Great Expectations
Movie: 1946, black and white, 118 minutes (British)
- Director: David Lean
- Actors: John Mills, Anthony Wager, Jean Simmons, Valerie Hobson, Alec Guinness, Martita Hunt, Finlay Currie.
Book: first published in 1861
-799 pages (hardback)
-Author: Charles Dickens
Great Expectations is a film about a young boy (Pip) who lives with his older sister and her husband. On the eve of Christmas he encounters an escaped convict who he befriends before the man is taken away. After that first encounter the boy is requested to visit Miss Havisham, a rich old woman who shies’ away from the public. Havisham has the boy visit regularly to play with her apprentice Estella, a mean young girl a bit older than Pip. When Pip turns 14 he must stop the visit for he begins his training to become a blacksmith and Estella moves away to become a lady. That’s when Pip is visited by Mr. Jaggers a man who offers him the chance to become a respectful gentlemen and Pip transforms.
Did Pip become a respectable gentleman?
Although Pip learns how to be a gentleman along with Herbert Pocket, he forgets to achieve respectability. He learns manners and studies but he loses the kindness that in turn awarded him the opportunity to become a respectable gentleman. The reason he is taken to London is because the escaped convict he aided is paying for his studies. Without having helped the man he would have never earned in the convict eyes that occasion to change his life. Pip demonstrates how rude and snobbish he has become when his deceased sisters husband Joe Gargery comes to visit him to give him the heads up that Miss Havisham wants to see him. Pip is embarrassed of how ill Gargery’s manners are and tells him to leave sending off Gargery with a horrible impression of just what kind of gentleman he is. Even though Pip lost his better sense during most of the film he makes up for it in the end when he aids Magwitch to leave England and to be transported to Australia. Dickens leaves us with Pip’s old self, the young boy who was eager to help others.
How does David Lean present Miss Havisham as a dark character?
Miss Havisham’s house is decorated with old antique rotten furniture that gives it this eerie vibe. The lighting in her house is dimly lit, dark and the only real light is extracted from small candles in most scenes, this makes it unable to see very well which gives her and her home a mysterious quality. We know nothing of Miss Havisham except that a man left her heartbroken and that she is wealthy. Lean aids to this idea of not knowing anything about her as he adds those things to the set, to her house. Even at the way end of the film when Pip and Estella encounter at the empty home he rips off the curtains in an effort to reveal to Estella that she doesn’t need to be a heartless person. The light releases Miss Havishams hold on Estella and allows Pip and Estella to share the same feelings for once.
