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 herthroughout 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.