英国文学史学期论文

Analysis on the Influence of Environment on Human

Great Expectations written by Charles Dickens, a key representative of 19th century British literary realism. In this novel,we can find many similar events of Dickens’ early life. Pip, the novel’s main character, lives in the marsh country, works at a job he hates, considers himself too good for his surroundings, and experiences material success in London at a very early age, exactly as Dickens himself did.

The story happened in England in 19th century. The typical British pauper in this book, Pip, always dreams of leading a life of luxury since childhood. He got a fortune accidentally and was very satisfied with it. The money was given him an opportunity to go to the select society. But after entering the upper class, he saw much misdeeds and misfortunes unexpectedly. Finally he learned that what behind the wealth are secular and dirty. Fortunately, he woke up in time, realizing that only the steadfast work and life is good.

Great Expectations is set in early Victorian England, a time when great changes were sweeping the nation. The Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th centuries had transformed the landscape, enabling capitalists and manufacturers to amass huge fortunes.The emergence of the industrial capital increased the temptation of wealth for people, also widened the society, especially the gap between rich and poor between the city and the country. So more and more people moved from the country to the city in, pursuing greater economic opportunities. Throughout the whole nation, the manners of the upper class were very strict and conservative, gentlemen and ladies were expected to have thorough classical educations and to behave appropriately in countless social situations.

Pip just wanted to be a blacksmith when he grew up. He almost had no thought about the upper class. But after meeting Estella, he found he had fallen in love with her.Since then, he had a subtle change in the heart——He wanted to be a gentleman and go to upper class. Due to the huge gap of social status, he felt himself inferior. Then ha had the chance to go to London. Pip had a big shift. He took money from the lawyer and spent them lavishly, met a lawyer’s official, received education in a relative’s home of Miss Havisham and joined a stupid club. He insisted on visiting his favorite girl,Estella, and indulged in her beauty and lies. All of Pip’s changes forced him to move from one social extreme to another while dealing with the strict rules and expectations that governed Victorian England. Unfortunately, his dream of becoming a gentleman was smashed with a grim reality in the end. So this work is a sharp satire on the society.

In this book, "great expectations" is an irony. It not really indicates that Pip had a great expectation, but refers to a kind of "disillusion", a fantasy disillusionment. If we just regards this book as a story about orphan disillusioned, we misunderstand and underestimate the author's intention. The author wants to show the social life in the 19th century British Victorian through the description of the orphan Pip and reveal varying degrees of evil in the capitalist class.

I mentioned that different environment will make people of different characters in my previous paper. Now I want to state more specifically and deeply. We all know that environment can not decide a person completely. Internal cause is the key factor to determine the level of a person. If Pip is not a naive and simple young person, but a mature and headstrong juvenile,perhaps this novel will have another ending. To Miss Havisham who wants to revenge men wholeheartedly, Pip is a great tool and punchbag.Miss Havisham said,“What is true love. True love is blind devotion, absolute inferiority, completely obey, ignore themselves and ignore the outside world. ”[1] Miss Havisham let her beautiful adopted daughter take the initiative to approach Pip. At the same time, they also made fun of him constantly. Young Pip was like a muppet and wrapped around Miss

Havisham’s little finger. The admiration to Estella made Pip begin to detest his rough hands and thick boots. In Pip’s own words, I had never thought of being ashamed of my hands before; but I bagan to consider them rather a bad pair. And he also asked why Joe didn’t teach him normal way of speaking. It should be said that as a child, it is understandable to have some complain in front of the vanity. After all, it also accord with human nature. At the same time, starting from here we can see that Dickens in "great expectations" to the characters of psychological description is more exquisite and authentic, exploration to the inner worlds of the characters is more resolutely and thoroughly. Compared with its previous characters, P ip’'s image becomes more vivid. It makes the charac ter of Pip closer to reality. And it can reflect the social situation more deeply. On Pip’s body, we can't see the description about lacking individuality and characters author defined directly. It is a new image which has his own behavior and inner activities.

There are four female characters in the novel, they also have effects on Pip. They let Pip’s life full of sentimentality. As Simoms said,“On Christmas day the scenery in the marsh has confirmed the tone of this novel.”[2]Mrs.Joe and Joe’s parenting shaped Pip’s kind heart. Miss Havisham had negative influence on Pip’s character. Estella caused Pip’s greedy and arrogant character. At last, Biddy had positive influence on P ip’s character. Here I will say something about Biddy detailedly. Biddy is a kind, smart and simple girl, and she brought warmness to Biddy. She never overly nitpicked and got angry at Pip. She was always so gentle, even if Pip did something that he was sorry about her. She also had no complaint about him. She kept silent and still supported Pip in the distant place. She was so smart and considerate that can always timely detected P ip’s mood swings and gave him the right advice. So when Pip’s great expectation vanished like soap bubbles, he dared to return to and find original own ju st about Biddy’s guidance. “Pip although lost great expectations, he won the more valuable thing about the return of morality. ”[3]When Pip’s character began to shift because of Estella, Biddy helped him to clarify his thoughts and feelings in her mild and calm tone. Finally, Pip can thought about it independently.

In this novel, during the process of telling the story, the author ever-present penetrate one of his philosophical thought : the development and change of the world all have received the influence of the external environment. Different environment will make people of different characters. Money and status’s changes have obvious effects on Pip, or the women around Pip play a subtle role in his character’s development and changes. Such as it is, in our own lives, we should make efforts to have a pure and noble heart. We should try to not be seduced by money and power.

What great expectations means to me is that we should depend on our own knowledge and wisdom to get a bright future, rather than rely on others. Great expectations did not represent money, luxurious life provided by others, even the benefactors are our parents. It is our own dreams that we want to realize by our own efforts. In fact, whether we can get succeed finally is not most important. We should pay more attention to the experience and lesson that what we learned during the period. Only when we become mature enough and experience suffering can we say we had the great expectations.

Bibliography

[1]查尔斯·狄更斯，孤星血泪[M]，南京:译林出版社，2001，P225。

[2]Symons J．Introduction to Great Expectations[M]．London：Pan Books Ltd，1974．P256

[3]艾晓玲．<远大前程>的叙事特征[J]．四川大学学报，2000，(1)．P60