JOURNAL ARTICLE

Bent and Broken.

  • Published In: Dickens Quarterly, 2024, v. 41, n. 1. P. 54 1 of 3

  • Database: Academic Search Ultimate 2 of 3

  • Authored By: Grass, Sean 3 of 3

Abstract

This essay reflects on Charles Dickens's Great Expectations and what it has meant, and continues to mean, to me as a reader and scholar of Dickens. Beginning from the observation that students seem invariably to detest Pip, the essay explains how reading the novel hermeneutically, as a lesson for my own life, has helped me to ruminate the complex feelings of shame that I have long felt regarding my own working-class childhood, and my own Estella. What I suggest finally is that, while neither of Great Expectations 's endings is particularly happy, the novel ends with a muted but hopeful message about finding contentment, peace, and even joy despite being bent and broken [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Additional Information

  • Source:Dickens Quarterly. 2024/03, Vol. 41, Issue 1, p54
  • Document Type:Literary Criticism
  • Subject Area:Literature and Writing
  • Publication Date:2024
  • ISSN:0742-5473
  • DOI:10.1353/dqt.2024.a920204
  • Accession Number:176154382
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