alternative ending for great expectations

The novel "is too serious a book to be a trivially happy one. Its beginning is unhappy; its middle is unhappy; and the conventional happy ending is an outrage on it." (George Bernard Shaw on Great Expectations) Dickens wrote Great Expectations in the latter years of his life, a stage when he has himself suffered the bitter realities of life. In Pip’s realization of the falsehood of life and his expectation, we see Dickens own life reflected. The revised ending of Great Expectations can be said to end paradoxically with a beginning, just as Paradise Lost does. Trying times lie ahead for Pip and Estella. Estella’s beauty has lost its bloom; Pip has lost a fortune. The challenge facing them is to discover how much can be made of what is left. Can her battered spirit and his long disappointed hopes be assuaged? This paradox seems to reflect the questions that were haunting Dickens at a time when he has been divorced for two years and Dickens own life was coming to a close. 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.

Great Expectations The Controversial Endings Wilkie Collins, a close friend and author of The Woman in White, objected to the nothappy ending Dickens first wrote for Great Expectations; Estella has remarried and Pip remains single. Dickens then wrote a more conventional ending, which suggests that Pip and Estella will marry. Writing to friends about the revised ending, Dickens seems positive: "I have put in as pretty a little piece of writing as I could, and I have no doubt the story will be more acceptable through the alteration" and "Upon the whole I think it is for the better." The second ending has generally been published from Dickens's time to our own, so that it is the one which most readers know. Critics have been arguing the merits of both endings since the novel's publication. Dickens's friend and biographer, John Forster, felt the original ending was "more consistent with the draft, as well as the natural working out of the tale." The writers George Gissing, George Bernard Shaw, George Orwell, William Dean Howells, Edmund Wilson and Angus Wilson agreed with Forster's preference. In modern criticism, the stronger arguments tend to support the second ending. This is a question which you may decide for yourself, since the text we read in this class includes both endings. I will list some of the arguments on both sides, without comment, for your consideration.

The Original Ending The original ending is not so hopeful; although it gives a deeper understanding of Estella. Pip feels that Estella has suffered from Miss Havisham's emotional manipulation as he did. This therefore, makes Estella a more empathetic character. The unhappy circumstances of her first marriage described in this passage elicit further empathy. The original ending also conveys the theme of the novel as anti-aristocratic. Neither Pip nor Estella has found happiness while wealthy. At the end of the novel, Pip becomes happier when, having had to work overseas, he returns home and re-establishes ties with Joe and Biddy. The young Pip mentioned in the passage is their son. When Pip reconnects with his working-class roots and begins his modest employment as a clerk he is much more content with life than when he was attempting to be a “gentleman." This passage, then, illustrates Dickens's notion that members of the aristocracy are often morally flawed while the lower-middle and working classes are not: people, he implies, should be judged on their work, not on their clothes. Estella's deceased husband, Bentley Drummle,

demonstrates throughout the book that wealth may produce negative character traits. Drummle is selfish and cruel, and, although a gentleman technically, is not the gentle man that Joe is, for Joe treats everyone with respect and kindness.

The following arguments are given in support of the original ending: •

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George Bernard Shaw: The novel "is too serious a book to be a trivially happy one. Its beginning is unhappy; its middle is unhappy; and the conventional happy ending is an outrage on it." The second ending is an artistically indefensible and morally cheap about-face; its purpose is to please a popular audience which expects a conventional happy ending (i.e., marriage). In the second ending, Pip gets more than he deserves. As a result, Dickens confuses the social and moral meanings of the novel. Estella's conversion in the second ending is not only unconvincing but contradicts the logic of the narrative and excuses the way Miss Havisham raised her. Miss Havisham does not need to be forgiven or redeemed, since neither Pip nor Estella was really damaged. In the original ending, though Estelle is softened by her suffering, she remains the lady, with the same characteristic superiority, who is perhaps slightly condescending to Pip. The Second Ending

In the revised ending, Dickens gives Pip and Estella--and the reader--hope: “I took her hand in mine . . . I saw no shadow of another parting from her." This line gives the reader some grounds for optimism that Pip and Estella, both improved morally by suffering, will develop a lasting bond. The public loved this ending. The novel follows many subgenres such as the gothic novel, the Newgate novel, the Silver Fork novel, the novel of crime and detection, the serial novel, the historical novel and, most importantly in connection with this passage, the romance. Pip's obsession with Estella becomes a motivation for his becoming a gentleman, for only a refined lover (thinks adolescent Pip) will do for the aristocratic Estella. The novel ends happily to inspire readers with the wonderful second chance at happiness that Pip might have with Estella. With this original ending, Great Expectations would not have fulfilled the expectations of these various subgenres; rather, the ending looks much more modern if Estella is married again to a Shropshire doctor after the brutal Drummle treated her outrageously. As in his writing The Old Curiosity Shop, Dickens must have sensed that the public and even his critics would not accept anything less than a happy ending.

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The second ending continues the imagery of the garden and the mist and is better written. The second ending continues the patterns of union and separation and reconciliation, the connection of the past and the present, and Pip and Estella's meetings at Satis House. The lovers deserve to be happy because they have suffered deeply; their suffering has changed them so much that they are no longer the same people. It is appropriate that Magwitch's daughter finds happiness with Pip. Martin Price argues that the mature Pip, with the saving humor of self-acceptance, finally sees Estella as what she is; therefore, it seems appropriate she can return to him. "Each is a fantasist who has grown into maturity; each is a fantasist that has dwindled into humanity."

There are a few critics who have taken a third position; the novel should stop before Estella's final appearance. They note that Dickens, in his working notes on the novel, follows Pip's later career but does not refer to Estella. Miss Havisham referred to Estella's marriage many chapters earlier, so that there is no need to bring her up again; her fate is known. Great Expectations is actually a tragedy in essence although not in the true sense of the word, Harold Bloom has compared Pip with Hamlet. In one of his essays he writes that: “I hold with those who believe that Dickens ruined the original ending, which held out no hope for Pip and Estella. The revised ending is equivocal, but perhaps not equivocal enough. You can end a Hamlet transcendentally, but not happily.” Although the romantic Victorians have been disappointed with the original ending of the novel but where the revised ending may represent hope, it can never serve the purpose of catharsis. The original ending is most appropriate for Great Expectations because Pip and Estella keep their respectable attitudes and Pip goes full circle. The themes that flow throughout the book are preserved and the attitude is consistent all the way through the story. Here Pip and Estella are apart, but this ending is not necessarily sad. It is pleasing to see Estella's heart freed of its shackles and the mature woman, morally improved by suffering, married to a small hero. Pip has found relief, according to this ending, because he knows that Estella can finally relate to his old feelings. We see that Pip has continued a strong relationship with Joe and Biddy because he is with little Pip, who is now old enough to walk. Therefore, the reader knows that Pip must himself be happy and contented in life. The realistic ending is almost more romantic than the other because of its plausibility.

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