The ending of the novel Great Expectations
The ending of the novel Great Expectations was very interesting but at the same time, let the readers interpret the ending the way that they wanted. It seems as though the ending was very sad but then I went on to read that there are actually two different endings to Great Expectations, which I found to be very neat. It was like the audience got both the happy and the sad endings and they could choose which one they preferred. Since I have read this novel before, I knew that there were alternate endings, and this was a great aspect of the novel.
However, in the novel that we read, the ending is more sad than anything.
After Magwitch passes away, Pip becomes ill and is also taken in by the police because he was severely in debt. This caused Pip to almost end up in jail. However, the only reason that Pip did not go to jail was because of how sick he was and they figured that putting him in jail would not do much for Pip.
One can say that Pip actually went crazy because he was seeing things and having these weird hallucinations where he sees Miss. Havisham. He also “hallucinates” Joe being there but that was not really imagined because Joe did end up coming to help Pip out when he found out that Pip was sick.
I think that the reason Pip hallucinates Miss. Havisham is because she is actually dead, and when Joe helps Pip through his recovery, he tells him that she had passed. Pip also hallucinates seeing Orlick after a near death experience when Orlick tried to kill him. Pip eventually gets better and begins spending more time with Joe. Joe takes his to places that they went when Pip was a boy, trying to make Pip happy again. For example, when the text says:
“Which dear old Pip, old chap, [said Joe], you and me was ever friends. And when you are well enough to go out for a ride—what larks” (chapter 57, pg. 19).
This kind of shows that Joe has always loved Pip and will always love him, no matter what had happened in the past. Joe even goes as far as giving Pip money so that Pip can get out of debt, he also stays by his side while he is sick and slowly helps him back to good health, and he is also apologetic to Pip about how Mrs. Joe would beat him. Although Joe has been there for Pip through thick and thin, Joe understands that things will never be the same because the times have changed, both him and Pip have changed, and life goes on.
After a while of Pip being ill, he finally goes back to his hometown in England, where he grew up as a child. Pip has had kind of a rough life and has gone through many toils and hardships. However, through all of this, Pip even said that he learned the importance of hard work and how to be happy without making a lot of money. He even states that he is appreciative of the modest lifestyle that he had grown into. When Pip goes to the Satis House, he notices that it is no longer existent. When he gets there, he begins thinking about Estella and how someone had mentioned to him that she was unhappy with her life with Drummle but then also heard that Drummle had passed away. As Pip walks through the garden, he sees Estella. They end up having a conversations and reminisce on their memories of the past and when Pip leaves the garden, he is even holding hands with Estella and Pip believes that they will live happily ever after and that they will never be apart again.
