Parent-child relationships in the novel Great Expectations

Parent- child Relationships



In the novel “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens the author writes an enduring story about childhood, parenthood, adulthood, love and all the other essentials of life. He creates two parent-child relationships that have many contrasts but yet seem to be similar in the overall view. The influences of Miss. Havisham on Estella and Magwitch on Pip make them what they are when they are adults, which in some cases is the opposite of their benefactors’ intentions.

Miss. Havisham and Magwitch both play the roles of benefactors to two orphan children, Estella and Pip. Miss Havisham adopts Estella at a very young age and raises her to be a young lady. However her main intentions towards Estella seemed to be that she should become a source of grief for all men because of her own heartbreak caused by a man. Her intentions are most clearly explained when she talks to Pip, “Love her, love her, love her! I adopted her to be loved. I bred he...