Saturday, February 2, 2019
Blog Post - Charles Dickens and High Hopes
While the comparisons between Charles Dicken's Great Expectations and the film "High Hopes" are plentiful, this blog post will emphasize the theme of social class and the portrayals of characters in their respective circle.
Looking at Great Expectations' protagonist Pip, we see there is a sense of pride and workmanship based on the working class. Despite Pip's shortcomings in terms of his means, he is portrayed as a wholesome, hard-working, and genuine. Genuine is emphasized as it's a theme that is particularly prevalent in "High Hopes" with its stark difference in persona in relation to the characters social class. In relation to Great Expectations, Pip is considered genuine as opposed to other characters of high social class. While he desires class mobility, his wants are based off of a genuine yearning to educate himself and to freely express his love for Estella. This is in contrast to the superficial and overtly insipid ambitions of those considered higher class than himself. Drummle, a peer of Pip and a member of nobility, utilizes his status to act in a manner that is unjustifiably mean. His hollow and superficial nature is an exaggerated portrayal of a lack of depth amongst those in a high status of society.
Similarly, the dichotomy of social class in "High Hopes" is almost completely identical. Focusing on the theme of the genuine, the characters of each respective class are given traits that seem to play in tandem to the theme of Great Expectations. Cyril, who is the closest character in the film to Pip, is shown in the first scene as a working class, "rough around the edges" type individual. His kindness is prevalent early on, as him and his girlfriend, Shirley, invite a vagabond into their modest flat. This genuine and kind spirit is juxtaposed by the overtly obnoxious and aloof mannerisms of Lætitia, a yuppie neighbor of Cyril's mom. Lætitia can be closely compared to many characters in Great Expectations, but Drummle's unusually cruel disposition is reminiscent of Lætitia's cold and selfish attitude. Despite being well-off, she is unwilling to be kind and open to her neighbor who suffers from dementia, which is an obvious distinction from Cyril, who doesn't have much yet without hesitation offers accommodation and kindness.
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I liked your comparison between Pip and Cyril and how they are both genuine people compared to their family members. I agree that Pip worked hard to climb up the social ladders to better himself.
ReplyDeleteI also like your comparison between Pip and Cyril. I wonder if we could dive deeper than just them both being genuine and maybe analyze other aspects of their personality's. For Example, How they both find light in a dark world through the female protagonists in the stories. but all in all great post!
ReplyDeleteI liked how you mentioned the higher class and how they are not genuine and shallow. Also great overall analysis and perspective.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing Eric. The diction you chose is inspiring. I think you really hit home with what Charles Dicken's was attempting to communicate through this piece of literature. Both the upper-class and lower-class figures in "Great Expectations" and "High Hopes" were shown with exaggerated negative traits, however Charles Dickens and Mike Lee concentrated on Pip and Cyril in order to show that although both were thrown by the systems they still attempted to stay kind and choose authentic things in life as the most important. They were both genuine. Your paper is beautifully organised and written.
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly enjoyed reading your thoughts when comparing "Great Expectations" and "High Hopes." Your analysis of Pip and Cyril was interesting and clever but I found your examination of Lætitia and Drummle most riveting because it did not come to my mind to look at those two characters that way. Thank you for sharing your comparison and bringing that to our attention.
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