Friday, January 1, 2010

15. Great Expectations


"'You're out in your reading of Hamlet...and at night his reading was lovely'" (258).

Throughout the novel, Great Expectations, Charles Dickens refers to many incidents in Hamlet, such as the "Ghost of Hamlet" and now the actual play, Hamlet (24). The play written by Shakespeare tells of a king who was murdered by his brother who wanted to have the throne. When the king's son, Hamlet, discovers the truth about how his father died, he plots his revenge. In the end, those at fault died, and those who fought for revenge also died. No one won in the game of revenge and the desire to gain power. Charles Dickens included the references to Hamlet in his novel to reveal to the reader that the path which Pip has taken is going to lead to Pip's downfall. If Pip had known where the money had come from at the beginning of this adventures, he may have thought twice before accepting it. However, he was too absorbed in his own wants and desire to love a lady whom he had no chance with in his natural standing, and along his journey he found himself alone. Pip appears to act on impulse, much like Hamlet, which is his tragic downfall. Charles Dickens embeds the moral of thinking before acting. If Pip had done so, it would have saved him a lot of heartache in the end.

"Hamlet." Sparknotes. 3 January 2010. 2009.
http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/hamlet/summary.html
Photo Credit:
"Hamlet." Eight Anime Adaptions I'd Love to See. 3 January 2010.

2 comments:

  1. "to portray that the path" -- is portray an effective word here? what other options do you have?

    careful with the "he" pronoun -- its ambiguous as to whether you mean Dickens, Pip, or Hamlet

    long works should be in italics, not quotes -- quotes are for short works

    look at that last sentence -- how can it get active rather than passive?

    literature is always in the present -- Dickens writes, Pip believes, etc.

    think about these comments throughout examining your concordance entries

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  2. Hamlet should be in italics. It's a long work.

    ReplyDelete