Great Expectations Essay

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Great Expectations Essay
Someone once said that you have to know the past in order to understand the present. And when you think about that it makes sense, depending on how you grew up, where you grew up, how you have been treated, and what you saw and were taught, can affect you when you grow up. I’m talking about your attitude, beliefs, and actions. If you were treated fairly, like a good kid, or if you were loved that could positively affect your behavior when you grow up. On the other hand, if you were treated unfairly, like a bad kid, or even ignored, then when you grow up that could negatively affect your behavior. That very well applies here in Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens, especially to the character Ms. Havisham.
Ms. Havisham was affected negatively from her past. She had her heart broken on her wedding day and the man that left her at the altar was in fact a gold digger. And because of that she had a heart of ice and even raised a girl to break someone’s heart just like that man did to her. Because she was never able to get rid of that memory and let go she carried this pain with her for most of her life. This affected her attitude, beliefs, and decisions. Even before Pip met her he knew her, “as an immensely rich and grim lady who lived in a large and dismal house,” (Dickens 52-53). Ms. Havisham was well known for her attitude all over town. Ms. Havisham influenced Estella to be a heartbreaker. That very heartbreaker was one of our main character Pip’s flaws; he loved someone he couldn’t have. That is very important to this story. In fact, everything he does in his early life, him being Pip, is either after or followed by him thinking of Estella. And when our influenced heartbreaker married Pip’s enemy he was heartbroken himself for quite a long time. His heart for Estella throughout the book influenced his actions greatly. And all this is because of Ms. Havisham’s past. I think in order to really understand what a huge role Ms. Havisham played in this book, we have to look at the book as if she never existed. If she had never existed than it would cut off all

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