our freedom”, or the famous line by Rumi, “Everyone is overridden by thoughts; that’s why they have so much heartache and sorrow”. The ingrained message from Brach and Rumi are the same: the magnitude of suffering can be negative. British author, Charles Dickens, also highlights this message in his piece, Great Expectations. Great Expectations features a young, blacksmith apprentice named Pip who dreams of roaming the streets of London, showering himself in riches like the gentleman of England. A mysterious benefactor presents him with his fortune, allowing Pip to complete his dream of becoming a gentleman. Despite the imaginations, the new Pip finds himself coping with a set of new challenges, dangerous risks, and battling his way through a mask of darkness. Also in Great Expectations, Dickens reveals the universal truth that suffering can negatively affect people’s lives – whether it be direct or indirect, as expressed through the character, Miss Havisham. Miss Havisham is affected in a negative manner by her suffering, as shown through her individual suffering caused by her failed marriage and the indirect suffering of others through her adopted daughter, Estella.
Miss Havisham’s failed marriage entrenches her individual suffering, leading her into a life of isolation and a faded imagination of stopped time. In the beginning of Great Expectations, young Pip is called to Miss Havisham’s place, the Satis House, to play with her daughter, and aid Miss Havisham with her daily, broken life. Upon his arrival, he is puzzled by her odd appearance and personality, describing her, “In an armchair…sat the strangest lady I have ever seen…I saw that everything within my view that ought to be white had lost its luster and was faded and yellow. I saw that the bride within the dress had withered like the dress” (Dickens 559). The quote reveals she is old, has spent ages in the wedding dress, and is suffering. In this first instance, Dickens shows that Miss Havisham’s suffering has led her into a state of denial, confusion, as described by her appearance. Though the case, Pip is still unaware of Miss Havisham’s means of suffering and has yet to be informed of how she entered that world. Later in the novel, upon Pip’s meeting with his childhood acquaintance, Herbert Pocket, Pocket tells Pip about Miss Havisham’s story, “‘To return to the man, the marriage day was fixed, the wedding dresses were bought’…The day came, but not the bridegroom…When she recovered from a bad illness that she had, she laid the whole place waste, as you have seen it, and she has never since looked upon the light of day’” (598). Through the quote, Dickens shows that suffering has shut down Miss Havisham’s life, as not looking at the “light of day” and making her house a mess. Through Miss Havisham’s odd appearance and the post-stress of her failed marriage, Dickens reinforces the universal truth that suffering can negatively affect people’s lives.
As Miss Havisham’s direct individual suffering was not enough, she trains her little beauty Estella to wreak havoc on the male sex and spread more suffering. Since Miss Havisham is Estella’s mother, the influence she has on her is enormous. After Pip’s meeting with Miss Havisham, he goes out to play with Estella. Towards the end of their “play date”, Estella starts to taunt Pip, “‘You have been crying till you are half-blind, and you are near crying again now.’ She laughed, pushed me out, and locked the gate upon me…I set off…deeply revolving that I was a common laboring-boy” (563). Through this quote, one can visualize how Estella is very rude and mean. She taunts Pip a lot, as expressed through her actions, and because of that, Pip starts to feel low of his self. Years later, Pip makes a visit to the Satis House and meets Estella once again. After having a lengthy conversation with her in the garden, he is encountered by Miss Havisham, who says, “‘Is she [Estella] beautiful, graceful, well-grown? Do you admire her?’ ‘Everybody must who sees her’…She [Miss Havisham] drew an arm round my neck, and drew my head close down to hers. ‘Love her, love her! I’ll tell you’…‘what real love is…giving up your whole heart and soul as I did’” (607-8). Miss Havisham wants Pip to suffer, but doesn’t do it directly. By making Estella a messenger to spread the suffrage, she reinforces the idea in Pip’s mind that he must love Estella. The only motive behind this is so that Estella can later break his heart, and shatter his soul, through the actions shown by Estella in the initial “play date” with Pip. Dickens once again shows how suffering can negatively affect people’s life by Miss Havisham’s indirect actions through Estella, and how they made Pip suffer.
Reinforcing the initial messages from Brach and Rumi that suffering is bad, Charles Dickens, in Great Expectations, reveals the universal truth that suffering can negatively affect people’s lives through the examples of Miss Havisham’s odd appearance and life caused by her failed marriage and Miss Havisham’s indirect influence on her daughter, Estella, to make Pip suffer, through taunting thoughts and actions.