“Great Expectations” is the penultimate novel by English writer Charles Dickens. One of the most important events in it is the fire in Miss Havisham’s house. This event has the multiple symbolic. When the main character Pip talks about fire in earlier chapters, then this symbol has the positive connotations; it represents the warmness of family house. But the big fire in Miss Havisham’s home, described in the chapter 49, has the opposite symbolic meanings: guilt, suppressed emotions and finally - fire symbolizes the change of the characters.
First reason for the author to include motif of fire into the novel was to show Miss Havisham’s guilt. It is the strong emotion which she had felt for many years, because of having caused Estela’s cruelty to Pip and breaking his heart. “O!” she cried, despairingly. “What have I done! What have I done!” (Dickens, “Great Expectations”). Her irrational guilt is the trigger which caused the fire, intentionally or unintentionally.
Fire is unstoppable force, just like the suppressed emotions once when they come out on a surface. That is the second symbolic meaning of this motif. Long time kept secrets are the part of the conversation between Miss Havisham and Pip. ‘They are the secrets I have mentioned.’ – Pip says (Dickens). The emotions were so deeply suppressed that they had to explode; they are implied by the fire.
The main symbolic purpose of the fire in Miss Havisham’s home is to be the force of change. Fire wipes out everything old and changes things and people. Miss Havisham has very serious injuries and repeats ‘What have I done’ (Dickens), and she is somehow purified by her guilt. Pip’s hands are burned in a fire and he is now more determined that he should help Magwitch. Nobody is the same after the fire.
The motif of the fire Dickens included into his novel because of its rich symbolic potential. By that, into reader’s experience are implied ideas of guilt, the suppressed emotions and the change.
Work Cited
Dickens, Charles. “Great Expectations” www.gutenberg.org . n.p. n.d. Web. 28 June 2016.
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