“I'll tell you…what real love is. It is blind devotion, unquestioning self-humiliation, utter submission, trust and belief against yourself and against the whole world, giving your whole heart and soul to the smiter—as I did!”( p. 240) Throughout the novel, Great Expectations, the theme of love is displayed-- along with other subthemes such as love through pain-- through different characters; Miss Havisham, a wealthy lady, is stuck in the past and cannot forgive and forget, she is stuck without love from anyone, and she is stuck without love for anyone; she represents love through pain. During the course of the novel, Miss Havisham changed from an unloving, evil, remorseful person, to a forgiving and loving person, with one visit from a young boy, Pip.
Throughout her life, Miss Havisham has learned to hate all men; she was left at the alter to stand alone without the one she loved. It seems as though she cannot move on, she cannot forgive, and she cannot forget. How can someone be so unhappy that they love to be hurt, love to hurt people, and not love anyone? Miss Havisham seems to be so full of hate that she invites a young boy over to play with her lovely little daughter. When Pip plays with Estella, he instantly falls in love with her, his emotions falling in place with Miss Havisham's plans. “Love her, love her, love her! If she favours you, love her. If she wounds you, love her. If she tears your heart into pieces—and as it gets older and stronger it will tear deeper—love her, love her, love her!” (p. 240) Even though Estella didn't love him back, Miss Havisham forced Pip's emotions, just to leave him heartbroken. Miss Havisham loves to be hurt because the feeling of pain is all she has; if she moves on, she will be very confused and lost; she will feel like she isn't herself. Understanding this herself, she decides to stay covered by her dark cloud, raining pain into her body.
In the beginning of the novel, Miss Havisham, and her accomplice, Estella, didn’t have hearts; Miss Havisham taught her daughter that love was an evil thing, she taught her daughter that you don't have to have love to be happy, and she taught her daughter that being cruel to people who love you is the right thing to do. Poor Estella broke young Pip's heart, cruelly, and maybe without intention. After Pip’s journey of becoming a gentleman, he decided to visit those heartless women; he clearly stated to Miss Havisham that she ruined him; Miss Havisham turned from a completely heartless woman without love, to a forgiving woman who found her self with a heart. “I had never seen her shed a tear before, and in the hope that the relief might do her good, I bent over her without speaking.” (p.400) The difference in-between Miss Havisham’s attitudes changed drastically. How can someone go from wanting revenge on all men—due to one of her personal experiences—to a woman who finds herself able to love? The fact that Pip, an innocent boy who says his feelings, changed Miss Havisham’s life, for the better, is astounding. He showed her that there is love, that she had a heart, and that she can move on from the past, and look forward to her journey of life ahead of her.
"Pip, dear old chap, life is made of ever do many partings welded together." (p. 223) Like Joe said, life is made of things that connect together, one of which being love. Love can make a situation turn from bad to worse, even when in reality, the situation isn’t getting any better. Unfortunately, Miss Havisham was stuck believing that love was pointless, when it really can make a huge difference in someone’s life; Miss Havisham realized that at the end of the book, turning her personality from evil, to caring in one day. Miss Havisham, a wealthy lady who cannot learn to forgive and forget, displays the theme of love of pain--one of the many subthemes of the main theme, love--clearly throughout the majority of the novel Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens.
