Tensions of the Progressive Trajectory in Great Expectations
Keywords:
Victorian novel, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, gentleman, progressive movement, conservative movementAbstract
Great Expectations, published in book form in 1861, is one of the last novels by the famous English writer Charles Dickens. In this novel, Dickens problematises the category of the gentleman, which was central in the Victorian context. This article focuses on the role of the conservative element, represented by Satis House and Miss Havisham, in Pip’s – the narrator – progressive trajectory towards becoming a gentleman. It also considers the narrative tone, which expresses a non-effusive attitude about the success of this trajectory and, thus, contributes to the structural ambiguity of the narrative. The analysis of these narrative elements allows the discussion of Dickens’s representation of important paradoxes of the Victorian society.
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