> Hello you two,
                Can I butt in and add a further comment? In addition to the fact of the two contrasting endings that Dickens wrote, as Grasshopper has outlined there is the fact that the later `happy ending´ allows of an alternative interpretation. Estella´s final words are something like- we will be friends apart. In the final paragraph Pip thinks to himself that he cannot see them parting again. But in the text this remains a thought, it is not voiced. It is true that Estella´s attitude throughout this final scene has been most contrite and would be in keeping with a willingness to accept Pip, but what she actually says is the opposite. So that leaves us with the possibility of questioning whether Pip ans Estella have `really´ come together. However, this version has traditionally been read as `the happy ending´ version. It is therefore possible to ask whether the great willingness of most readers to interpret this ending as `happy´ is itself a function of their own `expectations´ about the novel form. I read this poem as offering a critique, not only of the plot of Great Expectations, but also of conventional expectations of the novel. I think that if approached in this way the poem is not too short, it says enough, and I think also that it probably overcomes the difficulty of the reader being distracted by their own experience of the novel, apart from the final chapter, which is the only part relelvant to the poem. Does this make sense?




Best wishes,   Mike



> From: grasshopper <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 2003/12/18 Thu PM 08:26:51 EET
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: New sub: Expectations-thanks for comments
> 
> Many thanks for your comments on this one. It's a it of a strange one, I know, and probaly falls into the trap awaiting all short poems ,of not 'being enough'.
> Dear Gary,
> This is based on 'Great Expectations'. One interesting thing about the novel is that Dickens originally wrote it with Pip and Estella not getting together, which has always seemed a 'truer' ending to me. However he was persuaded to give the novel a conventional happy ending.
> Kind regards,
>      grasshopper
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: Gary Blankenship 
>   To: [log in to unmask] 
>   Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2003 3:16 PM
>   Subject: Re: [THE-WORKS] New sub: Expectations
> 
> 
>   Grassy, good read, but I wonder a couple of things.  The convict lines leave us wanting to know more.  I suppose this is from some story I did not read or remember, so I you could explain it.
> 
>   And consider no breaks for the short lines
> 
>   Estella buried Pip
>   in the blasted graveyard 
>   where the convict found him long ago.
> 
>   He died of a cracked heart.
>   She lays a maroon rose
>   on the gravel mound and smiles.
> 
>   Did you, my dear,
>   believe in happy endings?
>   She keeps her wedding gown
>   wrapped with camphor in case.
> 
>   Thanks.
> 
>   Gary
> 
> 
>    
>   Writer's Hood, the best poetry on the web,  at http://www.writershood.com/  Poets for Peace.... ¡Poemas sí, balas no!
>