Self-Destruction through the Desire for Justice-(written for 9th grade english on Great Expectations)
Injustice is very much a part of life; it is something we deal with everyday, and in reaction, it is something we try to fix, especially if it is injustice against the common good. The desire for justice is ultimately very honorable, but can also be self-destructive when taken to the extreme, just as Charles Dickens conveys to us in his novel, Great Expectations.
The first and most obvious character who reflects personal self-destruction through the desire for justice is Miss Havisham, who considers the way she has raised Estella, which is, to hate men and break their hearts, her own personal revenge against the world and against love. For example, when she tells Pip, "My dear! Believe this: When (Estella) first came to me, I meant to save her from misery like my own. At first I meant no more. But as she grew, and promised to be very beautiful, I gradually did worse, and with my praises and jewels, and my teachings, and with this figure of myself before her, a warning to back and point my lessons, I stole her heart away and put ice in it's place," (p. 429). By doing this, Miss Havisham not only ruined her own life, but Estella's, and finally Pip's as well. She is the primary reason for every character's personal demise. In addition, she encourages Estella by telling her to "Break men's hearts." Later in the book, Havisham redeems herself by feeling remorse for her actions, but what has been done is done, and it has ruined her soul, in spite of her regrets, and this is how she destroys herself.
Estella is another self-created victim of revenge. Although the way she has been brought up is not her fault, she stills knows who and what she is, and what she will remain to be. For example, she admits to this by telling Pip she "Cannot ever love." In addition, she also expresses her inner guilt for the way she has treated him by telling him, "There was a long hard time I kept from myself the remembrance of what I had thrown away when I was quite ignorant of it's worth," (p.451). Through this statement, Pip somewhat forgives Estella of what she has done to him, but she herself knows there will be no inner-forgiveness for her own actions, hence, she has killed off completely what little compassion Miss Havisham had left behind, and through this, the desire for justice ruined Estella in entirety.
Last, and certainly not least, we examine Pip. Pip's desire for revenge is against his situation, or life as he sees it after he visits Sadis House. For example, when he says to himself, "I was a common laboring-boy; that my hands were course, my boots were thick; and that I had fallen into the despicable habit of calling knaves jacks; that I was much more ignorant than I had perceived myself last night, generally, I was low-lived in a bad way, " (p.59). This was Pip's first feeling of dislike for himself; and when he comes into his wealth and refuses to go and see Biddy and Joe, he thinks he is "getting revenge" on his old life of poverty and commonness. In addition, he also desires justice against Estella. She treats him badly upon their first meeting, and Pip thinks, (and continues to think throughout the book), her reason for not loving him is because he is poor and uncivilized, so, by becoming rich and coming into his "great expectations", he is getting revenge on Estella, while convincing her to love him at the same time. In addition, he manifests this to Biddy by saying, "The beautiful young lady at Miss Havisham's, and she's more beautiful than anybody ever was, and I admire her dreadfully and I want to be a gentleman on her account, "(p.121). Pip never truly knew that, in the long run, his need for revenge through "great expectations" were to be the death of his life inside.
All of these characters are examples of self-destruction through the desire for justice by showing how personally damaging too much pride and the seeking out of revenge upon someone can truly be. Dickens' initial goal when he wrote the book was to pinpoint this very large flaw in human nature so that we might learn from his characters and try not to make the same mistakes they did. However, this book was written almost ninety years ago, and the condition of society has yet to improve. Until people learn to forgive, forget, and be learn to be happy with who they are and what life gives them, self-destruction through the desire for justice will continue, and Dickens' goal will have yet to be reached.