An Unbridgeable Gap in “Great Expectations”: The Necessity of the First Ending

Each of the two endings to Great Expectations has its own merits within the context of the novel. The revised ending more beautifully and symbolically concludes the text, while the original better utilizes the themes and absolute message of Pip’s story. Thematically the novel follows the disillusionment and subsequent rise and fall of Pip into and out of a lifestyle that he did not properly fit into. For that reason I find it hard to accept the revised ending in spite of its vivid and carefully crafted imagery. It not only feels forced as a conclusion to the events comprising the last bits of Volume III, it attempts too carefully to partially reproduce bits of the Victorian methods of Austen or Bronte in tying up loose ends with romantic reconciliation. Despite the partial ambiguity of the revision’s reconciliation, the allusion exists and fails to mesh with the rest of the novel. That which Estella represents in Pip’s expectations requires that the two cannot reconcile fully in conclusion.

The novel’s ending in either case reads as an epilogue of sorts, a bit tacked on to tie up the loose end of Estella. Necessary as it may be, it also highlights earlier moments as more proper and thematic endings for Pip. In relegating Pip’s “great expectations” to lessons learned, finalizing his cycles of aspirations of grandeur and ill behavior, the narrative cycles back upon itself to where Pip began. In this the thematic ending of the novel is the return of Pip to the forge. The forge, represented by fire and the “avenging coals” (41) reminding him of his guilt represent just that – a source of binding and of guilt. The avenging flames that he runs from plagued by guilt throughout the novel, he eventually must return to and face. As the owner of that forge and a blacksmith Joe represents honesty and acceptance of self. Throughout the novel blacksmithing as a motif represents the linking, bending, and twisting of different bits together:

“[L]ife is made of ever so many partings welded together, as I may say, and one man’s a blacksmith, and one’s a whitesmith, and one’s a goldsmith, and one’s a coppersmith. Diwisions among such must come, and must be met as they come” (246).

Joe understands those divisions and accepts them, and the key to Pip’s rapprochement is doing the same. By returning to what his life originally demanded of him, having exhausted his attempts at the class conciliation with what he believes Estella to be, he closes that loop. Before visiting Miss Havisham and Estella, he had no aspirations for advancement nor shame in his upbringing, and was happy in his friendship with Joe, playing their games and eluding Mrs. Joe’s injustices. Pip’s love for Estella, far from requited receives only snobbish condescension in response. “She called [him] ‘boy’ so often, and with a carelessness that was far from complimentary” (70). Instead of accepting who he was internally and ignoring the external views of those like Estella, he created in her an impetus for greed and aspirations of greatness. The rapprochement of Pip with the life he lived before he met Estella occurs largely because of the relationship he develops with Magwitch, a representative of everything he flees up and through Volume III. The realization that money does not breed happiness and that appearances and class standing do not negotiate the relationship between one’s self and the world solidifies with the death of his erstwhile benefactor. Upon returning to the forge Pip closes the loop he started when he first met Estella and Miss Havisham, finding happiness with those that he loves and that love him.

If Pip is required to meet again with Estella, it is most appropriate for them to meet from behind the veils of the worlds in which they originally met and with the gap that Pip spent the course of the novel attempting to bridge. Estella undergoes her own version of penance and learns to understand how the mannerisms in which she grew accustomed abused others and herself. Pip witnesses and accepts that her “suffering ha[s] been stronger than Miss Havisham’s teaching, and ha[s] given her a heart to understand what [his] heart used to be” (496), creating the only sense of finality required between the two befitting the themes of the novel. Even with the realization that Estella has suffered as much as and learned the same lessons as Pip, she remains separated by class standards – as Pip and little Pip walk down the street, she rides in her carriage with a servant. As polarities of measuring personal and social character, Estella and Joe must end the novel at different ends of the spectrum to fulfill the division and understanding that Pip makes between the two. However, I think it appropriate that Estella in her own way successfully finds her way to happiness as well. Rapprochement of Pip should not exclude the same for Estella.

In contrast to the solitary breakdown of Pip’s cycle of expectations, other cycles in Victorian literature allow complete reconciliation. Within Emma, a breakdown of barriers was required for a mutual understanding to occur between Emma and Mr. Knightley. The cycle of miscommunication breaks down at a critical moment and the two are able to realize a hidden truth, their love for each other. One of the novel’s key problems in regards to conclusion was surpassing this barrier and breaking that cycle, so when it happened that the cycle could be broken, the novel was permitted to end. In the case of Pip’s conclusion, Estella represents that cycle which breaks and allows the ending of the novel. She constitutes the commencement of Pip’s expectations, and to properly reconcile himself with whom he is he must reconcile the necessity of forgoing those expectations. As a representative of that broken cycle, Estella cannot return and establish a role within Pip’s new life as that would cheapen and partially obscure what he accomplishes.

For this reason, I find the presence of little Pip perfectly fitting, especially with Estella offering physical contact to him rather than Pip. As Pip states, ” sitting on my own little stool looking at the fire, was – I again!” (490). The son of Joe and Biddy represents a new cycle born of the values that Pip realizes after Magwitch’s death. Pip is given another chance, a new opportunity to explore a childhood destroyed by unrealistic expectations. The two walking together, Pip and an untouched form of himself act as both ending and new beginning. Estella’s affection towards little Pip returns the wheel to the beginning where Estella mocks and talks down to our Pip. Realistically this is the extent of their reconciliation.

Taken in context with the rest of the novel, the ending must properly address and appropriate the themes in relation to both Pip and Estella. Realistically there exists no reason for either to be unhappy. But because of the role Estella played in breeding the unhappiness that plagued Pip, they cannot be happy together. Pip, realizing the folly in his appreciation for external definitions of human worth, allows for his final rapprochement with Joe and Biddy and reflectively, Estella undergoes a similar situation in which she comes to understand the nature of her actions and the cruelty bred by Miss Havisham. This allows her to find happiness. By reseparating these worlds of inequity both parties are capable of finding peace of a sort.

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Penguin. New York, New York 1999.