★★★☆ // it took me a long time to finish this book and would often pause after each part ended. i have to say that i’m not a fan of its prose and i suppose that’s what contributed to my seasonal mood of picking this up to finish. despite that, the core story touched my heart. i often feel like Great Expectations is a really sad story, and Pip was always just sort floating from one circumstance to another. there are always external events that prevent him from being happy and to really belong to a place. he couldn’t comfortably stay home because his sister was abusive even though he had Joe and Biddy. he was transported to Miss Havisham’s house and fell in love with Estella, but was cruelly disregarded at every turn. he was then in London to be a gentleman, but would later learn that his sponsor is the very threat to the glory he strives for. so, his long journey has always been turbulent but i liked where things ended for him. that end meant a new beginning and going back to the people that held him dear to their hearts even if they didn’t exactly ended on good terms in their last encounter.
for some reason, even though i appreciate the dynamic between Pip and Estella, i didn’t really fall in love with them. i often have this feeling that he idealized her too much. to be honest, from the get-go, i was kind of always rooting for Biddy. she just seems so pure-hearted and supportive of Pip but also never tolerates him when he’s wrong. she’s just so consistently endearing.
”Biddy was never insulting, or capricious, or Biddy today and somebody else tomorrow; she would have derived only pain, and no pleasure, from giving me pain; she would far rather have wounded her own breast than mine.”
Pip’s relationship to Magwitch and Joe are kind of the same in a sense. they just happened to be in different circumstances. i think that ultimately these are two people who cared for him and wanted him to be happy, to be something. his relationship to them were the most touching parts of the book.
finally, there’s this passage in the book that i just loved:
”I whistled and made nothing of going. But the village was very peaceful and quiet, and the light mists were solemnly rising, as if to show me the world, and I had been so innocent and little there, and all beyond was so unknown and great, that in a moment with a strong heave and sob, I broke into tears.”
it perfectly captures the anxiety that one feels of facing a huge change for the first time, of leaving something familiar and comfortable. but it was also exciting and full of hope. it was a reminder that there is really no other choice but to move forward and see how it goes.