Miss Havisham's intentions towards me, all a mere dream; Estella not designed for me; I only suffered in Satis House as a convenience, a sting for the greedy relations, a model with a mechanical heart to practice on when no other practice was at hand; those were the first smarts I had. (266)
As Pip conveys more and more feelings towards the characters, the characters begin to reveal themselves more and more thoroughly. He is often wrong about the characters and Dickens uses parallelism elegantly to create unique characteristics for each character and their outcomes. Mrs. Joe and Miss Havisham are both characters who are cruel to Pip in the beginning of the novel and they both turn out to be bedridden and destroyed before they die. The parallel outcomes of these two characters show how two common characters, though different in many ways, may in the end have the same outcomes. Throughout the book, Dickens entices the reader to take on the same opinions as Pip but in the end he leaves a permanent statue of the character’s strengths and flaws.
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Parallelism in Great Expectations allows the plot to develop around good and evil through the acts of the characters presented. Characters like Pip, Joe, and Biddy are all portrayed as good in the plot while characters like Orlick, Compeyson, and Mrs. Joe are portrayed as bad. Links are made in the novel to show how these characters will evolve to relate and how the struggle will progress throughout the plot. Parallelism allows for foreshadowing in the text and the development of characters to indicate where the plot will lead.
“I tell you it was your doing - I tell you it was done through you,” he retorted, catching up the gun, and making a blow with the stock at the vacant air between us. ‘I come upon her from behind, as I come upon you to-night. I giv' it her! I left her for dead, and if there had been a limekiln as nigh her as there is now nigh you, she shouldn't have come to life again. But it warn't Old Orlick as did it; it was you. You was favoured, and he was bullied and beat. Old Orlick bullied and beat, eh? Now you pays for it. You done it; now you pays for it.”
He drank again, and became more ferocious. (353)
Orlick’s desire to get pure revenge on Pip at all cost allows for the reader to guess what his outcome might be. Charles Dickens uses parallelism between two people also to show how similar acts and situations can turn out differently to be good natured or evil. Orlick and Compeyson are similar characters in that they do evil with no thought or compassion whatsoever. Orlick wanted to harm Pip out of hatred and jealousy and from past endeavors just as Compeyson persuaded Miss Havisham to sell her winery for little
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money without kindness or compassion. Also it shows how the good characters turn out in the end. Miss Havisham and Magwitch both repented and changed their ways in the end of the novel and died peaceful deaths as Orlick and Compeyson suffered worse outcomes from their actions. It seems as the outcome of the book unfolds that those characters that ultimately act good are rewarded while the evil characters in the plot are punished for their ways. The books theme generates from Pip’s desire to be greater than his past permitted him to be. After all of the characters are presented, he realizes that it is not about how wealthy he could make himself or his position in life but it is his moral character that will determine the outcome of his life.
Dickens uses parallelism in the text to link together all of the main characters in the novel together and to create conclusions to the story of Pip. The parallel lives of the characters in Great Expectations all are bridged one way or another in the sequence of events in the novel. The mystery, suspense, and the assumptions of the plot are abruptly subsided when the lives of the characters are abridged, but it is not until then that the conclusions are known. Pip and Estella are both brought up out of common lifestyles by a benefactor to become high-class people. The reason for this to take place is not certain until the mystery of Miss Havisham is solved. Jaggers links Miss Havisham and the convict being both of their lawyers and by taking Estella, Magwitch’s daughter to Miss Havisham’s to be brought up. He is a mysterious character who is somehow the link between many of the lives of the characters. Jaggers’ power as a lawyer makes him a friend of both a rich convict and an old lady who is disrupted, but wealthy all the same. Also, Compeyson links Miss Havisham and Magwitch and becomes a common enemy.
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Although Magwitch and Miss Havisham never actually meet in the text, they are linked to each other in the plot by Estella and by Compeyson. As the conclusions are made in the novel, Pip’s feelings dramatically change.
"I will never stir from your side," said I, "when I am suffered to be near you. Please God, I will be as true to you, as you have been to me!” (369)
Pip becomes caring towards his true benefactor in the worst of situations and shows his true compassion towards him. Parallel to his situation with Magwitch before in the narrative, Miss Havisham becomes more compassionate towards Pip when she pleas forgiveness from how she had treated him in the past. As Pip learns valuable lessons, ha changes and the overall conclusion of he story begins. The parallel links between each character bring about this change in Pip and where his actions lead him.
Parallelism is used in a multitude of ways by Charles Dickens to determine the outcome of the novel and determine the characters. In the end the characters are portrayed thoroughly and are linked together in this outcome. When the characters are fully understood, Dickens stimulates the mind with the theme of good and evil that determines the outcomes of the parallel individuals. When the plot is sculpted the characters are then linked in the novel to one another to create a conclusion to the story. Parallelism plays a key role in the novel and is the super-glue used by Charles Dickens to construct Great Expectations and to bond all of its many parts together.
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Works Cited
Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. NY: Glencoe, 2000.
