Great Expectations

The original ending of Charles Dickens s Great Expectations remained unpublished in the author s lifetime it was the second, more cheerful ending that Victorian audiences were treated to in Dickens s magazine All the Year Round. In his first ending Dickens gives the reader a more melancholic version of what lies ahead for both Pip and Estella and we are lead to believe that they will never be together. The reader is informed by Pip, the narrator, that Estella s abusive first husband Bentley Drummle has died and that she has remarried to a man described by Pip as a Shropshire doctor . The two meet in London when Pip is approached by a servant girl and beckoned towards a carriage in Piccadilly. Pip is accompanied by little Pip and Estella asks him to Lift up that pretty child and let me kiss it , Pip believes that Estella has mistaken little Pip as being his child, interestingly he doesn t tell her otherwise. After this exchange it is implied that the pair are to live separate lives from now on and this is indeed quite a sad note to end the story on, although it is very much in keeping with what is a quite sad tale as a whole. The one glimmer of hope offered by Dickens is that both characters seem to have finally matured and developed into well-rounded human beings. This is evident in the lines uttered by Pip after the brief meeting I was very glad afterwards to have had the interview for, in her face and in her voice, and in her touch, she gave me the assurance, that suffering had been stronger than Miss Havisham`s teaching, and had given her a heart to understand what my heart used to be . In a rather subtle fashion Dickens has given the reader an idea that both Pip and Estella are now happy, we learn that Pip is pleased to see that Estella is free from the shackles of Miss Havisham and has left behind her judgemental and conceited past. He informs us that he now believes that Estella truly realises why he acted the way he did in the past and that she finally understands the true nature of his feelings for her. Upon correspondence with the author Wilkie Collins, who was a close friend of Dickens and with Edward Bulwer-Lytton, it was decided to alter the ending of Great Expectations and give it what might now be referred to as a Hollywood ending. In the revised version it is suggested that the longsuffering couple will eventually marry. Dickens seems to have been pleased with this alternative closure to the narrative. This can be deduced from what he wrote to friends shortly after penning the second ending, I have put in as pretty a little piece of writing as I could, and I have no doubt the story will be more acceptable through the alteration . He also commented that he thought Upon the whole I think it is for the better. The way in which Dickens accepted the recommendation to alter the ending of his most famous work and how gracious he was in changing it is indeed slightly puzzling, most writers and artists are very protective of their work and usually don t bow to public opinion. Perhaps the financial security of his magazine had a bearing on his decision to try and please the reading public, at the same time it is quite an oddity for this to happen in the world of literature. Many high profile figures from the literary world have since added their voices to the argument, with George Bernard Shaw declaring that the novel is too serious a book to be a trivially happy one. Its beginning is unhappy its middle is unhappy and the conventional happy ending is an outrage on it. Shaw was obviously aggrieved that Dickens had bowed to the pressures of external forces and deviated from what would have been probably a more fitting ending to a story which is largely melancholic throughout. He wasn t alone in his opinion, as writers like George Orwell, William Dean Howells and John Forster have also tended to favour the original ending over the years. Forster, who was both Dickens s friend and biographer, argued that the first ending was more consistent with the draft, as well as the natural working out of the tale. One would have to respect this assertion, as the novel is quite lugubrious and the second, more contrived ending does not quite sit comfortably within the delicate structure of the novel as a whole. Shaw and Forster had objections to an ending which saw the novel close in a similar fashion to that depicted in David Lean s film adaptation. In this version Pip and Estella also leave the grounds of Satis House hand-in-hand, with Pip narrating the scene as follows I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place and, as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw the shadow of no parting from her. These final few words are pivotal to the conclusion, the words the shadow of no parting from her , lead the reader to believe that Pip and Estella will go on to be together for the rest of their time. According to records the original closing line read I saw the shadow of no parting from her but one , but the last two words where omitted by Dickens in the published version. The inclusion of these words would have added an element of ambiguity to the ending of the tale, but as it is they were unused and this means the reader is left in no real doubt that the couple will go on to be together. Although the second ending breaks with the reasonably gloomy tone of the novel, it does see a continuation of the pattern of union, separation and reconciliation. Dickens manages to tie in Satis House and I believe this gives the reader an indication that both story and characters have come full circle . In his 1946 film adaptation of Great Expectations David Lean devotes roughly the last ten minutes to concluding and tying up the loose ends of the story. Magwitch is shown on his deathbed with Pip by his side. In what is a very important scene, Pip tells Magwitch that Estella is his daughter. He discloses that she is a lady and is very beautiful , crucially in terms of how this ending unfolds, he states I love her . Magwitch then dies and Pip describes him as a sinner and asks the lord to be merciful to him, after this scene Pip is depicted wandering the streets looking dejected and desolate. The camera shot switches to first person and the viewer sees what Pip sees, a hazy blur. We soon find out that Pip has collapsed and has been bedbound for a prolonged period of time, cared for all the while by the irrepressible Joe Gargery. Soon Pip is back to full health and in the next sequence is shown outdoors enjoying the May sunshine with Joe and Biddy. Seeing that he is somewhat envious of the happiness shared by the couple, Biddy puts it to Pip that someday he will marry he replies rather glumly that he does not think he will. However, in a soliloquy of sorts, he states that I knew as I said these words that I secretly intended to visit the old house that evening . This admission by Pip gives the viewer a glimmer of hope that all will, in the end, turn out alright. Upon arrival at Satis House Pip begins to have flashbacks to his first visit and to how he was treated on that occasion, he remembers Estella s standoffish approach to him and Miss Havisham s unnatural admission that she knows nothing of days of the week and nothing of weeks of the year . He makes his way through the house and finds Estella alone in the same room where Miss Havisham spent so many years. Similarly to the first ending of the book, we find out that Estella is no longer married to Bentley Drummle, in this case he hasn t died, but instead left Estella because he has discovered her true lineage. Lean s use of imagery in the final scenes of the film is highly effective the camera shot shows the great throne-like chair which was once sat in by Miss Havisham and her old beads and bible. The significance of the inclusion of these objects is that it gives the audience the impression that Estella is destined to spend her life locked away in Satis House, just like her predecessor. Magwitch s death and Pip s sad disclosure to Biddy coupled with the imagery used in Satis House all serve to convince the viewer that the film will end in the same sad fashion as the original penned by Dickens. In typical Hollywood style Lean leaves the twist right until the end, a fact that no doubt went some way towards securing the film an academy award. Pip is quite clearly shocked and outraged that Estella has let herself sink into the same lonely, isolated mould as Miss Havisham and he asks her how long have you been hear? , she replies that she does not know. Pleading with Estella to leave the house, Pip tells her that it is a dead house, nothing can live here . At this point Pip becomes very animated and says that he has come back to defy Miss Havisham, symbolically he tears down the tattered old curtains and lets the sunlight flood into the room. Dust fills the room and Estella sees the light so to speak and Pip tells her that they belong together. In the very final shot the happy couple are shown running hand-in-hand out the gates of Satis House, to what will no doubt be many years of married bliss. Having watched the ending to David Lean s film version of the novel and read both of the endings produced by Dickens, I am at odds to choose which one is actually the most fitting. The original ending is quite Flaubertian and sombre in style, in spite of this I am tempted to side with George Bernard Shaw and John Forster. Even though Shaw is quoted as saying that he thought the novel was a most compactly perfect book , he did oppose Dickens rehashing of the ending. I too believe that the second ending concocted by Dickens was somewhat the product of a man trying to please audiences, with a commercial interest in mind rather than the work of a skilled artist. The original ending sees Pip left without the love of Estella and to a certain degree we feel as readers that he may have got his just deserts. Life does not always work out as we would wish it to and the original ending is true to this idea, although Pip and Estella are not left in complete turmoil in Dickens s first ending. Estella has remarried to a doctor and would seem to be now living comfortably and without her abusive husband, Pip seems to be reconciled to the fact that he and Estella just simply are not meant to be an item, despite this revelation he seems happy in himself and happy also that Estella now understands his true character. Great writing is often instinctual in this case perhaps Dickens would have been best served relying in his instinct.