Re: "Great Expectations"

Charles Dickens (cdickens@RMPLC.CO.UK)
Tue, 19 May 1998 13:28:49 -0100 

My dear Miss Fisher,

  You scarcely need my advice, I'm tempted to feel.  You answer much as I
should.  I should be inclined, indeed, to suggest that the views upon which
you are invited to comment might profitably be recast: money can be an agent
of isolation; it can have the effect of isolating and cutting off; it can be
a root of evil and snobbishness.  But it doesn't have to be this way.
Gracious heaven, there are plenty more roots of evil and snobbishness.  The
will to dominate for instance, and intellectual pride.
  Those who support these opinions will be among those who feel it was a
mistake on my part to have Pip go to Egypt after all his tribulations, and
to succeed modestly as a merchant and broker.  He should have gone back to
the forge, they argue, and become a blacksmith again, as if such a
development might be in any way believable.  No, I like to think I made Pip
do what he did as a way of showing he had learned, through suffering, the
harm money might do, and was finally equipped to make it do good.
  You ask about other characters in the novel who overvalue money.  Miss
Havisham's vulture-like relations, I suppose, Mrs Joe in many respects.  I'm
half tempted to say Compeyson, but I feel he has darker motives as well, to
do with power.  Perhaps a character deserving your special consideration is
Mr Wemmick who, at the office, can only advise, "Get hold of portable
property," but in Walworth is a proud cultivator of his garden, a loving
son, and indeed a lover, however eccentric.


Faithfully yours,


Charles Dickens
________________________________________________________________________________

>Dear Mr Dickens,
>                           Thankyou very much for your speedy reply. I
>have been given an essay question, which says, that "The theme of 'Great
>Expectations' declares that money is an agent of isolation, that it has
>the effect of isolating and cutting off from ones true and worthy
>association, and is the root of the evil of snobbishness"
> I agree with the statement in regards to Pip and how money was one of
>the cores in his life. However, in the other characters cases, I can not
>really see if that is true. Miss Havisham's cause of isolation was
>through Compeyson trying to swindle her money, but did she have any true
>and worthy associations in which she was cut off from, besides life?
>Herbet did not become snobby with his job, and Magwitch was not either.
>Could I argue the fact that the novel both warns it's readers of the
>dangers of placing money in a position of importance in ones life and
>asserts the value of it's opposite - the capacity to love? That
>certainly happened to Pip, and I feel the question goes deeper than the
>money.
> Also, in regards to this, which other characters in the novel place
>money as it's core besides Mr Pumblechook? Your help is greatly
>appreciated.
>Yours Faithfully,
>Carolyn Fisher.
>
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>

======================
Charles Dickens
charles_dickens@rmplc.co.uk
Author