As. dr. Lidia- Mihaela NECULA [303698]

UNIVERSITATEA “DUNĂREA DE JOS” – GALAȚI

FACULTATEA DE LITERE

Specializarea: Engleză- Română

LUCRARE DE LICENȚĂ

Coordonator științific:

As. dr. Lidia- Mihaela NECULA

Absolvent: [anonimizat]-Andreea CHIRILĂ

Galați

2018

UNIVERSITATEA “DUNĂREA DE JOS” – GALAȚI

FACULTATEA DE LITERE

Specializarea: Engleză- Română

The Gothic in Charles Dickens`s Great Expectations

Coordonator științific:

As. dr. Lidia- Mihaela NECULA

Absolvent: [anonimizat]-Andreea CHIRILĂ

Galați

2018

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………..

ARGUMENT……………………………………………………………………………..

INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………

[anonimizat]……………………………………………………

1.1 The origins of Gothic…………………………………………………………………

1.1.1 The beginning…………………………………………………………………

1.1.2 Walpole`s heritage…………………………………………………………………

1.1.3 How Gothic was perceived………………………………………………………

1.2 [anonimizat]…………………………………………………………

1.3 Types of Gothic…………………………………………………………………

1.4 Points of interest for the Gothic fiction……………………………………………

1.4.1 Strange places…………………………………………………………………

1.4.2 Time…………………………………………………………………

1.4.3 Power…………………………………………………………………

1.4.4 Sexuality…………………………………………………………………

1.5 Dickens and the Gothic……………………………………………………………

1.5.1 The decline and revival……………………………………………………………

1.5.2 The Gothic Imagination………………………………………………………

1.5.3 The flaws of society………………………………………………………………

[anonimizat] …………………………

2.1 Themes and motifs…………………………………………………………………

2.1.1 Overview…………………………………………………………………

2.1.2 Time and Movement……………………………………………………………

2.1.3 Romance, Sexuality and Violence………………………………………………

2.2 Plot…………………………………………………………………

2.3 Characters…………………………………………………………………

2.3.1 Pip…………………………………………………………………

2.3.2 Magwitch…………………………………………………………………

2.3.3 Estella…………………………………………………………………

2.3.4 Miss Havisham…………………………………………………………………

2.3.5 Other characters…………………………………………………………………

2.4 Setting…………………………………………………………………

2.4.1 Marshes…………………………………………………………………

2.4.2 Satis House…………………………………………………………………

2.4.3 London…………………………………………………………………

[anonimizat]…………………

3.1 From the written text to the visuals……………………………………………..

3.2 The Book…………………………………………………………………

3.2.1 Covers…………………………………………………………………

3.2.2 Illustrations…………………………………………………………………

3.3 The Movie…………………………………………………………………

3.3.1 Poster…………………………………………………………………

3.3.2 Characters…………………………………………………………………

3.3.3 Decor…………………………………………………………………

CONCLUSIONS…………………………………………………………………

BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………

APPENDIX…………………………………………………………………

ABSTRACT

ARGUMENT

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1

The Gothic

1.1 The origins of Goth

1.1.1 The beginning

The term of ‘Gothic’ appeared for the first time in 1764 on the cover of Horace Walpole`s novel The Castle of Otranto. The term was used in the subtitle – ‘A Gothic Story’ – more like a joke rather than a guide for the novel`s genre. Walpole used the term with the meaning of ‘barbarous’, getting so far as to mean something ‘deriving from the Middle Ages’.

By adding in the preface of the novel a translation that claims that the story had supposedly been published in Italy in 1529 and by the claims of it being found in ‘the library of an ancient catholic family in the north of England’, he succeeded in deceiving the readers in believing that the fictional tale is one ‘founded on truth’. Walpole’s text assembles elements from old poetry, drama and romance, providing the pattern for the future writers interested in what later become a new genre.

As a matter of fact, the novel was born as a consequence of Walpole’s dream. One night, while sleeping he dreamed of a gigantic armoured fist appearing on the staircase. This, and the theatrical version of the Medieval castle of Strawberry Hill, Walpole`s house, being his true inspiration for The Castle of Otranto. While the house can be considered as a Gothic symbol for both architecture and literature, the novel stands for a tradition that incited over time through books, films and television series.

When the second edition of The Castle of Otranto was published, Horace Walpole wrote in the preface a justification for this project- to move away from neoclassical esthetic values. He states that the novel, ‘was an attempt to blend the two kinds of romance, the ancient and the modern’.

The supernatural story gravitates around the gloomy Prince of Otranto, Manfred, and his pursuit of Isabella, the beautiful young woman whom he had developed an obsession for, the one who must marry him and produce him an heir. The novel opens with a death. Conrad`s death, Manfred`s son, was provoked by the sudden and inexplicably falling of a huge helmet from a statue of a previous Prince of Otranto, thus crashing him. By the end of the novel, such events are more and more present, the veil of supernatural being cast upon the whole castle until the defence of the evil. The generic framework used in his novel arise from Walpole`s fascination with all things related to medieval, here including the medieval romance and architecture.

Manfred is portrayed to be the main antagonist of the novel, his characterisation being that of a man easily corrupted by his own lack of self-control, thus embracing a villainous behaviour. It can be said that he became the first Gothic villain, establishing a pattern for the future evil characters that are to come. A powerful male figure, Manfred allows himself to slip into a sinful passion, his evil nature overpowering the goodness within him.

In a time where Christian values are discussed and promoted trough literature, the Prince of Otranto lacks self-control. He embraces the intense Gothic passion and madness, choosing to dismiss the Christian virtues, this leading to his inability to think rationally, causing him to seek an incestuous affair with Isabella, daughter-figure, at the cost of his still legitimate marriage.

If Manfred is the prototype for the Gothic novel, Isabella becomes the prototype for the Gothic heroine- the young and beautiful maiden, often an orphan, like in this case, that is oppressed throughout the novel by evil beings and by the end succeeds in remaining pure and devoted to her moral values.

As seen above, Walpole’s Castle of Otranto introduced some of the elements that will be later representative for the Gothic genre, such as a detailed and complicated plot, all sorts of labyrinths, and supernatural occurrences. Gothic also addresses concepts such as the supernatural and the discovery of mysterious elements, and usually it takes its protagonists, spit in two categories- the villain and the hero, attaching here the subcategory of helper or aid, into frightening old buildings, exploiting their values- or the lack of, their feelings of horror and dread being accentuated by the settings.

Although being fashionable at the time when it was published, and despite the quickly-gathered popularity among both readers and writers- success that will later show in the term classifying as a standalone genre, the first English Gothic novel would not impress a modern reader. Where the readers of that time found excitement, thrill, and originality, the modern readers see just dullness and stereotypes. The characters, that are rather banal, participate in an action that moves perhaps a little too fast, lacking true suspense, taking in consideration that the scenes presented refer to supernatural manifestations and the chase of the young maiden through dark settings. The only feeling of something that comes close to thrill comes from the scenes involving Manfred, the villain.

Unfortunately, if the novel were to be read nowadays by a modern fancier of the genre, it would not raise the same reaction that it did in its beginnings. The remote settings, the medieval themes and the supernatural aspects have been imitated so frequently and, more importantly, so poorly, that in time, they stereotyped.

1.1.2 Walpole`s heritage

Walpole is not the first one to exploit this supernatural territory, but he seems to be the first one who gives it a name. The starting point was the 1790s, but following the subsequent centuries, Gothic underwent numerous revivals.

It could be said that his novel initiated a literary genre which would become popular in the later 18th and early 19th century, among authors such as Ann Radcliffe, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker and Edgar Allan Poe.

Due to its rising popularity among both writers and readers, the eighteenth-century Gothic novel became a distinct under the term of ‘Romance’, being the first modern British fiction to achieve this. It is in the 1790s when the Gothic romance became a dominant literary genre. Through Gothic, a turn against ‘real life’ it is sought, some kind of rebellion against the mimetic literature of that time, and a turn to ‘imagination’, an alternative version of reality. Gothic doesn`t always crosses the border between the two, being more a term situated in-between.

Walpole`s most memorable follower was Ann Radcliffe. Her novels, respectively Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) and Italian (1797), are perhaps the best representation of the Gothic genre. Matthew Gregory Lewis through The Monk introduces another type of Gothic, based on the original pattern, yet by means of violence and horror transforming it in something more sensational. Other disciples of Gothic fiction are William Beckford with his Vathek (1786) and Charles Robert Maturin` Melmoth the Wanderer (1820) through which an Irish version of the story of Doctor Faust is presented. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley`s Frankenstein (1818) and Bram Stoker`s Dracula (1897) are classic horror novels whose names are going to resonate for the following centuries due to the exploring of mystery and terror in the nature of humankind .

1.1.3 How Gothic was perceived

As mentioned above, in the 1790s Ann Radcliffe was the dawn of Gothic revival. She reused, adapted and improved what Walpole set as a model.

Just like Walpole, her fascination was drawn toward the medieval. Her novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho, is it named after the fictional Italian castle, situated among the Apennine Mountains, which serves as the novel’s main setting. Following the pattern set by Walpole she creates a villain -Montoni, a brooding aristocrat, and a persecuted, young, virgin heroine- Emily.

The novel is set in 1584 in southern France and northern Italy, having its main focus on a young French woman`s unfortunate and dangerous situation, remained orphan after the death of her father. At some point, Emily finds herself a prisoner in the Udolpho castle, at the mercy of Signor Montoni, an Italian brigand who married her aunt.

Throughout the story, Emily tries to investigate the relationship between Marchioness de Villeroi and her late father, convinced that it is connected to the castle at Udolpho and its mysteries.

Following the fashion of that time, Ann Radcliffe sets all her novels in mysterious and exotic foreign lands. Notable is the fact that she uses lengthy descriptions of the scenery in all her works, descriptions that are quite realistic due to the using of travel books.

Like other writers of Gothic fiction of that time, she used the subtitle ‘A Romance’ to provide insight of the supernatural tale, rather than ‘A Gothic’. This can be understood since Ann Radcliffe’s supernatural, by the end of the novel, proves to have a complicated, yet nevertheless, natural explanation.

Later on, another authoress impresses the Victorian society- Charlotte Bronte with Jane Eyre (1847). The novel can be considered a 19th-century gothic romance given that it contains elements such as: suspense-provoking scenes, the romance between an older man and a younger woman, a fire-consumed mansion and the lurking presence of a secret wife.

Despite the mass interest for the ‘new’ prototype, not all of the novelist were impressed by the model set by founder of Gothic fiction. Jane Austen is one of the novelist who satirized the Gothic. She satirised both the genre itself and the existing gothic writings of that time. Her novel Northanger Abbey (1817) was used as an instrument of satire, directed particularly at Ann Radcliffe style of writing. She took her ‘inspiration’ from The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Romance of the Forest (1791).

Austen`s story has as main protagonist young Catherine Morland. The impressionable young woman, which would be classified as ‘the naïve heroine’ under Gothic, comes to confuse reality with fiction after reading an Ann Radcliffe novel. The lines between the two are blurred when the Gothic fanatic see her friends and family as Gothic villains, corrupted by some kind of evil entity. Austen counts on Catherine`s distorted her view of reality as a comic relief, the results being indeed amusing.

Even though Austen created Northanger Abbey with the intention to ridicule Gothic fiction and its adepts, the novel is amply informative, presenting plenty characteristics through Catherine obsession the genre. A number of them being: the ruins of a castle, heroine who is in constant need of being rescued, a hero/villain whose secrets and intentions cannot be discovered until the very end, structures that elicit a feeling of claustrophobia- dungeons, prisons, crypts, wild and remote places- forests, mountains, shores, romances that most of the time end in a tragic way, illicit deeds happening in the apanage of darkness and shadows, heightened emotions of terror and dread, everything packed in a supernatural veil consisting of ghosts, evil entities, inexplicable incidents and curses.

Although, an easy targets for satire, the cause being that of the exaggerate usage of weak and helpless damsels in distress, forced, even absurd situations and way too extravagant plot, the some of the Gothic`s mechanism infiltrated the works of major writers as the Brontë sisters, Edgar Allan Poe and Dickens, his most notable novels touched by Gothic being Bleak House (1853) and Great Expectations (1861)

1.2 The socio-cultural context

The Gothic period experienced its greatest ascension between the years 1764-1840, period that aligned closely with the Romanticism.

Since Walpole`s novel, the scholars and the poetic industry made the revival of the romance a mission of great importance. Furthermore, the romance revival aimed the confrontation with the cultural origins that were both at the same time native and foreign. At the same instant, the terms ‘romance’ and ‘Gothic’ share a past strongly linked to a post-classical but premodern European culture, which had lost touch with the modernity of the post-revolutionary British epoch.

‘Romance’ had been the main focus of Europe`s culture, the literature instances- poetry, fables, novels, songs- and other arts- sculpture, architecture, paintings- alike blossomed into a rich cultural compost of decay, after the fall of the Roman Empire, while ‘Gothic’ submits a rather antagonistic relation to the imperial civilisation, bordering with the anti-classicism.

Near the second half of the eighteenth century it gained quite an ambiguous meaning that was both political and aesthetical, the two myths of national constitutional foundation opposed each other, comporting two different attitudes in what concerned toward the modern revolutionary settlement.

Around the middle of the 18th century, writers and critics alike, become more fascinated by the experiences that didn`t seem to qualify as what the back-then seemed to be the normal category for beauty and the pleasurable. The fascination for how it felt to be in the middle of a frenetic sea storm, or on the top of a great mountain feeling the blow of the wind, or even in the middle of a shipwreck. Due to the rather mimetic function of writing and thus literature of that time, both writers and readers searched for something new. This ‘new’ appeared in the form of the sublime. What traditionally started as the aesthetics concern for the beauty, balance and harmony, turned into overwhelming, awesome and terrifying. Gothic relish in the notion of sublime and using sublimity gives a better understanding of the world.

In the Victorian Era novels were available in different forms, such as publishing segments in magazines and periodicals or divided in weekly and monthly parts – Dickens published many of his first novels in this form. This method of segmenting the novels helped not only the readers- making them portable, readers had an easier way of carrying and distributing them, but also the writers.

Furthermore, it was more affordable to the growing number of new readers, since the cost for literature would be spared over a longer period of time . By ending each episode on with a cliff-hanger, the writer spiked the readers’ curiosity, making them wonder about the next turn of events, thus determining them to buy the next issue. This technique was used by many of the authors of that time, Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, George Eliot- naming just a few.

Also, this would give the readers some sort of power over the future development of the novel. Due to serialization and its advantageous writer-reader dialogues through letters, Dickens changed the original sombre end for Walter Gay, of the novel Dombey and Son, to a happier one, at the request of one of his readers.

Throughout time, The Gothic tended to appear especially at moments of both political and social crisis, this resulting in the increase of the number of Gothic novels written during the 1790s. This recurrence of a similar situation, another burst for the Gothic novels, was at the end of the 19th century, which had as a breakpoint the French Revolution in 1789 that resulted in a great political change. Seemingly, an understanding and master of the critical situations wanted to be achieved through Gothic.

A religious crisis follows, in which The Catholic Church is despoiled, culminating with the closing down of its abbeys and its monasteries. These chain of events shacked down the population and fed the Gothic sense of doubt concerning the supernatural.

The real-life circumstances had also an impact on the literature. For example, in the beginning, Doctor Frankenstein’s creature was not evil, it became malicious as a result of being rejected by society.

The 1750s and the 1850s were the periods of time in which a battle has been fought between madness and sanity, reason and irrationality, a time for revolution for both literature and humans. A better understanding of the social, political and intellectual state of the time in which the literature was created is presented in front of the contemporary readers by the Gothic movement, which purpose was to study and bring some insight into the chaotic, irrational a dark side of the human nature.

“Gothic literature” was perceived by modern readers and critics as any piece of literature that had an intricate plot and a detailed setting, along with the battle between evil forces, most of the time belonging to the supernatural class, and an innocent protagonist, that gets to remain pure until the end of the story, the triumph of good being eminent. Nowadays, the meaning remained similar, but genres such as “horror.” and “paranormal” joining in, the term widening its meaning.

1.3 Types of Gothic

The etymology of ‘genre’ comes from the Latin word ‘genus’ which means ‘kind’, therefore the genre determines the type –of what kind- a text is. Most of the time, a clear line can`t be drawn between elements and classification, and it is impossible for a certain item to belongs only to a genre, the contamination being present throughout Literature. This can be easily imagined as a family tree where individuals are related and even if they look alike, they are not the same. Each one has its own name, but at a certain point are linked by similar traits, characteristics and motifs.

Hence, there is no specific element that belongs to all Gothics writings. The Gothic genre can be characterised as a modern one, the huge family had extended through time in such a manner that now it does not limits itself only to the written works- novels, stories, poems- but stretches so far as to include music, films and fashion; the whole lot being similar- yet not- having in common just some important traits.

Gothic fiction is at the same time inspired and fascinated by the supernatural, this being demonstrated by the numerous creatures that appear throughout the novels characterised by this genre. Both The Monk (1796)- one of Matthew Lewis's famous novels, in which one of the characters, Ambrosio, makes a pact with the devil and sells his soul, following that, at the end of the novel, for Satan himself to make an appearance; and Bram Stoker`s Dracula – which relates the story of an vampire and its attempts to move from Transylvania to England in search of new blood, spreading at the same time its undead curse, and of the battle between him and a mob led by Professor Abraham Van Helsing, gravitates around events triggered by supernatural beings.

But Ann Radcliffe`s different kind of writing, in which no supernatural is present, demonstrates that there is not a must in what concerns the Gothic. In the novel The Mysteries of Udolpho the ghost of Marchioness de Villeroi makes an appearance, yet it is explained in a naturalistic way by the end of the novel.

Therefore there are two different types of Gothic: one that uses the supernatural and the other that does not. The first type expects readers to believe in the fabulous events while the second type provides a natural or realistic explanation of them.

In Ann Radcliffe`s novels, one important revelation is made: ‘gothic’ has always been about fear, the feelings of uneasiness, dread and despair provoked by the supernatural, rather than the supernatural creatures or events. The Gothic comes alive through the characters` troubled thoughts and feelings of anxiety.

In this instance, the effect dominates the cause.

1.4 Points of interest for the Gothic fiction

1.4.1 Strange Places

It is not unusual in Gothic fiction for characters to find themselves in strange and mysterious places- like the old castle from Dracula, violent, sometimes sexually enticing prisons- The Castle of Otranto, or a decaying place- Satis House in Great Expectations.

The early writers that approached the Gothic genre seemed to have a preference for the remote time – particularly The Middle Ages- and remote lands. Italy was a common favourite, novels like Matthew Lewis's The Monk and William Beckford's Vathek setting their action in this foreign land.

Since the beginning, Gothic fiction novelists took a liking for strange places. It is notable that the inspiration came from total opposing settings: detained and imprisoning places and wild, remote landscapes. On one hand, Mary Shelley`s Frankenstein ends with the Doctor`s creature finding itself in the North Pole`s wild, arctic wastes. On the other hand, in Bram Stoker`s Dracula, Jonathan Harker- a rather nice, young modern man that travels through Central Europe- is all of a sudden captured by Count Dracula and imprisoned in the violent and ancient world of the evil vampire.

The castle is an occurring favourite element, such a building providing endless doors that led to secret rooms and the mysterious entities hidden behind them, locked passageways, dark battlements, hidden panels and intricate labyrinths filled with traps that have as main goal to induce the reader states of thrill and suspense.

1.4.2 Time

Another important instance is that of the sudden transformation and transition. In Dracula, this affects concomitantly the space and the time. Jonathan Harker suddenly moves from a modern world to an archaic one that reaches back to the distant time of the Medieval Ages. The transgression from the modern tools, such as the typewriters, the recording equipment and the modern trains, to the medieval instruments of torture- chains, prisons and ancient weapons of war, shake him down to his inner being. Something usual regarding the typical Gothic fiction.

The relationship between the modern world and the ancient one-the past, it is usually presented not as a contrast between evolution and barbarity, but as a juxtaposition of a violent conflict. Often, the past is the factor that unbalances the situation, bursting through the present, thus disturbing it. Therefore, the past functions like a ghost, while the present impersonates as the human being. At the sudden appearance of the ghost (past), the human (present) panics leading to a situation where the whole balance breaks, resulting in a murky, disastrous and chaotic outbreak. Something that is long dead and gone comes back in the present to disturb the reality

1.4.3 Power

Another element essential in Gothic fiction is the question of power, which can be easily categorised in two groups: good and evil. The first one is the correspondent of the people who are utterly vulnerable, frequently the damsels in distress or the hero that will soon achieve his powers. The second group belongs to the very powerful figures, in this case, the power often being achieved through supernatural means.

By throwing in the question of power, the human nature is recurrently explored alongside the limits of humanity and of what it takes to be human. Most Gothic characters are driven by either insane passion born out of internal desires or by the forces beyond themselves that take control, determining them to do things that normally they do not want to do.

1.4.4 Sexuality

The discussion based upon both power and human nature leads to another points of interest, those being dominance and, implicitly, sexuality. Concerning the position of women back in the 18th and 19th century society, as a result of being forced into unusual situation, most of the time they would have to confront a desire that is blind to reason or a vulnerable, yet urgent and insatiable, need. These would obscure their reasoning, making them unaware of the imminent peril and in the end, dooming themselves.

The archaic model of the dominant and powerful central male presence will be replaced, thus introducing the seemingly submissive, yet powerful in its true nature, female character. There are times where the two entities coexists, such as in Stoker`s Dracula where the presence of both the Count and ‘the sisters’ is noticeable. ‘She was so fair to look on, so radiantly beautiful, so exquisitely voluptuous, that the very instinct of man in me, which calls some of my sex to love and to protect one of hers, made my head whirl with new emotion.’

Count Dracula`s aristocratic charm and the entrancing beauty of ‘the sisters’, in reality his three wives, coexist in the same universe in what seems to be a relationship of co-dependency -instead of opposing each other for the supremacy, aiming to achieve the same goals.

1.5 Dickens and the Gothic

1.5.1 The decline and revival

Dickens`s childhood experience at the Blacking Factory left him psychologically scarred, later on becoming a source of inspiration for novels such as David Copperfield, Oliver Twist and Great Expectations, works in which themes such as alienation and betrayal often recur.

Exploring some of Dickens's most researched works, such as Bleak House and Oliver Twist, the way that the novelist uses the Gothic imagery, setting and plot devices becomes quite evident.

In the early Victorian era a respite in the evolution of Gothic literature can be observed. If there were for a periodization to be made, the Gothic literary movement could be classified in two golden ages. The first one took its inspiration from the works of Horace Walpole and Ann Radcliffe, while the second golden age of Gothic was represented by Bram Stoker and Mary Shelly. Halfway throughout the two periods, the concept of Gothic will suffer some modification, giving up on a few of its initial characteristic. Those adjustments were made for the purpose of adapting to the fast changing world, the main focus being the social issues and the domestic realism.

The excess of melodrama which was frequently associated with the Gothic was pushed aside. The only except were the penny dreadful with titles like: Varney the Vampire and The String of Pearls, in which characters like Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street featured.. For a time, it seemed like the Gothic fiction was forgotten by the once mesmerised audience.

In spite of this, Gothic suffered a repression rather than an abolishment. It would shyly resurface through themes like sexuality, violence and death, and finally make a recurrence in the novels of authors like the Brontë sisters, Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens.

1.5.2 The Gothic Imagination

In the early Victorian era, the Gothic imagination worked ‘in much the same way as the subconscious does in the human mind’. More precisely, it behaved in the same manner repressed emotions and desire, cracking into the rational narratives of writers such as Dickens and focusing its attention on darkest corners of the modern Victorian society.

Through that period a shift was made. Radcliffe`s castle in ruins and the mountain landscape of the Apennines vanished, the set melting into contemporary urban environment of London.

At a first glance, Oliver Twist and the original Gothic do not seem to have much in common, yet after a further investigation the innocent orphan, Oliver, resurface being chased sown by frightening figures of villains, such as Monks and Bill Sikes, through decaying ruins, the slums of London. The atmosphere created by the main mechanism behind the plot coupled cu the depiction of the Victorian city streets are more likely than not Gothic at its core. The setting may have shifted, but the atmosphere remained the same.

Dickens`s usage of the Gothic imagination does not stop at the setting, stretching and also contaminating the portrayal of the characters, his only reason being the achievement of a macabre effect. Worth mentioning characters subjected to this technique are the following: Krook, merchant from Bleak House that finds his end by spontaneous combustion; Daniel Quilp, from The Old Curiosity Shop who is ‘buried with a stake through his heart in the centre of four lonely roads’- a vampire`s fate, and Miss Havisham, whose tragic end it is marked by the bridal gown that got caught by fire. Thus the traditional Gothic imagery clashes with the realism and so-called moral of the Victorian era, giving birth to new variations of the genre.

1.5.3 The flaws of society

Repeatedly, Dickens`s grotesque Gothic characters serve as a mirror in which society’s flaws are displayed. Humans that are trying to support themselves in a harsh environment are put down by a mass of humans who think alike and form a group that decides what is acceptable and what is not.

More often than not, the grotesque exterior matches the internal degeneration of the soul. Described as a ‘monkeyish’ and ‘kind of fossil imp’, Grandfather Smallweed from Bleak House is a result of both society`s flaws and his rotten morals. Therefore, it could be said that Dickens`s main goal is to produce through shock, in equal parts sympathy for the oppressed and rage directed towards society that is to blame for such an outrageous outcome. As an outcome, frightening and grotesque as they are, Vholes and Grandfather Smallweed are after all victims of both society and their dark nature.

In this case, society and the ruling classes act as a mirror to the tyrannical aristocrats, ghosting the ruined castles of the original Gothic fiction of Horace Walpole and his followers.

CHAPTER 2

The Gothic in Great Expectations

2.1 Themes and motifs

2.1.1 Overview

Charles Dicken`s Great Expectations is his thirteenth novel, first published as a series in All the Year Round, a weekly period owned by him, between 1 December 1860 and August 1861. The second time the novel was published was in October 1861 by the Chapman and Hall publishing house in three volumes.

The novel is at its core a bildungsroman that follows the personal growth of orphan Philip Pirrip, nicknamed Pip, and his attempts to better himself. It is fully narrated in the first person which makes it Dickens`s second novel of this kind, the first one being David Copperfield (180). Similar to Dickens`s other writings, Great Expectations does not correspond to a single genre, being a combination of more different types of writing. Some of the most notable labels are: romantic, realistic, social, comic, drama and Gothic, the book drawing on from more sources of inspiration.

The Gothic is a recurring style in the novel, the most important and known scenes from the narrative being influenced by it, scenes depicting psychological stress and transformation, violence and heightened emotions. For example, the first chapter opens with the fateful encounter between Pip and a frightening man, later revealed to be an escaped prisoner named Abel Magwitch, in the graveyard near the marshes. The impact Magwitch makes on Pip is so strong that the young terrified boy thinks of him like ‘as if he were eluding the hands of the dead people, stretching up cautiously out of their graves, to get a twist upon his ankle and pull him in’ (Dickens 186:9). It seems like Dickens uses Gothic imagery from the beginning of the novel, setting the tone and transporting the readers inside the fiction, stimulating their minds with grotesque images. The description is shocking through its realism that the cold hands of the dead seem to reach not only Magwitch but the readers themselves.

Even if the supernatural is not present in the novel in the same way it was in the original Gothic stories, in the form of ghost, vampires or horrific creatures, it has quite a strong link with the behaviour of the characters. Dominant traits of the Gothic supernatural are present in characters such as Magwitch- that due to this manipulation of Pip through fear resembles a fearsome sorcerer that is capable of terrible things, aided by his henchman, the second convict, that hints at being a golem under the power of its merciless master, Miss Havisham- an old witch living in the solitude of her haunted house, that has the ability to control minds, thus having under control young Estella, an innocent child brainwashed by the dreadful hag, and Orlick- Pip`s double, an hideous brute that is the evil counterpart of the hero. These figures who resemble supernatural spectres, in the daylight, stripped by the energy provided by the setting and the certain situation in which they were presented, are actually people who deep inside keep hidden mysteries and give the novel the feel of a fairy-tale with a twist.

The late 18th and early 19th century are considered the prime period of the Gothic fiction, then in the midst of the Victorian epoch when it goes underground, is considered outdated and no more fashionable. Yet, during the second half of the epoch, it is rehabilitated and some of its original structures are adapted for fitting the contemporary society. Major authors of the Victorian society embrace the genre and use it in what are known today as the best classical novels in that time. Novels such as Jane Eyre (1847), Bleak House (1853) and The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) had unknowingly been contaminated by the influence of Gothic.

The realistic norm had been coupled with the Gothic resulting in a new point of view in which the Victorian society and all the aspects related to it are presented as bizarre, mysterious and peculiar.

2.1.2 Time and Movement

A Gothic trait frequently encounters in Dicken`s writings is the relationship between the time of the past and the time of the present. In Great Expectations, Miss Havisham is the central piece when examining the relation between the two times. Inside Satis House, the time is frozen at the exact moment when she was jilted on her wedding day. She stopped all the clocks and did not change the arrangement of the objects, a layer of dust reigning over the house while the house starts the process of decay.

Over time, her actions would transform the house in a weird, strange place, similar to one of the original Gothic stories, startling visitors such as Pip. By entering the house, the young boy, who is advancing in time through both childhood and his desire to become better, is taken back in time to be a witness of Miss Havisham’s nightmarish past. This will later establish a link between the two since Pip’s every return to the house testifies the fact that while Miss Havisham cannot go over the incident, she will not be able to move on in time and neither can Pip. His constantly return indicates that both of them refuse to give up their obsessions, Miss Havisham- her past- and Pip – his possible future with Estella. Ironically is the fact that to accomplish his wish of a future with Estella- statement moving forward in time, he will constantly go back to Miss Havisham`s house- moving backwards in time. Thus, both Pip and Miss Havisham having links to a past time that neither of them can cut off.

With his every return to Satis House Pip hopes to move on and accomplish his desire of sexual fulfilment with Estella (John Bowen, 2014). But this ambitions will be denied, the house remaining a symbol of unconsummated relationships and past obsessions.

The repetition of time movement is not the only type of repetition in Great Expectations. Pip struggle through various situations to move forward and better himself, spiritually and materially, end in failure- his constant return to Estella and her permanent rejection, the inherited wealth that he is going to lose and his behaviour towards his friend being just some examples.

Repetition is also used in Pip`s description of Miss Havisham`s house. When Pip sees her for the first time is seized by shock, he had never seen something like her until that point in time, despite her age and ancient appearance, the old lady representing a new experience.

Once, I had been taken to see some ghastly waxwork at the Fair, representing I know not what impossible personage lying in state. Once, I had been taken to one of our old marsh churches to see a skeleton in the ashes of a rich dress that had been dug out of vault under the church pavement. Now, waxwork and skeleton seemed to have dark eyes that moved and looked at me. I should have cried out, if could. (Dickens: 178)

Yet, her appearance coupled with the strange atmosphere of the house reminds him of things seen in the past, a corpse at the church or a waxwork at the fair. Things that horrify and repeal, leaving a psychological mark, which surfaces if triggered, and the desperate need to be repressed.

2.1.3 Romance, Sexuality and Violence

Another Gothic theme that Dickens explore in Great Expectations is that of violence, which often seeps into the erotic relationships of the characters. For instance, Miss Havisham has been violently betrayed and as a result, she herself turned into an oppressor, much like the other victims in Dickens`s novels. So happens in the case of Pip. The young boy who gained the readers` sympathy from the very first page become a bully by behaving cruelly to his closest friend Joe, the one who remained faithful despite the boy`s snobbish attitude.

Magwitch`s display of violence when attacking the second convict is utterly terrifying and Estella is brutal in her behaviour and rejection towards Pip.

This is a recurrent phenomenon in the novel, violence in all its manifestation- physically, psychologically or verbal- being present in almost all the erotic and sexual and romantic relationships.

The relationship between Pip and Estella has been so emphasised that most people believe the book to be mainly a romantic novel, forgetting about its realistic, social or Gothic aspects. Great Expectations does not subscribe to a single genre and is rather a combination of the time`s most representative ones.

Yet, the relationship between the two is not as interesting as is the one between Miss Havisham and Estella. The desire between same sexes is an unusual thing to happen in a Victorian novel, still, Miss Havisham appears to be in love with Estella. It is not a sexual desire per say, but a fondness and admiration taken to an extreme. The young charge is Miss Havisham revenge tool. She takes pleasure in seeing males fall in love for Estella then being rejected, bringing her joy and a sense of accomplishment and retaliation for what was done to her in the past.

Pip and Estella`s relationship is also an odd one. At the end of the book it is revealed that Estella is Magwitch daughter, and taking into consideration that he is also Pip`s benefactor and father-figure, it makes it into an incestuous one. The perverse way in which Estella is at first pleased by Pip`s heartache and misery, him coming back in a disturbing masochistic show, adding up the supposedly incest makes it a disturbing story rather than a romantic one.

This motifs of violence and eroticism combined are an occurring theme in the book, especially around Miss Havisham and her peculiar Gothic house that seems to be a nest of heinous acts, relisting the vile energy accumulated by its owner since the unfaithful day of her wedding.

Pip goes through multiple psychological stressful situations, especially in Satis House in the presence of Miss Havisham. His first encounter with her is not the only example. The scene in which her wedding dress is caught on fire display an act of sexual violence with Pip trying to wrestle her. Despite the fact that the boy wants to save her from the burning flames the whole situation resembles an act of rape:

I had a double-caped great-coat on…that I got them off, closed with her, threw her down, and got them over her… that we were on the ground struggling like desperate enemies, and that the closer I covered her, the more wildly she shrieked and tried to free herself…I still held her forcibly down with all my strength, like a prisoner who might escape (715-716)

Another situation revolving around both physical and psychical violence is the one in which Pip is kidnaped by Orlick and kept captive in the limekiln, his life being in danger. In his moments of vulnerability, Pip is threatened by Orlick with a hammer, the later accusing Pip of being the reason behind everything he failed to do. This situation resembles the ones in the original Gothic fiction in which the hero is vulnerable and under pressure, imprisoned and at the mercy of the villain. The themes of dominance and psychological pressure, as well as the one of the double, fit under the category of Gothic that Dickens and other authors like him frequently used.

2.2 Plot

The first chapter of the novel opens with Pip, through which point of view the whole story will be narrated. He is at the same time the protagonist and the narrator, his perception of the characters and events being the only one that is offered to the reader, therefore, his saying should be taken as granted. The death of his parents, an unfortunate situation, is common for the prospect of a Gothic hero, a young, naive protagonist with a simple moral reasoning which has to fend for himself, left without guidance in the care of a spiteful relative- this would be Miss Joe.

The encounter between Pip and Magwitch is the incident that will set the plot in motion. The convict manipulates Pip through fear, making him an unwilling accomplice at his escape. Magwitch appearance is extremely important for the plot, Pip thinking that the incident with the convict is an isolated one, yet he will experience Magwitch`s influence throughout the whole novel. The mystery built around the strange man- who he is and what is the relationship between him and the second convict- indicates that he will return at one point.

At the insistence of Miss Joe and Pumblechook, Pip is sent to Miss Havisham`s house- an old, rich spinster that lives nearby- to play, in hopes of gaining her favour and help young Pip become a gentleman. This can be classified as a Gothic kind of situation since their plan will later have an unexpected turn.

Arriving at Miss Havisham`s mansion, a small, beautiful girl- Estella- comes and opens the gates, then leads Pip inside through the gloomy mansion to Miss Havisham`s room. While navigating the dark hallways Pip notices a rather peculiar thing- all the clocks are stopped at twenty minutes to nine. Like a supernatural spectre, the skeletal lady dressed in an old wedding dress waits by her mirror and then asks the boy to play. Pip feels bewildered by the aspect of the house and admits that he cannot play. The appearance of the house and the old lady leave Pip in a state of shook, Estella`s cold demeanour adding to his condition, the whole situation being put under the sign of Gothic.

In the period of time that he will spend at Satis House in the presence of the two women, Pip will fall in love with Estella, without noticing Miss Havisham’s encouragement to Estella to break his heart. He strives to better himself through education, distancing himself from his family in the process, in hopes of determining Miss Havisham to raise him from his low social standing and make him a gentleman, his main ambition- winning Estella’s` heart. He is devastated when discovering that Miss Havisham had never such intentions, the whole situation playing like a morbid joke.

As time passes, Pip becomes Joe`s apprentice at the forge hating the outcome of his life but keeping his feelings for himself while longing at Satis house and Estella. Pip attempts to visit Estella only to find out that she was sent abroad. Dejected, he confides in Biddy, his sensible friend whom he seems to be attracted to, but when she advises him to forget about the cod girl, Pip gets angry.

In the following events, Pip meets with Jaggers, a lawyer who announces Pp that he would soon inherit a great fortune and move to London to begin his education to become a gentleman. This scene is important to the plot since Pip assumes that the secret benefactor is no other than Miss Havisham, the link between her and the parts involved being strong enough to feed his assumptions. The mystery enveloping the inheritance and the seemingly obvious identity of the benefactor adds to the thrill, creating suspense for the moment when it will unfold.

Arriving in London, at first Pip is dazzled by the city and its opportunities. Here he meets Herbert Pocket, an impoverished gentleman aspiring to become a shipping merchant, and realise that they had met before at Miss Havisham`s house. The two take a rapid liking to each other, Herbert becoming the first, and as seen later, the only friend of Pip in his new life. Herbert is the one to disclose the mystery around Miss Havisham, telling Pip the story behind the old lady`s antics.

When Joe comes to visit Pip in London he tells the news of Estella`s return and her wish to see him. When arriving at Satis House, despite his newly acquired fortune, Pip feels unworthy in front of Estella`s beauty. Given the circumstance of her situation and her dazzling beauty, Estella is the mirror image of the damsel in distress portrayed in the Gothic stories, waiting for her hero, yet the cold behaviour is the exact opposite of what would be expected in this situation, the encounter working as a plot twist.

On his twenty-first birthday, the starting point of receiving a regular income, Pip hopes to discover the mystery of his secret benefactor but has no luck, the suspenseful atmosphere behind the situation remaining untouched. He decides then to repay Herbert`s friendship by becoming his secret benefactor and buying his way in the merchant business.

While spending time with Estella in her house from London, Pip confronted her about their supposed engagement, just to find out that those where just his assumptions, and just like any other hero whose spirit had been broken by the dramatic disclosure, his being is greatly troubled.

Another twist in the narrative is the dramatic encounter between Pip and his secret benefactor who turns out to be Abel Magwitch. He is shocked and revolted at the same time, but out of guilt, he accepts to help the convict escape law once again. This unexpected situation had been foreseen on multiple occasions through small actions or characters that had been seemingly irrelevant for the narrative.

In another dramatic turn of the events, Magwitch tells Pip his life story. Secrets are exposed and lines are drawn, the lives of the characters being more intertwined than first assumed. Magwitch had been drawn in a life of criminal affairs in his youth by a gentleman named Compeyon, but when they had been caught the later was able to escape due to his status, thus providing the motivation behind Magwitch revenge on society. It is also revealed that Arthur, another accomplice of Compeyon is Miss Havisham’s half-brother, and that they both conspired against her to sell the brewery.

Pip`s guilt increases knowing that his fortune originates from such terrible acts and decides to leave Estella forever. At Satis House Miss Havisham admits of leading Pip on about the heritage and the news of Estella’s marriage with Drummle upsets Pip beyond words. The following events dwell on Pip`s plan to help Magwitch escape and the discovery of Estella`s mother- Molly, Jaggers housekeeper.

Miss Havisham is shown being capable of sympathy when she apologises to Pip for all she had done. Pip proves his forgiveness when saving Miss Havisham after her wedding dress caught fire, the result of letting the old woman invalid. The terrifying scene denotes violent energy in both the fire and the struggle.

All the traumatic events drive Pip in a quest of finding the truth, on the way discovering that Magwitch is Estella`s father and that Orlick is the one responsible for Miss Joe`s death. Violence once again monopolize the scene where, while trying to take Magwitch to safety, far from London, Magwitch and his old rival Compeyon launch in a fight, ending with Magwitch as the only survivor. The aftermath finds Magwitch ill and imprisoned, waiting for his death. Pip offers his soul peace by confessing that his long-lost daughter is Estella and that she lives.

Pip manages to escape prison for his debt due to his feverish illness that has a result a set of terrifying hallucinations, another Gothic motif used by Dickens. Joe proves to had always been Pip`s friend by nursing him and paying his debts, a final lesson in which Pip learns that the better of the self is the most valuable gain.

Eleven years later, Pip returns to England and finds that what has been his obsession for so many years- Satis House- no longer exists, but he does not feel entirely free, thoughts of Estella invading his head. While wandering in the old garden, Pip finds Estella, now a widow, and as the fog rises, the two of them leave hand in hand, in what Pip`s last expectation is never to part again.

Dicken`s first ending had been considered too harsh by some of the readers, thus the more romantic aspect of the lovers leaving hand in hand. In the original ending Pip and Estella find each other in London, and even if they refuse to speak about their past, they both admit that Estella abusive marriage with Drummle changed her entirely, making her more considerable about the feelings of people surrounding her. Pip learned that treasuring his friends must be the guiding principle of one’s life, succeeding in forgiving his enemies and reconciling with his friends. Both endings have reminiscent elements of the Gothic, the first one while romantic is set on the ruins of young Pip`s obsession, and the second one is more in tune with the atmosphere of the novel, both characters feeling the split as some act of redemption.

The two endings have in common Pip`s satisfying end, no matter the outcome.

2.3 Characters

2.3.1 Pip

Pirrip Phillip is the main character of Great Expectation, an orphan who lives with his sister Mrs. Joe Gargery, that brought up ‘by hand’ and his brother in law, Joe Gargery, the young boy`s only friend, enduring along him the mistreatments of his wife. Dickens made Pip “real” through his fears, hopes, weaknesses, love and the way he endures all the misfortunes in his life.

The novel opens with Pip, continues and ends with him narrating the story, all the situations, settings and characters being described in his point of view, his impressions being the only ones the readers have.

In the opening of the book Pip is in the graveyard examining the tombstones of his parents and revealing the origin of his self-given nickname: ‘My father's family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.’ The time in which the novel is set is one common for disease and death. The boy remaining an orphan is no strange thing since no major advances in medicine had been made and the loss of more than one of the family members was a common thing among all the social classes.

The fact that the nickname stuck and the people around him, especially his sister in which care he has remained, did not bother to call him by his birth name, raise some questions. Yet it is revealed shortly after that Mrs Joe was a factor contributing to Pip`s low self-esteem. She does not value him and makes him also doubt himself, taking so far as to blame himself for existing. Miss Joe and other relatives constantly remind him how she suffered to bring him up and how grateful he should be for being alive and having her take care of him.

That would not be the only time the boy would feel guilty, the feeling would haunt him through his life due to the help offered – unwillingly, consequence of manipulation through fear- to the prisoner from the marshes. From the first chapter in which Pip helps Magwitch he will feel constantly guilty, alert and paranoiac, suspicions about the fact that someone will find out and punish him. Such an example is when policemen show up at their door with a pair of chains Pip instantly panics and assumed that they came to arrest him.

Another incident that makes Pip feel guilty is that in which he behaves snobbishly towards Joe, bordering to cruel. Joe is Pip`s only friend and throughout time became a father figure, and when Pip realises what he had done resents himself, yet this does not take long since at their next encounter Pip will again treat Joe badly. The remorse he feels after each time an incident like the one mentioned before takes place is odd taking into consideration that the boy cannot display affection and kindness in front of Joe.

Even thou it takes some time, Pip is taught a lesson in compassion when in Chapter 40 makes the shocking discovery that Magwitch is actually the source of his wealth, and no Miss Havisham as he initially thought. Pip is horrified to find out that the convict from his childhood, the one that haunted him all his life, returns and calls him ‘dear boy…the gentleman what I made’. The self-built fantasy of the boy is shattered, he can no longer enjoy the new status offered by the inherited wealth, realising that all he has become and all his accomplishments are tied to a criminal past he could never escape. Despite his initial reacting, Pip learns to accept that Magwitch is still a man, one capable of redemption, and goes as far as to help him escape, first out of guilt then out of affection.

Great Expectations explores the story of class mobility in a darker version, the prospect of gaining and transferring from a social class to another being a favourite topic in the Victorian era. Pip experiences this transformation through the wealth coming from a mysterious benefactor, yet after being in the possession of the money he cannot seem to enjoy himself. Moving to London, where he lives in an unpleasant area, he cannot escape the guilt of his past, both the distance and the acquired money doing nothing to soothe his troubled spirit. At this point Pip realises that wealth and status do not help at bettering himself, as it did not help Miss Havisham. Despite her wealth all and the aspects associated with it- status, power and influence- Miss Havisham is not happy, being trapped in a bitter past and not having the inner power to free herself from it. She tries to make up for that situation which she did not have control over by controlling first Estella and then Pip, yet she is an empty, attempting fulfilment through vengeful acts, the wealth and power being unable to help her situation.

The novel opening with a young Pip in the churchyard examining the tombstones of his parents is no coincidence. At that time photographs of any kid did not exist, Pip having no way of knowing how they look, creates their image in his head based on the writing from the graves. Therefore, he deduced from the shape of the letters on his father`s tombstone that he might have been a square, stout, dark man with curly black hair, while his mother was a fragile, sickly lady. The gloomy atmosphere affects Pip in such a way that he imagines the twisted trees to look at him with intimidating faces.

Through this technique, Dickens makes the readers see through Pip`s eye, a scared lonely boy in a graveyard, adding to the realism of the character with all his vulnerability, so to draw the readers` sympathy towards Pip, emphasising that he is a victim of terrible circumstances, Pip narration evoking genuine feelings and problems of childhood.

Despite being humble and moral at the beginning of the novel, this will change as soon as he meets Magwitch. A well-meaning child with a simple moral reasoning, Pip treats the convict with kindness even if he is threatened, going as far as to feel concern for him when he gets caught, referring to him as ‘my convict’. Compassion, loyalty and conscience are just some of Pip`s qualities, yet he is constantly bothered by his failures. For a better analysis his description of himself has to be overlooked and instead focus should be put on his actions. The fact that he is aware of his shortcomings may be his reason for acting morally.

His morality also weavers when meeting Miss Havisham and Estella, the two making Pop to feel ashamed by his apprenticeship at the forge, coupled with his sister`s mentality and desire to gain wealth through him, determine Pip to become a gentleman, forgetting along the way about everything, including his friends, and adopting a snobbish attitude.

‘It’s a pity now, Joe,’ said I, ‘that you did not get on a little more, when we had our lessons here; isn’t it?’… What I had meant was, that when I came into my property and was able to do something for Joe, it would have been much more agreeable if he had been better qualified for a rise in station.’

Pip is the character in which Dickens presents the novel`s most notable themes: obsession, ambition, guilt and the connection between good and evil. Despite his wavering moments, Pip is not an entirely bad person, his dormant qualities being awakened by the guilt he feels. The turning point for Pip is the second encounter with Magwitch, from here Pip recognises his disloyal behaviour and tries to redeem himself by helping Magwitch escape, forgive Miss Havisham and help Herbert regain his wealth.

2.3.2 Magwitch

When first introduced, both Magwitch and Miss Havisham are depicted as looking like supernatural creatures, haunting the borders between life and death. The opening scene of the novel might be the most representative for Great Expectations, Magwitch appearance frightening Pip and the readers alike.

The frightening man sets the plot into motion and his influence ripples in the entire narration, his return from Australia and the shocking reveal working as one of the main plot twists, this unexpected situation coupled with the suspense being a Gothic mechanism.

Abel Magwitch suffered o rough childhood, his unwise thinking getting him into criminal activities. Another victim turned oppressor, he successes in somehow redeeming himself by working hard in Australia, a new environment away from the memory of his past- England. His qualities come to the surface of his being when he is allowed to reach his potential, the gratitude for the young boy who had helped him, a reminder of his old self, determining him to reconsider his life choices and repay the good he has been given.

‘I've been done everything to, pretty well – except hanged. I've been locked up as much as silver tea-kittle. I've been carted here and carted there, and put out of this town and put out of that town, and stuck in the stocks, and whipped and worried and drove. I've no notion where I was born than you have – if so much. I first became aware of myself down in Essex, a thieving turnips for my living. Summun had run away from me – a man – a tinker – and he'd took the fire with him and left me very cold.’

When they reunite after some years of Magwitch taking care of Pip from the shadows, he succeeds in giving Pip a lesson in redemption, yet not entirely. Another character eager to revenge, Magwitch`s vengeance is directed at the society that transformed him into a criminal, accomplished through Pip. The acquired statute of gentleman does not benefit only Pip, but also himself, this being the weapon in his plan of showing society of what him, a mere criminal, is capable of creating.

Magwitch is a taught man outside and inside, demonstrating that he is capable of taking risks whenever he wants to see Pip, despite the fact that he still is a wanted man. Through death he seeks redemption and Pip confessing about the whereabouts of his long-lost daughter bring him pace in his last moments.

2.3.3 Estella

Estella is the first inhabitant of Satis House that Pip encounters. He describes her as ‘a young lady came across the court-yard…She seemed much older than I, of course, being a girl, and beautiful and self-possessed; and she was as scornful of me as if she had been one-and twenty, and a queen.’

While on his first visit at Satis House, Estella constantly calls Pip ‘new boy’ a sign that shows the frequency of such events. She is not bothered to ask his name, being sure that his stay at the house will be short and full of misery, the same as the previous guest before him.

Just like Pip, Miss Havisham`s charge is a victim. She is the tool through which Miss Havisham achieves her revenge on men for her regrettable past. Just like a siren, she draws in men, makes them fall in love with her, and then proceed to break their hearts through could behaviour and insults. While she ridicules them, Miss Havisham takes a morbid pleasure in their misery, considering this some kind of compensation. While Miss Havisham extracts her revenge from society, Estella is a prisoner in Satis House, doing her binding while being unable to follow her own path.

Despite her role as a tool of vengeance, Estella is not a villain. She is an honest person, doing what she was raised up to be. She had never claimed to love Pip and acknowledge that from the very start- she has not been taught to love. Thou she is manipulated, she does not the same, her character being a fake one, her cruelty the result of a certain type of upright.

The girl does not know anything about her parentage, or of the word beyond Satis House, her only contact with the outside happening through Miss Havisham`s point of view and the visitors, mostly males, approaching from beyond the walls of Satis House. It is ironical how Mis Havisham wants to protect her from following in her steps, yet Estella does not feel affection or gratitude towards her because she had been taught none.

At a point, she shows something akin to friendship and loyalty, admitting to Pip that despite the fact that she would toy with all men, she would not do such a thing to him. Aware of Pip`s feelings for her, she cannot reciprocate them, and for that reason she will not commit to a man that knows that she has nothing to offer.

Underneath her unemotional surface and cold behaviour, a passionate fury resides that is brought to the surface by displays of aggression and violence, such an example being when Pip beat the Young Gentleman resulting in Estella permitting him to kiss her. This hidden part of her character will be softened by the abuse experienced in her marriage with Drummle.

2.3.4 Miss Havisham

Miss Havisham can be considered the character that has come closest to the original Gothic fiction, her grotesque aspect and her bizarre mansion are both outside and inside the epitome of unusual and terrifying. When Pip encounters her for the first time the Gothic atmosphere is a result of the setting and her appearance:

Dressed in rich materials – satins, and lace, and silks – all of white … And she had a long white veil dependent from her hair, and she had bridal flowers in her hair, but her hair was white. …I saw that everything within my view which ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its lustre, and was faded and yellow. I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress, and like the flowers, and had no brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes.

When announced that he will go to Miss Havisham to play, Pip does not have any knowledge about her beside what he is told by Pumblechook and Miss Joe- she is a rich spinster that lives nearby- therefore, Pip`s surprised reaction to her appearance is normal. Before entering the room, Pip expects to see a lady, yet, opening the door he is greeted with the image of a skeletal figure sitting at the dressing-table. Pip is stunned by the odd scene, his expectations being shattered by the peculiar appearance of the supposed lady.

By using the word ‘spinster’, Dickens hints to the possible age of the character, the term referring to an unmarried woman, older than the age considered suitable for a woman engage in marriage, the term originating from the verb ‘to spin’ an activity usually associated with women of old age. A secondary meaning being that of a woman who is unlikely to ever marry. Considering the young age women married at that time, it was not unusual for Pip to expect to find a lady in her late twenties, mid-thirties.

As a result of the passed time and her refusal to tend to herself, coupled with the atmosphere from within Satis House, Miss Havisham looks older than she is. The color yellow is frequently repeated in the passages describing her clothes and her room, statement of a present clinging to a past, the wedding dress seems ancient on her decaying body, turning into a symbol degradation and death.

Miss Havisham`s story resembles that of Eliza Emily Donnithorne, the daughter of an Australian merchant, whom just like Dicken`s character was jilted at the altar, her manners becoming eccentric as a result of the situation. Both of them chose to close themselves in the house and keep everything, including the wedding feast left untouched on the dining table, as a reminder of the tragic event.

Considering that both Abel Magwitch and Compeyson have some knowledge concerning the life in Australia and adding the possibility generated by chronology, is it not excluded for Dickens to have inspire himself from Eliza while creating the character of Miss Havisham since the two of them identify with one another until a certain point.

Her yellowed wedding dress along with all the objects that had been once white- clothes, materials, tablecloths- are a symbol of her obsession with the past and her attempt at controlling time, and the state of personal and material decay.

2.3.5 Other characters

Mirs Joe is the counterpart of the spiteful relative from the original Gothic fictions. She mistreats her young charge and repeatedly reminds him of how grateful he should be for her to put up with him. She is cruel to both Pip and her husband, Joe, the only person whom she behaves nicely around being Mr. Pumblechook, Joe`s uncle, who shares her ambitions for great wealth and social rank. She thinks of her personal gain only and would profit of Pip to achieve her goals.

At some extent, her behaviour can be understandable, taking into account that by the time Miss Joe is introduced to the reader she had already suffered great loss and was responsible not only for herself, but for an infant brother. Single and with no means to support herself, she meets Joe and marries him. Due to her loss and insecurity, she wants a stable life, one that would gratify her every whim, her fears of abandonment being so great that she does not want Joe to better himself, afraid of being left alone. If Joe were to better himself, she would no longer be the dominant figure in their relationship, the possibility of Joe no needing her would increase and so would the chances of abandoning her. She is another one of Dickens`s examples of victim turned oppressor.

Joe is Pip`s only friend in the house, an accomplice at some childish situations that will make Pip`s affection grow even more, at times becoming Pip`s protector and father figure. He is illiterate and admires Pip`s ambition of bettering himself through education, yet, because of the same aspect he becomes the boy`s target when Pip`s behaviour turns snobbish. No matter the situation, he will always forgive Pip and stay his loyal friend until the end.

He was a mild, good-natured, sweet-tempered, easy-going, foolish, dear fellow – a sort of Hercules in strength, and also in weakness.

Joe is the only character in the novel to be completely good, being a combination of both physical strength and gentle spirit. He does not feel resentment to either Magwitch- for stealing his foo, or for his alcoholic and abusive late father.  The only flaws in his character are his lack of education and failing to protect Pip from his fife`s teachings, Joe`s character is the only one that is not controlled by passion or illusion.

Orlick is Pip`s rival and a strange double of his. The vicious and hateful male seems to enjoy himself while seeing other people`s suffering. His character does not have a back story, the reasons behind his behaviour having no explanation, except for being simple evil. He is envious of Pip due to Joe`s favouring the later. With characteristics worthy of a Gothic villain, Orlick feels no remorse for killing Miss Joe just to get back to Pip. He will later become Compeyon`s tool and will try to get his revenge on Pip. Like an obedient ogre he will follow blindly his master, the promise of gratification exceeding the cost of it or the moral code.

2.4 Setting

2.4.1 Marshes

Dickens`s device for the Great Expectations was the following: the setting either symbolise a theme, either sets the tone and atmosphere, going as far as displaying the mood of the characters and the level of dramatism for the action.

For instance, the opening scene of the novel presents young Pip mourning in the graveyard, the physical presence of tombstones and the implied one of death adds to the narrative`s atmosphere of tension and despair.

‘The marshes were just a long black horizontal line then, as I stopped to look after him; and the river was just another horizontal line, not nearly so broad nor yet so black; and the sky was just a row of long angry red lines and dense black lines intermixed’

The most suggestive setting of the novel is the misty marshes situated along the River Thames that are near Pip`s childhood home, functioning as a place of childhood innocence and adult malice. Through the novel, their meaning remained the same, namely danger and uncertainty. Two representative situations are the one of Pip stealing food and a file for Magwitch and bringing them to him in the marshes near Kent, and the one in which Orlick sneaks behind Pip and kidnaps him with the intention of killing him then disposing of his body.

It was a dark night, though the full moon rose as I left the enclosed lands, and passed out upon the marshes. Beyond their dark line there was a ribbon of clear sky, hardly broad enough to hold the red large moon. In a few minutes she had ascended out of that clear field, in among the piled mountains of cloud. There was a melancholy wind, and the marshes were very dismal.

The mist works like an omen for dangerous situations, foreseeing the peril and building up suspenseful anticipation, so being the case when later in the book Pip travels to London right away after receiving his fortune. Pip travel through the mist triggers the anticipation in the readers` minds hinting that no matter how great the news, something definitely alarming is going to happen.

The only positive aspects of the marshes are the proximity of Joe`s forgery and that of his late family. Although, even if the later does not arise clear happiness out of Pip, like being in Joe`s presence does-in the beginning, it links the young boy with his heritage and most importantly, gives him an identity.

The marshes were just a long black horizontal line then, as I stopped to look after him; and the river was just another horizontal line, not nearly so broad nor yet so black; and the sky was just a row of long angry red lines and dense black lines intermixed…one of these was the beacon by which the sailors steered – like an unhooped cask upon a pole – an ugly thing when you were near it; the other a gibbet, with some chains hanging to it which had once held a pirate.

Notable is the fact that the dismasted naval ships that float the prisoners near the marches have multiple connotations. On one hand, within the ship, there is the corruption portrayed by the convicts deserving to be there and the suffering of the ones that did nothing wrong, yet because of the unjust morals and ignorance of the law representatives ended up rowing for execution. O the other hand, on the land the ship symbolizes the safety of the village from the lawbreakers, the prison on water imprisoning the criminals and keeping them away thus guaranteeing the security for the villagers.

2.4.2 Satis House

The inside of the house is resembling a labyrinth with its walls lined with sombre portraits, the nearby river is stagnant as under a spell and Miss Havisham appearance indicates a sense of supernatural. Miss Havisham`s mansion solitary situated next to the marshes, in an unnamed town, is a traditional Gothic edifice. Satiss House is the place where Pip`s first perception of the upper class is formed and through numerous elements Dickens creates a glorious Gothic setting.

We went into the house by a side door – the great front entrance had two chains across it outside …the passages were all dark… we went through more passages and up a staircase, and still it was all dark. I glanced at the dressing-table again, and saw that the shoe upon it, once white, now yellow, had never been worn…all the pale decayed objects, not even the withered bridal dress on the collapsed from could have looked so like grave-clothes, or the long veil so like a shroud.

While on the inside the house the time seemed to stop, trapping its occupant inside the walls, on the outside a brewery once functioned- the source of Miss Havisham`s inherited wealth. It is the symbol of wealth gained throw work and capitalism through industrialisation, and not of aristocratic birth. The Latin world “satis” means “enough” which is rather ironically considering the fact that in the novel the exact opposite is bestowed upon the inhabitants: Miss Havisham unfulfilled desires for love. What she sought trough marriage- a life of love and passion- was denied, her expectations, shattered. Burned to death in a gesture of redemption, the house from which she implemented her vile plan- of bringing men whom later fall in love with Estella just that she can her to enjoy their despair – became her grave. After an auction in which all of the things that created the dark, eerie atmosphere are sold, the house is later sold as scrap, once again putting an end to the illusory expectances, this time for Pip and Estella.

Satiss House`s Gothic characteristics do not result solely from its appearance, a clearly visible element, but rather from the isolation from the modern word and the refusal to change or adapt to the contemporary, its static condition being an undertone to the visual one.

‘It was then I began to understand that everything in the room had stopped, like the watch and the clock, a long time ago.’

In her attempt to freeze time, Miss Havisham stops the clocks from the whole mansion and refuse to change anything from the way it was on her fateful wedding day when she was abandoned by her lover, the cobwebs, dust and darkness being a reminder of the events. The stillness within and outside the house, isolation and degradation symbolising the decaying life of its inhabitants.

2.4.3 London

Dickens portrays Great Britain’s capital city in different way in all his writings, depending of the effect he wants to get. In Great Expectations the main symbol of the city is Newgate Prison.

‘At that time, jails were much neglected, and the period of exaggerated reaction consequent on all public wrong-doing – and which is always its heaviest and longest In this institution holds together both violent prisoners and convicts that are waiting for the execution.’

His inspiration came as a result of his parents` imprisonment for debt during his childhood, this way having a clear concept of prison conditions. Newgate Prison provides a modern Gothic equivalent of the dungeons of Walpole`s story.

The proximity between Jaggers’s chambers in Little Britain and the prison stands as a symbol for the relation between the criminality and the supposed order of law. The irony is based on the fact that Jaggers and other practitioners like him, sworn members of justice are no better- on the contrary, by swearing a fair judgement they are worse than the supposedly pariah of the society that fills up the prisons and streets of the city.

Back in the early nineteenth century Soho, in the west of Newgate, and Walworth made up one of London`s disorganised suburbs. In Dickens`s novel, Jaggers himself and Wemmick, his clerk, inhabited in the area. His house resembles a castle in miniature rounded by a moat and drawbridge, this being is a mirror image of the eccentric Gothic villain that cuts himself from the rest of the word in his lair.

Another representative symbol of the city is Finches of the Grove dinning club situated near Covent Garden, London`s central areas which is well known for its flower and vegetable market and the main opera house in the city. A pretentious area where both aristocracy and low-life meets, cohabitating in the same place, thou pretending that they do not know one about the other. Thus, the traditional gothic settings shaping Dickens`s modern London, breeding ground for crime, sorrow, disease and despair.

‘The journey from our town to the metropolis, was a journey of about five hours. while I was scared by the immensity of London, I think I might have had some faint doubts whether it was not rather ugly, crooked, narrow, and dirty.’

Throughout the narrative Dickens provides a map of the historical setting, especially for the marshes in Kent and the city of London, using real components- historical division of the city, and Gothic imaginary- narrow streets and passageways hiding suffering and unthinkable horrors, with the purpose of creating symbols and metaphors.

CHAPTER 3

The Gothic in the visual representation

3.1 From the written text to the visuals

‘Visual literacy: The ability to decode, interpret, create, question, challenge and evaluate texts that communicate with visual images as well as, or rather than, words.’

Throughout time, the role of the visual images was to provide help in reading and the better understanding of texts. Through the medium of visual information, a written text strengthens its meaning, becoming more accessible to the masses of people. Associating an image with a written text could make the message more powerful.

‘Vision is what the human eye is physically capable of seeing.’ The anatomical ability of the eye would transmit the message to the reader, yet backing up the text with an image would establish that the message is transmitted more accurately, strengthening the readers’ perception. Sometimes, the format of a page or the font of a writing is also essential, a cursive writing hinting to elegance, a rough one to impatience, while a bold one to importance. All of these characteristics can be determined just by looking at a text without reading it,

Expressing a text through images consists of multiple techniques: from written text to picture, from written text to live representation and from written text to motric image.

To create a picture starting from a writing text a lot of detail is needed aided by clear and precise explanations. Static objects such as forests, castles, catacombs are easy to draw, the hard part consists of giving the impression of the wind blowing through the tree, the chilly air and the approach of the storm. Catacombs are usually dark places so the contrast of the further corridor and the torch situated on the wall should be carefully maintained by the shadowing in the right places, creating the overwhelming atmosphere of agony and despair. The figure of the castle is a well-known one, but skills are needed when an eerie tone is wanted, the silent lament of the ghosts piercing the night. For the instilment of the right feelings, to bring the watcher into the setting and capture it there, precise indications are needed and an increased attention to all details.

Such are the cases of written text to live representation (play) and written text to motric image (film). The two of them are similar to a certain point. In both cases, décor, characters and sound are needed- the later not being something that can be excluded. For example, the sound can miss in a Gothic play or film as long as the actors are expressive enough to enforce the dramatic and the suspense on the watchers. An eerie setting should bring together a décor appropriate for the scene- vanity table for a bedroom, chains for a dungeon, and a background for the sea; coupled with the adequate intensity of light- low for the gloomier, enclosed spaces, bright for the vast wilderness.

Those elements compose the framework for the actors to transmit the atmosphere to the viewers. Here the difference between the two interferes. During a play, the actors have to be well prepared and improvise if the situation calls for it. They have a limited time to instil the tone and make themselves credible. On the other hand, in the films, the actors are not conditioned by a time limit. A scene can be taken again multiple times.

Going from the written text to a visual one requires time and an attentive spirit of observation.

3.2 The Book

3.2.1 Covers

The first thing that is noted at a book, by any reader, it is definitely its cover.

The book`s covers offer insight of its content. A powerful image can accurately outline the plot, genre or characteristics of a written text, in the same way a weak one can confuse or misplace it.

Sometimes the appearance is so powerful that a pleasant cover, displaying an interesting image, can attract people even if the book`s inner substance is weak, thus tricking the reader. Yet, the visual information from a book’s cover shouldn`t be immediately trusted, in the same way that a book`s potential should not be judged by its cover.

Great Expectation was first published as a serial in Dickens's weekly periodical All the Year Round- a weekly literary magazine. The novel was serialised in the issues between 1 December 1860 and August 1861. Among the works that were published in Dickens`s All the Year Round -serial novels, short fictions and poetry, articles concerning current affairs, cultural affairs and science, were also included. ‘Conducted by Charles Dickens’ was written on the first page of the periodical and on the head of other pages, most articles being printed without the mention of an author.

Therefore, since the novel was published for the first time by the method of serialisation, it did not have its own cover, being enclosed in the periodical`s cover.

Only in July 1861 was Great Expectations published as a stand-alone novel, in three volumes, by the publishing house Chapman and Hall on 193 Piccadilly, London. The novel was a hardback edition, bound in blue leather-like material with an entrancing pattern. It had blank covers -nothing written on the front or the back, but on the spine, the title of the novel and the name of the author were written in an imposing and attractive style with golden letters. A simple, yet powerful, design through its simplicity, denoting an air of elegance that was to the liking of the contemporaries of the Victorian era

Since then, numerous exemplars of the book have been published by various publication houses, some designed in a simple manner- like the one from 1861, some displaying the name and the author on the first cover, and some that presented an image of some sort.

Through time and its changing eras, Dickens`s novel has lost from the intensity of its first connotations. Even now the book is considered part of the greatest classical novels, but due to the shifting of the time, its actuality faded, and gained instead historical nuances, and going so far as to be considered a book for children. Because of its portrayal of Victorian society and the lighter, comically tone in patches, the book remains popular among the contemporary readers.

The publishing houses that had chosen to reflect the more serious tone of the novel, would often display on the cover an image characteristic for the plot and issues addressed within. The most frequent choices are representative key points from the book, such as: Pip`s encounter with Magwitch in the graveyard- the moment when the balance is broken, this provoking ripples through the whole story, or Pip`s meeting with Estella in Satis House- the dark mansion of Miss Havisham presenting a dark and eerie atmosphere. Other covers display Pip and Estella together in the garden, hinting at the romantic aspect of the book. Sometimes just the setting is presented- the graveyard, the lone mansion, London`s slums, without the interference of the characters.

All of the situations presented above hint to the Gothic aspect of the novel. Pip`s encounters with the frightening convict and with the unfeeling protégée of Miss Havisham address the terror, desire and manipulation through fear. In many of the images, Pip`s expression is one of shock, fright or wonder in front of the surreal.

The supposedly romantic encounter in the garden is, in fact, an irony- Pip desire for Estella turns into obsession despite the girl`s cold treatment. The perversity of the situation also subscribes under the Gothic with the cold, unfeeling demeanour of the girl and the tragic aspect of the unrequited love.

The editions that portray Great Expectations as a childhood book, chose to display a young, cheerful, cartoonish version of Pip on the cover. Ironically, no such scenes exist in the book, Pip`s moments of happiness being in the presence of Joe, his brother-in-law, and more likely than not, the presence of Pip`s cruel sister, Mrs Joe, lurking nearby.

3.2.2 Illustrations

Considering that this edition of the novel was published later in the century, this manner of illustration it is an old one. Frederick William Pailthorpe chose the same method of work as his precursor, Hablot Knight Browne, this being the satirical caricature. Despite his early age, he was in his fifties at that time, Pailthorpe was considered one of ‘the old school’ artists, this aspect might be due to his works being marked buy the influence of his friendship with George Cruikshank, British caricaturist and book illustrator.

Illustrators of book and magazine alike, Pailthorpe created for Dickens`s novel twenty one illustrations, 25 years later after its original publication, the most notable being: ‘Pip leaves the village’- used as a title-page, ‘The Terrible Stranger in the Churchyard’, ‘Ill Used’, ‘Trab`s boy’, ‘Old Orlick Means Murder’ and ‘The Old Place by the Kitchen Firelight’.

In the nineteenth-century, the initial illustrations of any illustrated book would usually play the role of the frontispiece, while the title-page vignette would offer insight of the protagonist. On one hand, the front piece would depict a significant scene in the book, while the title-page vignette would display the main character as a central piece, most often than not, the physical background or social content missing, inciting the potential readers’ curiosity, and thus determining them to by the written piece.

Representing ‘The end of the First Stage of Pip's Expectations’ in Chapter Nineteen, the title page of the vignette captures Pip`s progress, not so much physically as emotionally and morally, the transition from the simplicity of his natal little village to the aristocracy of British capital city and its awaiting opportunities.

‘I walked away at a good pace, thinking it was easier to go than I had supposed it would be … and made nothing of going. But … 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. … I was better after I had cried, than before – more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle. If I had cried before, I should have had Joe with me then.’

The journey is full of regret, Pip`s behaviour towards Joe, making him feel intense guilt, the aftermath of his snobbery shadowing his steps, the novel foreseeing from an early point the theme of classes and conditions, unbeknown to the reader. Pailthorpe`s sketch reproduces the atmosphere from Dickens` narrative, showing Pip half turned to the direction of London taking a least glance at the village and all the people that he left. Although, Pip is looking over his shoulder, a sense of melancholy take over the scene through the remoteness of the village and the close surroundings of the forest, enchanting the boy`s solitude.

Pip`s alienation is a characteristic of the Gothic style as is his expression of shock from Pailthorpe`s next illustration, facing page 2 in Dickens's Garnett edition of Great Expectations. It depicts the frightening encounter between the scared little boy crying at the tombstones of his parents and the menacing Magwitch whose appearance from fog like a supernatural spectre worsens Pip situation, grief transforming to fright. It is evident from his facial expression and body language that he`s startled and the first intention is to protect himself from the stranger, the only witnesses present being the souls of the dead.

‘A man started up from among the graves … A fearful man, all in coarse grey … who limped, and shivered, and glared and growled; and whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me by the chin’. Magwitch description resembles creatures from Gothic`s prime, a ghost haunting the churchyard or a golem of some sort, lurking in the dark, silently waiting for its unsuspecting victim, his comment of Pip`s fat cheeks and his craving to eat them support the statement.

Magwitch arrival breaks Pip`s lament inflicting in the young orphan`s heart dreed at the prospect of the dangerous situation. Paralysed by shock, the boy from the illustration is easy prey for the monstrous man clad in black that reaches for him like the hand of a dead man reaching from its tomb. Pailthorpe did pay close attention to detail constructing the graveyard, notable being the weeds surrounding the tombstones, the cracks in the church`s walls, the far end in the distance displaying the vastness of the place, the solitary of the bare tree, and shadowing of the site.

Also depicting rage shifting to madness, the violent scene of ‘Old Orlick Means Murder’ was created for the novel`s fifty-tenth chapter. After losing his wealth and realising the meaning of Joe`s and Biddy true friendship, Pip heads for the marshes and the sluice-house. The place is deserted but out of nowhere something catches him from behind and brings him inside, tying him to a ladder. The attacker is a drunken Orlick who intends to kill him and dispose of his body in the limekiln so that it would not be found.

The illustration draws Orlick`s characteristics very precisely- he is a cunning and malicious man with an enjoyment for hurting people. He holds Pip responsible for ruining his chances with Biddy, losing his job at Miss Havisham and for Joe`s preference of Pip over him.

‘In his savage taunting, he flared the candle so close at me, that I turned my face aside to save it from the flame.’ The darkness of the room is accentuated by the candle in his hand, a possible weapon in his state of drunkenness.

Armed with a hammer he looks like a dangerous animal ready to strike at any moment. ‘I won`t have a rag of you, I won`t have a bone of you, left on earth.’ He is the representation of the original evil Gothic villain, minus the high status, and what Dickens portrait in so many novels- the malign character that came to this point as a result of both society and his corrupted nature. Reading Pip`s body language, he looks more angry than scared or surprise, previously suspecting Orlik of harmful intentions.

Pailthorpe did a fantastic job in building on the readers` experience through his illustrations providing a better comprehension of the scenes. While Dickens used words to generate the atmosphere and pass it on the readers, Pailthorpe used the contrast of light, detailed visual descriptions, body language and facial expressions, in communicating the tone, atmosphere and importance of the narrative.

3.3 The Movie

3.3.1 Poster

Considering the success it enjoyed at the time of publication and the fact that it has maintained its status among the best novels of the times, it is no wonder that Dickens' Great Expectations inspired the creation of multiple theatre performances and later on, caught the interest of the cinematic domain.

The Great Expectation`s first cinematic interpretation was produced by Daniel Frohman in 1917, the film being a silent one. Other interpretation of Dickens`s novel followed, but the most notable is the British film directed by David Lean in 1946.

Lean adapted Dickens` novel in a simpler manner, yet did not neglect its main characteristic: suspense, drama, realism, and last but not least- the Gothic.

For the promotion of the film, the poster from the right upper corner was used. The bolded name written in majuscule is imposing, drawing the lookers’ attention to the title of the film, just like a Gothic statement.

Five of the key moments- regarding both the novel and the film- offer insight of the atmosphere and tone in which the action will unfold. Starting from the bottom to the top, the first image presents a young Pip looking over his shoulder with a look of surprise on his face. The anticipation is palpable and the suspense is being built in the minds of the lookers since the object of the boy`s attention cannot be determinate, yet his facial expression shows that something is going to happen.

The second one displays a fight between two grown up men- most likely Magwitch and Arthur. Even thou it’s a static picture, the energy and feelings of anger, rage and passion can be felt. The conflict is palpable and so are the tension and animosity between the two men. While one is struggling to defend himself, the other strikes with blind fury.

Next are the two ladies, the young one-Estella and the mature one-Miss Havisham, the first mentioned leaning in to hear some sort of secret. The apprehensive look on the young girl face, combined with Miss Havisham satisfaction have as a result a mysterious sight. The older woman has an air of mischievousness while Estella seems to be taking in all she has to say. This could mirror the original Gothic fiction in which the villain wold give secret orders to its loyal henchman, thus assigning someone else to do his evil binding. The image suggests a complot in which Estella is the tool while Miss Havisham is the handler, the whole scene inflicting a sense of suspicion in the looker`s mind.

In the fourth one, another image displaying violence. The struggle of the second man, possibly Compeysn, pinned down and without the possibility to defend himself, let alone fight back, this image draws sympathy from the looker. Endless struggle and the feelings of helplessness from one participant and savage fury from the other, this again conducts violent energy. If in the precedent one at one point both the adversaries had an equal footing, here a display of domination is portrayed.

The last one is the most prominent picture of adult versions of Pip and Estella in what seems to be a close embrace. This scene hints at the romantic prospect of the cinematic interpretation, the close proximity and what looks like sexual tension between the two recreate the atmosphere of a Gothic setting.

Suspense, violence, secrecy, helplessness and sexuality, the five are Gothic motifs recurrent in Dickens` novel, arranged chronologically in a harmonious style, portraying the whole story, giving insight for the central scenes of the film, all of this perfectly contained by a single piece of paper.

3.3.2 Performance

After Lean’s film was release in American in May 1947, a review of the film made by Bosley Crowther appeared in New York Times. Crowther`s praise for Lean's adaptation was the ‘screen storytelling at its best’, followed by ‘[the] script that is swift and sure in movement. Lean was also admired for superlative sensitivity.

Lean`s adaptation is close to Dickens` novel, simplifying the plot, but keeping the same tone and atmosphere initially generated by the book, compacting a complex novel with an impressive length, written in the first person, into a two hours film. What would usually take thirty hours to read had been merged into an impressive visual narrative exploring careful selected themes and motifs.

Even thou the script is a reliable adaptation of the novel, with a powerful and meaningful dialogue, do not offer enough depth to some of the relationships between characters, going so far as to exclude some of the characters- Orlick being one of them. He is not relevant for the outcome of the story, but represents one of the major elements specific to Gothic genre- a villain tormenting the hero. The death of Miss Joe (Freda Jackson), Pip’s sister, is explained in less than 30 seconds, comparing to the book`s ten pages, yet the suspense provoked by the mysterious circumstances in which she was attacked and the dramatic situation between Pip and Orlick when they confronted each other no longer exists, a major Gothic element being overlooked.

The end also tied up a lot of the narrative in the last 25 minutes while changing the original outcome of the novel. The harsher end of the novel was replaced by a dramatic one, the same as some notable themes were pushed to a secondary plan, the most emphasised one being class and romance. Nevertheless, Lean triumphed in recreated Dickens`s story within two hours keeping its most essential characteristics, such as realistic settings, the twist in the story and astounded intrigues that unfolded to have a logical explanation.

Great Expectations is not David Lean`s first adaptation of a British literature classic, but since, it remained considered the best adaptation of all times, one that is considered to never be surprised. The praises are a combination of the technical aspects of cinematography- sets, lighting and editing- and the actors chosen to interpret Dickens`s famous characters.

It is noteworthy that not on location was used for the setting, instead everything was designed in the studio, including the atmosphere of the marsh country of North Kent, shrouded in fog, from the opening scene. The photography coupled with the sound of the howling wind makes the graveyard scene memorable as Magwitch (Finlay Currie) appears shrouded by fog, from behind a gravestone and seizes Pip (Anthony Wager).

The is more entrancing as the dialogue flows, Finlay Currie`s emphasis on words creating an impact on the message, his antics creating the impression of a terrifying, hungry convict. Anthony Wager`s scream of shock and the struggle to free himself adds to the dark atmosphere, his facial expression conveying pure horror. The story flows naturally from this point, following the main events of the book.

While returning to Magwitch with the food and file, Pip`s guilt is explored through the cow`s vices muttering in his head, showing his apprehension of being caught, the exploration of psychological anguish being a Gothic technique. Also, the menacing look on Magwitch`s face when looking back at Pip after being caught foresees a feature encounter, that not being their last.

A problem concerning the relative ages of the lead actors arise when Joe, Pip`s brother in law, is played by Jean Simmons. The close gap between Wager, 14-year-old, and Simmons, 17 year-old, is noticeable given that Simmons looks like an adolescent rather that a mature adult. In the scenes where they are playing together they look more like siblings than a young child and its mature father-figure.

When arriving at Miss Havisham`s mansion, Pip and Pumblechook are greeted at the gate by Estella. Although Jean Simmons matches the description of Estella, an astonishing beautiful girl, slightly older than Pip, she seems to be a little too old comparing to Pip. Simmons plays the role extremely well, capturing Estella`s attitude whit all its playfulness, cruelty and coldness.

Martita Hunt interpreted Miss Havisham gorgeously, succeeding in capturing the whole essence of the eccentric woman who swore revenge on men as a result of betrayal, and aims to make Estella her tool in the macabre plan of breaking Pip`s heart. Hunt acted the whole film while sitting in a chair, emphasising that her true power is in her mental state and not her physique, a skeletal woman being able of such atrocities without disclosing her true self. Similar to the illustrations, Miss Havisham is portrayed as an old woman, despite the fact that she is in her forties.

Another issue related to the age of the actors is in John Mills`s case, the 38-year-old actor interpreting the role of old Pip, which should have been around 20 after the story jumps forward 6 years, looks to mature for the role. Such is the case of Alec Guinness that plays pip`s friend, Herbert Pocket. When playing on stage, such aspects may be overlooked, but not in films where the cameras are angled close to the characters. Both of them overcame this and managed to give very good performances of impersonating youthfulness, but the cameras cannot be deceived.

Just like her fellow colleagues, Valerie Hobson performed the role of the elder Estella with accuracy, portraying as a beautiful young woman which insecurities she hides behind a mask of aloofness and coldness. The charge of Miss Havisham is heartless in her behaviour towards Pip, letting herself be mould in the successor of the eccentric lady, yet missing the resentment lurking in the consciousness of a person in her situation.

The encounter between Pip and Magwitch is not like the one in the book, Magwitch knocks at Pip`s door instead of meeting him at the bottom of the stairs, and he looks rather lost, his energy is missing. It turns out to be a clever trick meant to draw Pip in a false sense of security before striking. When he starts to chuckle and disclose one by one what he knows of Pip, his income, the name of his lawyer, his status before becoming a gentleman, his identity is revealed shocking Pip and offering a state of drama to the cinematic adaptation.

Francis L. Sullivan`s adaptation of the fearsome Mr Jaggers, the lawyer whom seems to be the link between all the main characters, whose presence is profitable for both Pip and Estella, performs convincingly, the scene in which he unfolds the truth in front of Pip exposing the intricate plot of both the novel and the film.

Characters such as Orlick and Drummle were not able to be included in the film and as it played along, multiple details were covered by the narration. Orlick is not mentioned once, but a figure is seen following Pip through the shadows, the subplot involving Mrs. Joe’s attack being cut completely. Also, Bentley Drummle is only mentioned by Estella when confronting Pip about her marriage, the drama constructed around those characters no longer existing.

Despite those aspects, the film is able to capture the book`s atmosphere and tone, the plot might not be as intricate as the original, however full of suspense and drama resulting from unfortunate situations.

With all the elements present in the text, the end seems to be like a statement concerning the genre. The final scene presents Pip ripping down the curtains of Satis House and releasing Estelle, through the symbolic act of the sun light entering the mansion and exposing the decay and stillness, from Miss Havisham vengeful spirit. Such a dramatic sight gives the impression that is ripped from one of Edgar Allan Poe`s stories, rather from Dickens realist novels. Nevertheless, Pip`s portrayal of the hero saving the unfortunate damsel in distress recalls the dramatic scenes from the firsts Gothic fictions.

In consequence of the thesis above, it is no wonder that it was named the 5th greatest British film of all time. Lean`s film gaining a spot on the list of British Film Institute's Top 100 British. Despite the main focus being on the relationship between Pip and Estella, the 1946 adaptation of Great Expectations does not neglect the themes of class mobility, self-growth and ambition, in which the Gothic atmosphere is present throughout the film.

3.3.3 Décor

Elements belonging to horror, such as horrific, bizarre and eerie, are not unusual to find in a Gothic fiction, and neither are mystery or supernatural.

Most Gothic stories take place in strange, gloomy and dark locations, the ruins of a medieval castle, an abandoned house on the outskirts of an unnamed village, the maze of a mansion isolated on the edge of a cliff, being just some of the favourite settings for unfolding the narrative. In most cases, the setting is responsible for heightening the feelings generated by a dangerous or unfortunate situation, an important factor in building the suspense and anticipation for the reader.

David Lean`s cinematic adaptation of Great Expectations succeeds in recreating the Gothic atmosphere needed for the events developing in the novel, the setting being as accurate as possible and emphasizing the gloomy, frightening and suspense undertone of the actions.

Even though colour was available at the time when the movie was shot, director David Lean chose to use black and white. The no colours highlight the whole narrative, showing that something simple can make a huge impact, especially on the settings, in the first scene being the film`s breakpoint in what concerns evoking the Gothic atmosphere. The use of colours might have not achieved the same tone and climate.

Director of photography Guy Green and production designed John Bryan were in charge with the creation of the setting and succeeded in modelling every frame as a replica of the illustrations made by George Cruikshank, a British caricaturist, book illustrator and friend of Dickens that created the art for numerous of his novels such as Sketches by Boz (1836), The Mudfog Papers (1837–38) and Oliver Twist (1838). The illustrations were so realistic that captivated the readers, making them believe that while watching Pip in the graveyard or walking the streets of London, they were transported inside the novel.

In the scene where Pip is seen running to the graveyard, an ample sight of the marshes is shown. The never-ending stripe of land marks the line between the murky waters and the gloomy sky, preventing them to merge. The atmosphere of the narrative manages to catch the feel of the novel in a splendid way, the hangman's gantry framing the marchland is emphasised by the howling wind and the chromatics. Lane managed to capture the Kentish marshes in bleak, desolated frames, accurate to the mood invoked by the novel`s opening.

The encounter between Pip and Magwitch heightens the feelings of fright and shook not only due to the situation itself, but because of the realistic setting. Considered a Gothic setting from the beginning of the genre, the graveyard is the place where most atrocious and horrifying actions happen, thus the stinger appearing out of the mist like an unholy spectre. The design of the graveyard is perfect, evoking the gloomy atmosphere Dickens creates in the book using words. The tombstones surrounded by high weeds, the bare trees with broken branches and the howling of the wind generate a state of anxiety, horrifying the watcher and building the suspense.

The feelings of guilt and fear are accentuated in the scene in which Pip takes the stolen food to Magwitch by the cows muttering to him, giving the watchers a glimpse in the terrified mind of a young child intimidated into cooperation. A feel of war dominated by tension is given by the use of silhouettes in the scene depicting the mob assembling for the search of the two convicts. This is also the scene where Magwitch looks back at Pip with a menacing expression, hinting at a future encounter between the two, the closing cadre on both their faces displaying their distinct facial expressions.

The most memorable Gothic symbol from both Dickens`s novel and Lean`s film is Miss Havisham's manor, Statis House. The designing team succeeded in recreating the 19th century England atmosphere perfectly, the mansion resembling the one described by Dickens in his novel, layers of dust on every surface, cobwebs decorating the chambers and the wedding cake left to rotten from the dinning fest, everything wrapped in the memories of the tragic past, giving the house the air of an ancient horror setting.

Dickens`s inspiration for the decaying manor of Miss Havisham, named in the book Satis House, was the Restoration House in Rochester, a fine example of Elizabethan architecture near Dickens`s own living quarters. When filming, a version of the Restoration House was reproduced in Denham Film Studios in Buckinghamshire by the production film.

The outside of the mansion matches the description in the novel, a fine, imposing, yet timeworn structure greeting Pip on his first visit at the spinster’s residence. Important elements such as the massive gate from the propriety`s front entrance, keeping the unwelcomed visitors outside, such is the case of Pumblechook, and the dark, narrow hallways leading to the staircase, illuminated just by the faint light of the candles, invokes the same Gothic atmosphere Dickens creates in his novel.

The angle from which the scene of Pip and Estella`s climbing the stairs was shot is done extremely well, leaving Pip in front of the old lady`s chamber, followed by the opening of the door, in which a view of the whole room is presented, having the sight of Miss Havisham at her dressing-table as a central piece. Just as described in the novel, the large room is well lit by the light of the multiple candlesticks arranged in the room, the massive furniture pushed to the walls, dust layering evert touchable surface and the yellowed materials covering the room, statement of the passed time.

Sitting in the middle of the decayed finery of the wedding that unfortunately never took place, the vengeful Miss Havisham is the mirror image of a corpse between the objects that remained untouched since that catastrophic event.

The way in which the furniture is placed near the walls indicates her desire to protect herself from the outside word, thus three barriers being created with that purpose: the walls, the curtains and the furniture. The firs barrier, represented by the wall of the house, had been a constant, the house being build generations before her, its initial role being of protecting the inhabitants from weather and intruders alike. Covering the windows and denying any kind of natural light in her house can be interpreted as denying access to commoners at her story and the motifs behind her strange and unusual behaviour. The last barrier is created within the house, the furniture surrounding her and placing her in the heart of the room, hinting a longing to be present in the heart of a person.

The placement mimics her mental state of pushing everyone away, refusing everything new and protecting herself by closing in and by denying access in her life to another possible lover. Before becoming a vengeful antihero she was firs a victim so traumatised that she vowed to never try again something that could possibly harm her.

Lean used Guy Green`s astonishing photography skills in recreating the key moments of Dickens`s novel in multiple sequences of the movie, such as: the chilling opening in the churchyard that will set the plot in motion, the dusted wedding banquet hall from Satis House that will torment Pip throughout his childhood, the howling wind through the streets of London as Pip`s past is about to resurface, the stormy night in which the mysterious benefactor reveals his identity as Abel Magwitch, exposing the awful truth.

The themes of crime, sin and death are recurrent in Gothic writings, sometimes in the most unusual details. Another setting worth mentioning is Mr. Jaggers`s office with its deathlike atmosphere, generated by the death marks on the walls, each one a symbol of the clients the lawyer has lost to the gallows, and the window that faces the execution site.

The result of the setting and atmosphere had been due to a mixture of outdoor shots combined with studio miniatures, the camera and art crew creating an incredible effect, the action giving the impression that it happened in a real location.

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

APPENDIX