Theme: Entrapment
In Great Expectations and Hard Times the theme of entrapment is very apparent. Dickens
explored this theme to illustrate to the reader the internal and external struggle the
characters face throughout each novel.
In Great Expectations Estella is a character that Dickens uses to portray the theme of
entrapment. Estella becomes a cold and calculating young woman through the manipulation
of her adopted mother-Miss Havisham:
‘She knew that she could not choose but obey Miss Havisham’
Miss Havisham is a bitter and vengeful woman who resides in a rotting mansion where all
time has stopped because of one heart-breaking day which defined her life from that
moment on; a man –Compeyson- rejecting her on her wedding day. And so Miss Havisham
uses Estella as a weapon to destroy the hearts of men, just like how Compeyson did to her.
This entrapment leads her to a passive and cold nature, warning Pip- who is in love
with her- throughout the novel that she has ‘no heart’ and that she has ‘no softness…, no –
sympathy – sentiment’ which immediately highlights to the reader of her isolation and
emotional abuse that she has had to endure throughout her life with Miss Havisham. Not
knowing any other way of being. In the novel Estella never questions or rebels against Miss
Havisham apart from one occasion:
‘Who taught me to be proud? Who praised me when I learnt my lesson? Who taught
me to be hard? Who praised me when I learnt my lesson?’
Estella is aware of her manipulation and entrapment, fully blaming Miss Havisham for her
demeanour. However she only questions Miss Havisham of her way of upbringing and is
instead quite accepting of her life; holding no true animosity for Miss Havisham. Whereas in
Hard Times Louisa – the daughter of Gradgrind, the master of facts and the repressor of
fancy- demonstrates a far more angry and frustrated demeanour with the life and world she
has grown up in:
‘You have been so careful of me, that I never had a child’s heart. You have trained
me so well, that I never dreamed a child’s dream. You have dealt so wisely with me, father,
from my cradle to this hour that I never had a child’s belief or a child’s fear.’
Louisa’s frustration lies in her upbringing and the restrictions that Gradgrind had
created for her. Throughout her childhood Louisa has never known a life outside fact:
‘No little Gradgrind had ever associated a cow in a field with that famous cow with the
crumpled horn who tossed the dog who worried the cat who killed the rat who ate the malt,
or with that yet more famous cow how swallowed Tom Thumb: it had never heard of those
celebrities, and had only been introduced to a cow as a graminivorous ruminating quadruped
with several stomachs’
She feels that Gradgrind has trapped her in a world of fact, with no room to imagine
or think of fantastical elements and so through her self-awareness of her lack of a childhood
questions Gradgrind’s beliefs but she does not truly break free from the shackles she is
entrapped in. However compared to Estella who just highlights the problem and accepts that
is how she is, Louisa attempts to becoming more self and emotionally aware.
In Great Expectations and Hard Times, Dickens uses the literary technique of imagery to
capture the isolation and entrapment that the characters in both novels experience. In Great
Expectations Estella is a young woman enclosed and shut out from the real world, hidden
and moulded to be a weapon; to destroying the hearts of men. Dickens affectively uses the
imagery of light and darkness to portray the darkness and clouded life Estella leads:
‘You taught her, with your utmost energy and might, that there was such a thing as
daylight, but that it was made to be her enemy and destroyer, and she must always turn
against it, for it had blighted you and would else blight her.
Dickens highlights to the reader the secluded life that Estella has grown up in. Daylight in
Great Expectations is a symbol of truth and freedom, which Estella was manipulated into
believing that daylight was ‘her enemy and destroyer’ which impacts Estella’s growth greatly.
This false truth leads her to be cold and heartless woman, not capable of loving any one.
This is also present in Hard Times in the form of Louisa, who similar to Estella is
trapped in world of fact and control. Louisa is forced away from the world of fancy and
imagination and the cold world of fact. Dickens illustrates Louisa’s frustration and anger by
using light as a symbol of imagination and wonder:
‘…struggling through the dissatisfaction of her face, there was a light with nothing to
rest upon, a fire with nothing to burn, a starved imagination keeping life in itself somehow,
which brightened its expression.’
Dickens uses Louisa’s repression to portray the need of fancy and wonder as an essential
part of being human. Because without it, as embodied by Louisa and Estella, you become
‘starved’ and lose the essence of what allows you to be happy. Dickens also uses the
symbolism of fire to portray Louisa’s burning desire for freedom, to be immersed in the world
of fancy and imagination. This illustrates the reader in a subtle way that, even if repressed,
you can never escape the want to use your imagination.
Themes- upbringing
The theme of upbringing is key in the understanding of both Great Expectations and Hard
Times. In both novels it allows us to understand just how different the main protagonists are,
and how different upbringings have shaped them in different ways. In Great Expectations,
the upbringing of Pip is essentially the thing which has affected him in the greatest way,
pushing him down the road of loneliness and obsession. Pip’s older sister, Mrs Joe, raised
Pip ‘by hand’ after his parents passed away, and she made sure never to let him forget it.
Throughout the novel Pip is reminded of this whenever he achieves great things, almost as if
it is her way of taking credit for his achievements. Pip begins the novel as an innocent young
boy, but once potential wealth is introduced, it becomes clear to him how much it would
mean to his family for him to become a gentleman. Unfortunately for Pip, the path to a
wealthy gentleman is a complete contrast to the one he grew up on, leaving him to feel ‘lost
in the mazes of [his] future fortunes. His lifestyle completely contrasts to that of his love
interest Estella, the adopted daughter of Miss Havisham. Estella has been brought up with
everything she could have wanted, except from an affectionate mother figure. Due to Miss
Havisham’s own terrible experiences in terms of love, she takes it upon herself to teach
Estella the ‘correct’ ways in which to treat a man. Miss Havisham claims that she ‘took
Estella in to love her’, when in actual fact all she did was teach her how to get through life
with a heart of ice. While Pip’s upbringing allows him to start off in life as an uneducated,
kind hearted boy, it drives him to attempt to become someone he isn’t in his obsessive
search for wealth and love. Estella on the other hand remains cold and distant throughout,
due to the twisted and manipulative upbringing she had.
Contrastingly in Hard Times, the Gradgrind family is much like Estella in terms of a strict
upbringing. Thomas Gradgrind believed in facts, ‘facts facts facts’, and everything that his
children learnt was facts. There was no space for fairytales, stories, or fiction in his world,
only for non-fiction and facts. Gradgrind believed that the only way in which his children
would succeed in life was to be the smartest person, and be the person storing the most
facts, even useless ones. Gradgrind mistook the role of a parent for the role of a teacher,
causing him to forget about the loving side of the relationship, only on the strict rules when it
comes to enforcing his opinions on his children. When Sissy Jupe comes into Gradgrind’s
life and family, he is amazed by the contrast in upbringings. As he noted, there was a
‘remarkable gentleness and childishness about these people’ which he couldn’t quite
understand. They came from a circus and spent their time having fun and enjoying
themselves, doing all sorts of crazy tricks and balancing acts which had no facts involved
whatsoever. As a result of the carefree lifestyle that Cissy grew up in, she and her father
consequently have the closest relationship out of all the parent/child relationships. The ironic
thing being that the person who received a loving, honest upbringing was Cissy, and her dad
was the one to leave her, believing she would get further in life if he did.
Epiphany and Realisation - central theme:
Epiphany and realisation is a common theme that appears in both Hard Times and Great
Expectations. There are striking similarities between the Miss Havisham and Gradgrind’s
realisation.
One of the most important realisations between the two novels, is that of Pip in Great
Expectations. Since his first encounter with Miss Havisham and Estella at Satis House, Pip is
driven to become a ‘gentleman’. He, as the majority of characters in Great Expectations do,
believes that he will only be a worthy ‘gentleman’ by gaining wealth and social status. He
desires to be with Estella, and is told by himself, and both Estella and Miss Havisham that he
will not achieve this relationship if he stays a poor blacksmith like Joe. Pip often dreams
wistfully of how his situation could be different:
“I wished Joe had been rather more genteely brought up, and then I should have been so too.”
However, even after receiving an large donation from an anonymous benefactor and moving
to London, Pip’s ‘great expectations’ are not filled. He is in the position, where he should be
able to achieve status as a ‘gentleman’ and yet clearly isn’t. It is not until after Pip discovers,
that his benefactor is in fact an old convict who he met on the marshes as a young both, that
he realises the true meaning of a ‘gentleman’. ‘Gentleman’ is less of a title indicating power
and wealth, and more a reflection of the strength and goodness of someone’s inner character.
Pip has been deluded the entire time into believing it is Miss Havisham who has made the
donation, so as he can become a ‘gentleman’ and be with Estella. When he realises this is not
the case, he also realises that his entire life has been built around a goal he is ultimately never
going to achieve. Eventually Pip realises that Joe is infact one of the most admirable, and
deep down ‘genteely’ characters in the novel:
“There was no change whatever in Joe. Exactly what he had been in my eyes then, he was in
my eyes still: just as simply faithful, and as simply right.”
Grandgrind and Miss Havisham both have realisations regarding the effect they have had
upon the upbringing of their respective children.
After Grandgrind’s daughter comes to him one night, in a terrible state, enraged with him and
shouting at him for the way he brought her up, Grandgrind realises the negative effect his
‘fact, fact, fact’ strict upbringing has had on his children. At the beginning of the novel,
Gradgrind is fervurently against any kind of imagination and fancy in his children’s minds:
“Because, in minds that have been practically formed by rule and line, from the cradle
upwards, this is so curious, so incomprehensible.”
For their entire lives, Gradgrind hammers hard fact into their brains, giving them strict
guidelines and rules to abide by. However, after Louisa confronts him, he realises his
ignorance and mistakes:
“I doubt whether I have understood Louisa. I doubt whether I have been quite right in the
manner of her education.”
Gradgrind recognises his short fallings. He realises that he failed as a father, mistaking his
duties as a supportive father for that of a teacher and lecturer. For the first time, he is able to
step back and realise for himself who his daughter has become, and more importantly, he is
okay with this:
“In the course of a few hours, I appear to have become better informed as to Louisa’s
character, than in previous years. The enlightenment has been painfully forced upon me, and
the discovery is not mine. I think there are qualities in Louisa, which – have been harshly
neglected”
Similarly, it is not until she is confronted that Miss Havisham realises the devastating affect
her ‘mothering’ has had on Estella. Miss Havisham, who was left at the alter by her fiancé, is
filled with an unresolved anger. She adopts Estella, a young orphan, and proceeds to bring
her up as a means of getting back at men. Estella is her tool for revenge. She brings Estella to
have a snooty attractiveness, luring men in only to push them away because they are not good
enough. In a confrontation between Estella and Miss Havisham, Miss Havisham accuses
Estella of being ‘hard’ and unable to love. Estella however instantly turns these round, asking
Miss Havisham:
“Who taught me to be hard?”
Miss Havisham is confronted again, this time by Pip who demands to know why Miss
Havisham allowed him to believe she was the benefactor for all those years. It is not until Pip
visits Miss Havisham again, that her realisation becomes clear. She falls to her knees, crying:
"O!" she cried, despairingly. "What have I done! What have I done!"
It is Pip’s response to Miss Havisham’s breakdown that illustrates Miss Havisham’s epiphany
to the reader:
“I knew not how to answer, or how to comfort her. That she had done a grievous thing in
taking an impressionable child to mould into the form that her wild resentment, spurned
affection, and wounded pride, found vengeance in, I knew full well.”
Miss Havisham begs for Pip’s forgiveness, which he duely grants. However, they both realise
that getting forgiveness from Estella may be infinitely more difficult. Miss Havisham admits
to Pip, that though at first he only intention was to save Estella from the same situation she
found herself in when her fiancé deserted her, soon revenge took over her upbringing:
“But as she grew, and promised to be very beautiful, I gradually did worse, and with my
praises, and with my jewels, and with my teachings, and with this figure of myself always
before her a warning to back and point my lessons, I stole her heart away and put ice in its
place."
Miss Havisham realises, that just as Gradgrind pushed his facts onto Lousia, she has pushed
her revenge onto Estella. Through their epiphany’s both Gradgrind and Miss Havisham
recognise the disastrous effect’s their parenting has had on their children.
Imagery of setting:
Imagery of setting is important in both Hard Times and Great Expectations. Just as the
contrast between Satis House and The Forge in Great Expectations is important, so is the
contrast between Sleary’s Circus and the Coketown Factories.
Coketown is a largely industrial mill town, filled with factories. The entire place is very
square and uniform, consisting of brick building after brick building:
“The jail might have been the infirmary, the infirmary might have been the jail, the town-hall
might have been either, or both, or anything else”
Everywhere looks exactly the same, there is no variation or elegance about the place. The
buildings are all built purely for purpose, and for nothing more. This is clearly representative
of the education that Gradgrind promotes, where “Facts alone are wanted in life.” The
buildings in Coketown perfectly reflect the hard line approach that Gradgrind takes. The red
brick is stained with the black soot from the factories, darkening and hardening the colour of
the town, just as Grandgrind attempts to stamp out any imagination and fancy from the minds
of his pupils:
“ It was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had
allowed it; but as matters stood, it was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face
of a savage.”
By describing the town as a savage, Dicken’s blatantly develops the harsh imagery of
Coketown giving connotations of harsh brutality. This is indicative of the unforgiving nature
of the mill workers lives.
Sleary’s Circus in Coketown gives an important contrast to the hard faced buildings of the
mill factories. Sleary’s Circus represents the world of imagination and creativity, that
Grandgrind tries so hard to stamp out through his harsh education system. On a purely
physical level, the circus is an obvious contrast to the square buildings of the factories.
However, it is the circus people that show the true contrast to the Coketown Factories. Even
the fact that it is the people that encapsulate the essence of the circus, and not the buildings is
symbolic of the difference between Grandgrind’s straight, harsh Coketown and the free,
welcoming nature of the circus.
“‘…was a remarkable gentleness and childishness about these people, a special inaptitude for
any kind of sharp practice, and an untiring readiness to help and pity one another…”
The circus is a close community, with a large emphasis on family and support. It gives time
for pleasure and joy, which is sadly lacking in the almost robotic factories in Coketown.