“Great Expectations”
I was quoted by some hater so I went to snoop and I saw a tweet reminding me of something pretty amusing.
The tweet was from the Emison library scene where Alison reads a quote from “Great Expectations” to Emily and then says “You’re big on happy endings and so is Dickens by the way. Pip gets Estella in the end.”
*buzzer sound* WRONG. Well, technically. At least it’s not the “big happy ending” Alison is talking about, and that takes us to that quite interesting fact.
First just a quick reminder about the characters:
Estella treats Pip like shit, Pip only admires Estella because she is beautiful and he can’t have her. Their whole relationship is based on appearances: he wants her because she is dressed fancy and she called her “common” and the guy is upset but despite her cruel ways he falls in love with her. He then works hard to become a gentleman, hoping that his raise of station will get him Estella.
Now back to the interesting fact:
There are TWO different endings to “Great Expectations”.
The original one isn’t a happy ending for the couple. Pip doesn’t get the girl at the end and more so, they meet years later and Pip is quite disappointed by Pipa. She isn’t the girl he once longed for, she got married twice and basically, he just doesn’t care. They then go their separate ways and that’s it.
And now you must be like “wtf is she talking about, that’s not right.’
WAIT. There’s more.
While checking this (I read it something like 12 years ago…) I came across an AMAZING fact.
“Great Expectations” was serialized, meaning it wasn’t out all at once but as “episodes”, and a friend of Dickens’ told him that the public would prefer it if Pip and Estella ended up together. Dickens agreed while not making the end very clear nor romantic. For example Pip says “I saw no shadow of another parting from her”, I mean that’s not really the kind of things you say when you are madly in love. You talk about light, not the absence of shadows.
So basically, Dickens and I. Marlene King have something in common, and that’s called fanservice.
