GREATE EXPECTATIONS
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概要
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The title of Great Expectations primarily means the prospect of abundant inheritance. But this novel tells about some other expectations, too,-those of marriage, of making others happy, of captivating others' heart, etc. All these expectations prove to be vain. So this title may also be understood as an irony for great disappointments. Gloomy atmosphere pervades this novel. The change from carefree mood of Dickens's earlier works to this gloom may be partly looked for in his critical and sceptical attitude towards the existing society. But even in his earlier works he was critical about society to a certain degree. The chief factor in inducing this change was Dickens's growing disbelief of human heart. ` Heart ' was the supreme cause in his earlier works. The world was pleasant for him in spite of every difficulty, just because of warmth of human heart. But Dickens seems to have lost that fervent admiration of 'Heart' in his late years. In Great Expectations the simple boy Pip becomes snobbish once he attains to riches. Magwitch's sincere wish to make Pip a gentleman is thwarted by Pip's fastidiousness. Estella says that she has no heart. Miss Havisham's heart is broken. These phases show that it is dangerous to rely on heart too much. The lawyer Jagger's way of living-that of treating others as materials-will be the safe way in the real world. Dickens's transition from his earlier picaresque novels to the novels of presenting gradually changing character was the reflection of his experience. His separation from his wife and his bitterly sweet attachment to Ellen Ternan turned his interest to the mystery of human heart. In spite of the general gloom in this novel, we find some amount of relief there. It also may show Dickens's not utterly forsaken belief in humanity.
- 財団法人日本英文学会の論文
- 1956-07-25
財団法人日本英文学会 | 論文
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