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Description:

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is about a young blacksmith boy (Pip) and his two dreams: becoming a gentleman and marrying the beautiful Estella. Luckily for Pip, Charles Dickens was persuaded to make the story end well, which means a happy ending for Pip. All that hard work paid off.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

Great Expectations, a la Shmoop. Pip pip, cheerio.

00:09

Charles Dickens' novels are not generally what you would call... uppers.

00:14

Anyone who's written a book called Bleak House could probably use a hug.

00:18

Great Expectations has an ambiguously happy ending...

00:21

...but only because its author was persuaded to end the novel on a positive note by a good

00:27

friend of his.

00:28

Not everyone is in love with depressing endings like Dickens was.

00:35

If it was up to him, Katniss probably would have been the first one offed in The Hunger

00:39

Games. When readers finish Great Expectations, they

00:51

are left with a sense of optimism and romantic hopefulness.

00:55

After running all over the English marshes in Pip's... tiny shoes...

00:59

...it feels good to be granted a cheerful resolution to his story.

01:03

Why then was Dickens initially so intent on an unhappy ending?

01:08

Was he just a huge downer?

01:14

Was his own life so miserable that the only way he could make himself feel better was

01:18

to drag everyone else down with him?

01:20

He did have a rough childhood...

01:21

...and his wife divorced him shortly before the writing of this novel, which was rare

01:26

in those days...

01:26

...so he definitely had some reason to be grouchy.

01:29

Or, did he think it was genuinely the best way to end his story?

01:34

The book was titled Great Expectations... maybe he was trying to make a point about

01:39

having such expectations?

01:42

That, no matter how pure our intentions and no matter how hard we work...

01:47

...not everything is going to go our way, and you can't earn the love of someone who

01:54

isn't feeling it? Dickens wasn't a Hollywood screenwriter...

01:58

there wasn't the pressure back then to drive audiences to a theater.

02:02

Or... was Dickens just trying to surprise his readers, and throw them for a loop?

02:07

Great Expectations was written serially. In other words, it was released a chapter at

02:12

a time, rather than all at once.

02:14

Could it be that his readers were all anticipating a happy ending...

02:19

...and he didn't want to seem predictable? Which way are you leaning?

02:23

Morbid downer...

02:25

Conscientious writer...

02:26

... or lover of spontaneity? Shmoop amongst yourselves.

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