Parenting Trouble

In many ways, certain events that take place in the novel are very similar to situations in real life.  First of all, Miss Havisham was left at the altar by her fiancé, Compeyson.  You don’t necessarily hear this same exact story every day, but you do come across a lot of divorced couples.  Divorce is becoming increasingly common in our society, leaving many women distraught and left with nothing.  Miss Havisham is a very extreme case of this, having never even changed out of her wedding dress, but the concept is still the same.  She loved a man dearly, but then had that love ripped away by Compeyson.  This completely changed the course of Miss Havisham’s life, as well as the others around her.

Not only does the couple suffer from the divorce, but their children do as well.  They can misbehave due to a lack of a parental guidance, be and emotional wreck, or end up as a mean person, if their parents were too.  Estella is the direct result of Miss Havisham being left at the altar.  If Compeyson had just married her, Estella would have turned out to be a beautiful, nice lady with a happy family.  But unfortunately, life does not always turn out the way we expect it to, adding to the realism of the novel.

Another way Great Expectations connects to everyday life is that Miss Havisham is completely living through her child.  Almost every parent these days does this on a regular basis.  Whether they were a star athlete, or the one who was picked last at recess, many parents try to relive their lives through their children.  A lot of the times, the only reason a kid plays a sport is because their parent is forcing them to do so.  In Estella’s case, her sport is to crush men’s hearts.  Miss Havisham has trained her for her whole life to do this evil deed to get revenge on men for being left at the altar.  She could not do this herself, so she just did it through Estella.  Once again, Miss Havisham portrayed a common theme in our society, further constructing a believable novel.