Debate Over the Second Ending to Great Expectations
Debate Over the Second Ending to Great Expectations
Charles Dickens wrote two endings to the book Great Expectations. The original ending was not published in the first edition because Bulwerlytton convinced Dickens to write a nicer, sugary ending to please his audience. Although these critics feel that the revised ending is more suitable, others would agree that the original ending best fits the book. The original ending suits the attitude of the book. It also brings Pip full circle with his attitude change and with his gold and iron chains. The revised, sugary ending lacks many characteristics, which were found in the original ending. Those characteristics helped the original ending complete the story well.
Great Expectations’ original ending best follows the tone of the book. Gissing expresses this idea when he writes that it was “...a book which Dickens meant, and rightly meant, to end in the minor key” (26) The original ending adheres best to the theme and flow of the story. “Its beginning is unhappy; its middle is unhappy; and the conventional happy ending is an outrage on it” (Shaw 42). In the original ending, Pip goes full circle by leaving behind his obnoxious side and coming closer to his innocent, pure side. In Penguin Critical Studies: Great Expectations, Brooks writes, “[In the revised ending] He [Pip], like Magwitch, is bound upon the wheel of the ‘eternal shape’ of his past” (122). The revised ending does not allow Pip to undergo his full transformation from an obnoxious boy to a grown man, where he would be leaving his past behind him. Instead, the revised ending has Pip leaving with Estella, which forces Pip to live through the evils of his past forever.
Pip undergoes some very significant changes throughout his life. When the story begins, he is a humble boy who loves Joe for who Joe is. Then, Pip is introduced to Estella, and he falls in love with her for her looks. When Pip receives money from a mysterious benefactor and moves to London to become a gentleman, he develops a snobbish attitude towards Joe. Pip is also embarrassed of his connections to Magwitch. When Magwitch gets caught, Pip develops a close bond with him. Once Magwitch dies, Pip falls ill.
Pip’s illness, then, enables him to redeem his...