Is Great Expectations a Romance?

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Emily Grant

Is Great Expectations a Romance?

Before being able to classify a novel, correctly or otherwise, into a certain genre, it is necessary to understand that genre and what constitutes it. The idea of a romance has changed somewhat since the time Great Expectations was written—now, it would be easy to confuse a ‘romance’ with a ‘romantic novel’. The themes and issues involved in a typical, traditional romance are rather different to those explored in a modern romantic novel, which usually centres around the commonly understood view of ‘romance’ meaning love.

In a glossary of literary terms, romance is defined as follows:

Romance: A broad term, usually denoting a narrative with exotic, exaggerated, often idealized characters, scenes, and themes.

If you were to look up romance in a dictionary, you would be informed that the word romance as a noun has a number of main meanings. The first deals with love—the second, describes it as “A mysterious or fascinating quality or appeal, as of something adventurous, heroic, or strangely beautiful”—the third, explains the idea of romance in literature, usually medieval, mentioning “chivalric heroes’ and ‘extraordinary or mysterious events”.

Although romance nowadays is widely understood to be closely associated with sexual love, the definition of a romance is more than this. A romance is usually fantastical, with adventure and mystery intertwined—more than just a love story. The main focus, though, would be a pair of lovers—perhaps torn apart by circumstances beyond their control—and there may be various subplots, but none substantial enough to overshadow the main storyline.

It is difficult to classify a book into a certain genre, especially a novel such as Great Expectations. There are many points it is necessary to consider; the themes and issues within the novel, the style of writing, the characters, also the intention of the author. We must consider whether or not Dickens wrote the tale as a romance, whether he intended it to be read as such, also whether it is read as such. The social commentary is strong in this book, as in many of Dickens’s other works. It may be the case that Dickens wished to include some aspects of a romance into the novel, thus making it appealing to the average reader of a time when the romance was a popular genre, meaning more people could be aware of the points the novel makes. Of course, Great Expectations does have some qualities typical of a romance, and others not.

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There is a fairly wide range of themes and issues in Great Expectations, some which support the statement that the novel is a romance, some which oppose it. Some of these include self-improvement, or self-discovery; pride and revenge, and the consequences thereof; justice, both legal and natural; humanity, and how it can be affected by adverse circumstances. These issues could or could not make up a romance—it depends on how the author deals with them, what the context is, and how they are supported by characters, language and style.

The word ‘romance’ originally referred not to a genre, ...

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