Western 1 Michaela Western Ms.

Gardner English 10, Period 2 5 March 2014 Rare Glimpse of Moonlight Darkness is often connected with low points in life, while light directly contrasts this, often being used in reference to high points. In Charles Dickenss coming-of-age novel Great Expectations, Dickens parallels Pips relationships with other charactersEstella, Joe, and Ms. Havisham for examplewith elements of light and dark, emphasizing the positive and negative impacts that those characters impose on his life. An element of foreshadowing surrounds Pips entrance into every questionable situation and relationship he inserts himself into, shrouded in darkness. The firstand most regrettable time that Pip entered the lonely confines of Statis House, the passages were all dark (43), and Pip and Estella were only lit by a single candle, until Estella left Pip at the door of Ms. Havishams chambers and took the candle with her (43). Pip was both literally and figuratively in the dark at this exact moment; his mind possessed no clue of the turn his life would take after he knocked on that door. It was not necessarily the beginning of a dark chapter of his life, but it was a rebirth of his life and ideals. Pip wishes that Joe had been more genteelly brought up and that [Pip] should have been so too (47). Before his encounters with Estella and Ms. Havisham, before his ideals shift from innocence and ignorance to money and status, Pip sees no flaws within his average life. He has a solid career awaiting him in the bright glow of the forge,

Western 2 and does not view himself as common and coarse. Estella immediately manages to snuff out Pips foreseen future by slippingalbeit unintentionallyideas of where he should go, rather than where he should be into his brain. This is where the development of Pips great expectations begins to burn brighter. Estella is cold: she holds no qualms about breaking hearts; she does it as easily as a stick could be snapped. With her obvious opinions of Pip, he realizes that he has absolutely no chance of ever claiming Estella as his own if he remains common. However, when Pip makes the abrupt and sponsored transition from common working class to high London society, the road is not as well lit as he would have hoped. Darkness surrounds many of Pips relationships in the novel; near the novels climax, he receives a mysterious note, telling him to go to the marshes in the middle of the night. In a moment of absolute brilliance, he decided to go. Even though it was a dark night, and he could hardly see his way to the kiln, he made his way towards the kiln and eventually to the old sluicehouse. Upon arriving there and opening the door, he saw a single lighted candle on the table (330), similar to the time where he first entered Statis House. Pips life was almost put out with the candle when it was extinguished by some violent shock (331). When a flare of light flashed up, and showed [Pip] Orlick (331), Pip realized that he was in dire straits, as Orlick held a particular vengeance for Pip; Orlick believed that Pip had ruined his life working in the forge and also his chances with Biddy. There was little chance that friendly conversation could get Pip out of this mess. When the candle went out and Orlick closed a shutter, the sudden exclusion of the night and the substitution of black darkness (331) made Pip think about where he was, and how difficult it would be for him to get out of the situation. There is no light present at this time, mainly to show the dark relationship between Pip and Orlick; when the light of the single candle was stifled out, the last light disappeareduntil the door burst open and flooded the room with

Western 3 light and the silhouettes of Pips saviors. Orlicks goal was to kill Pip; there was no positive motive, his intent was purely malicious. Pip had no reason to be on friendly terms with Orlick: a man who had been responsible for the death of his sister. Every last flicker of light had been squeezed out of their relationship by Orlicks powerful fists and had been replaced by black darkness. In the denouement of the novel, the eve of Pips return to the dark and dismal marshes of Kent finds him in the despondent gardens of the long abandoned Statis House. Breaking through the cold silvery mist [that] had veiled the afternoon (378) was starlight, a sight rarely described within the dark alleys of Dickenss novel. The sudden intrusion of light is positive foreshadowing; he puts a spotlight on Pip and Estellas encounter that is immersed in moonlight. The evening was not dark (378), which gives potential to the option of a positive encounter between the two, those of which were rare and far between. Cracks appear in Estellas normally hard shell and the same rays of moonlight that spilled through the sky glimmer in tears drippingsilentlydown Estellas face. The tears symbolize recognition, an acceptance, a reconciliation of wrongs committed in the past; the fact that they were seen in the pure light of the moon lends a sense of closure, a feeling of serenity between the two that was never present before. Pips up-and-down life careens up to the stars and back down again. Paralleling the paradoxical elements of pure light and overwhelming darkness, Charles Dickens explicitly chronicles the tumultuous relationships between the light of Pips lifeEstellaand the demons that chase himOrlick, to name one of many. The darkness overwhelms Pips conscience; the light helps him right his wrongs. Pip has arguably been through the life of an old man by the time he reaches the moonlit garden where he encounters Estella for the first time in eleven years, but

Western 4 also the last time. The tears that were spilled in the light of the moon and stars that night soaked into the ground and remained: a monument to the reconciliation and recognition of a relationship plagued by intermittent thunderstorms.