Great Expectations II (1962)

[Music] [Applause] love her love her hear me pip I adopted her to be loved I bred her and educated her to be loved I made her into what she is that she might be loved it was with Miss havisham's astonishing words to pip that our last film ended hold those words in your mind for a moment now one of the differences between a good novel and a poor one is that with the good novel you can take a crucial episode or even just a few crucial words like Miss havisham's and place that episode against a larger deeper background of thought and with a poor novel you can't do that let me show you what I mean as you know this film is part of a course in the humanities the humanities deal with man's mind and heart as reflected over the last 3,000 years in in many works of art and thought one branch of the humanities is philosophy and one of the subdivisions of philosophy is ethics which examines man as a morally responsible being now in the field of Ethics there was once a great German thinker named Emanuel Kant and here is one of kant's most famous sentences act in such a way that you treat Humanity both in your own person and in the person of all others never as a means only but always equally as an end now Dickens was no scholar I doubt that he'd ever heard of Emanuel Kant and yet they're connected for that sentence which means simply that a human being must be valued for himself and not only because he is useful to us that sentence is one of the keys to Great Expectations listen to miss havisham once more I BR her an educated her to be loved I made her into what she is that she should be loved now has Miss havisham obeyed kant's categorical imperative as it's called or has she disobeyed it let's look at a scene from the novel as we consider whether Miss havisham has or has not obeyed kant's rule it's the scene in which pip after much has happened returns to miss havisham's house and sees her and the house with different eyes the rotted bride cake the table laid long ago for the bridal breakfast all seemed changed and in Miss havisham herself pip finds the greatest Change Is it real is I pip Mr Jaggers gave me your note yesterday and I wasted no time please what I miss hav miss hav if you mean what have you done to injure me let me answer you have done very little there have been sore mistakes my life has been a blind and thankless one and I want forgiveness and erection far too much to be bitter with you and I should have loved EST Stella under any circumstances is she married yes what have I done what have I done until you spoke to her the other day until I saw knew what I once felt myself I didn't know what I done believe me believe me P when she first came to me I meant to save her From Misery like my own at first I meant no more well well I hope so as she grew promised to be beautiful I did worse my my teachings are my Praises my jewelry this figure of myself always before as a warning to give point to my lessons I stole her heart away put ice in it [Applause] place what had Miss havam done with her praise and her teachings she had used Estella used her only as a means she took an innocent child and used her as a tool as a weapon in her Battle of revenge against men even as a very young girl Estella who by the way is one of the few intelligent heroins in Dickens had a sense of what was being done to her later she even warned pip against herself but pip lost in his obsession would not listen and so unhappiness is in store for all three Miss havisham pip Estella why think of that connection I said existed between Dickens and the philosopher K whom he had never read we've now placed one of the crucial episodes in the book against a larger body of thought we see that Miss havisham has disobeyed a rule which painfully over thousands of years mankind has discovered and though the tragedy that Miss havisham causes becomes a part of the tragedy inherent in our human weakness in the general Human Condition when you hear Miss havisham's Cry of Agony and feel it to be a cry that millions of human beings have uttered in their hearts you're beginning to feel something of what a good novel can give you besides an exciting story and interesting characters and now I want you to note how cunning is the pattern Dickens constructs for parallel with the Miss havisham Estella relationship which we've just begun to understand runs the magwitch PIP relationship let's analyze that relationship more closely in the next scene we shall see pip is 23 years old and not another word has he had to Enlighten him about his Great Expectations sooner or later he feels miss haversam Will Reveal herself as his benefactor but meanwhile he has been living the life of a gentleman in London where all alone on a dark stormy night he's about to receive an unexpected Coller someone down there is there not yes which floor do you want the top Mr P that's my name there's nothing the matter nothing's a matter Dear Boy Trey what what is your business my business ah yes I'll explain my business by your leavea do you wish to come in yeah yes I wish to come in master The Stranger of course is magwitch the escaped convict and pip although he cannot say why recognizes him as though the wind and the rain had driven away the intervening years I hope you will not think that I spoke harshly to you just now I had no intention of doing it and I'm sorry for it if I did I wish you well and happy thanky and you same how are you living being a sheep farmer stock breeder other trades besides away in the new world many a thousand miles of Stormy water off of this I hope you have done well I done wonderful well I'm famous for it I'm glad to hear it I hope to hear you say so dear boy but uh you've done well too I think yes yes I have may I make up B us to ask ah you've done well since you and I was out on them lonely shivering marshes how ah I've been chosen to succeed to some property might air War me ask what property I I don't know might a me a war mean to ask who's property I don't know could I make a guess now as to your income since you come of age as to the first figure would it be five concerning the guardian there ought to have been a guardian or such like whil you were still a miner some uh lawyer maybe as to the first letter of that lawyer's name would it be J for Jaggers no yeah pip dear boy I made a gentleman on you it's me what done it I swore that time sure as ever I earned a guinea that guinea should be yours I swore out it that If Ever I speculated and got rich you should get rich I lived rough that you might live smooth I worked hard that you might be above work what ODS dear boy do I say it for you for the feel of obligation not a bit of it I say it for you for the feel for that aune D old dog what you kept KN in got his de eye enough for to make a gentleman and pit you're him here look here there there's something worth spending in that earbook here it's your ah don't be a feared on it there's bloody more where that come from I come from the old country for to see my Gentleman spend his money like a gentleman blast you all blast you all from the judging his weight to the colonists on their blood horses flinging up the dust around me as I was walking I made a better gentleman than the old Kiton you put [Music] together notice the my gentlemen notice the blast you all magwitch has made an artificial creature out of pip just as Miss havisham made an artificial creature out of a stellar and both artificial creatures are being used for purposes of Revenge the relationship can be expressed with a little Elementary algebra here's a proportion Miss havisham is to Estella as magwitch is to pip but all four Miss havisham Estella magwitch pip fail in their Great Expectations the puppets as well as the Puppet Masters in pain and Terror Miss havisham is forced to face the evil she has accomplished magwi fails in his chief end which is to use pip as a means of gratifying his own passions estella's life is blighted for in the earlier and better version of the ending she and pip do not marry and pip poor pip loses both the girl and the money we often think of Dickens as a master of Comedy we often think of him as a rather sentimental Optimist surrendering again and again to the Happy Ending but that's only a Hal Truth for we've seen that great expectations is in the words of George Bernard Shaw a profoundly sad book a deeply disillusioned book we've seen the prisons its characters make for themselves we've seen the obsessions that Mar their lives the dream of gentlemanliness the terrible lust to manipulate others a profoundly sad book and its sadness is reinforced and deepened by still another theme which plays through it and which plays through much of Victorian life in our second film I said that the successful Victorian often had a divided personality symbolizing in Stevenson's haunting story of Dr J and Mr Hyde Dickens was aware of this split not only because he was an observer of Genius but because he himself suffered from a deep division in his own soul he was the greatest literary success in the world of his day acclaimed almost idolized and he was a profoundly unhappy man you'll discover why if you read any good biography of him and now with this in mind let us see how in Great Expectations he develops a theme very close to his own heart the theme of the double life I said that this theme reinforced the sadness at the heart of the book and oddly enough I'll try to prove the point by having our players offer a comic scene between pip Weck and weck's father the Aged parent Weck is Jagger's chief law clerk a dry little man he lives in wallworth a London burrow in a queer little castle of the house with a moat and a drawbridge and queer little Gothic windows and within the house A Very Old Man clean cheerful comfortable well cared for but intensely deaf weck's father the Aged parent a touching and delightful scene and how different from weck's corner and Jagger's dismal Law Office stacked with Dusty papers industial law books Wick's house in wallworth with his beloved aged parent and Wick seated at his high desk in London but what sort of man is he generous warm-hearted listen now to his reaction as pip asks for advice about helping his friend Herbert pocket I want to ask your opinion I am very desirous to serve a friend this friend is trying to get on in commercial life but has no money now I want somehow to help him get on with money done with some money down and perhaps some anticipation of my expectations Mr pip I should just like to run over with you on my fingers if you please the names of the various Bridges up as high as Chelsea reach now let me see there's London one sadak two black fries three Waterloo four Westminster five Vox Hall six there are as many as six you see to choose from I don't understand you choose your Bridge Mr pip take a walk upon your bridge and then pitch your your money into the temps over the center arch of your bridge and you know the end of it serve a friend with it and you may know the end of it too but it is a Less Pleasant and profitable end oh well this is very discouraging meant to be served and um that is your deliberate opinion Mr whik that is my deliberate opinion in this office ah but would that be your opinion at Walworth Mr pip Walworth is one place this office is another Justus as the aid is one person and Mr Jaggers another they must never be confounded together my Warth sentiments must be taken at Warth none but my official sentiments must be taken in this office I suppose you're engaged this evening no I'm not then perhaps you care to have dinner with us I should be delighted good come then and so weik strictly in his private and personal capacity as he emphasizes takes pip home with him to wallworth where he seems to be an entirely different man well then aged parent how am you all right John all right here's Mr pip AED parent and I wish you could hear his name not at him Mr pip that's what he likes not away at him if you please like winking you made acquaintance with my son sir at his office I expect I have heard that my son is a wonderful hand at his business sir yes so so they tell me his business is the LA you you're as proud of me as punch ain't you agent there's a not for you and there's another if you're not too tired Mr Pippen I know it's tiring to strangers would you tip him again you can't think God pleases him amusing touching yes both but sad too for whik superficially put in for comic relief is also in a way a tragic figure he has forced himself to live two lives he has his Walworth sentiments and he has his official sentiments and never the twain shall meet officially he advises pip not to help Herbert pocket get on in wallworth he urges him to do so many victorians had both wallworth and official sentiments and perhaps many of us today aren't much different but is whik the only one in the book living a double life how about Jaggers that formidable realist the cold hard Relentless criminal lawyer ask yourself why he continually washes his hands once he's finished his sorted days work and Estella pip says of Estella that she speaks of herself as if she were someone else and how about our hero pip himself early in the story he and Biddy Mrs Joe's young nurse are out together on the sunny marshes but Pip's disposition and thoughts are far from Sunny did he I want to be a gentleman what I wouldn't if I was you I don't think it would answer biddy I have particular reasons for wanting to be a gentleman you know best pip but don't you think you're happier as you are B I'm not at all happier as I am I'm disgusted with my calling and with my life I've never taken to it ever since I was apprenticed don't be absurd was that absurd I'm sorry for that I didn't mean to be I just want you to do well and be comfortable well then understand once and for all I never shall or can be comfortable or anything but miserable unless I can lead a very different sort of life from the life I lead now unless I can lead a very different sort of life from the life I lead now do you remember the last verse of Robert Frost's poem The Road Not Taken I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence two roads diverged in a wood and I I took the One Less Traveled by and that has made all the difference at a crucial moment in his life pip stood where two roads diverged he chose one of them and it made all the difference he might have chosen the simple life that biddy and Joe stand for he chose another and the conflict between what he might have been and the fake gentleman that he became forced him to combine two personalities in himself only at the very end after struggle and sorrow does he come back to the first road and strangely enough the split in his personality is healed by his experience with a man whose money and whose Obsession made that split possible he learns through the criminal magwi as magwitch tells him the harrowing story of his life he learns to pity in jail and out of jail in jail and out of jail in jail and out of jail there you've got it that's my life pretty much till such time as I was shipped off I've been done everything too pretty well except anged I've been carted here and carted there put out of this town and put out of that stuck in the stocks and whipped and worried and drove I know more notion where I was born than you have if so much first time I become aware of myself was down in Essex saving turnips for a living someone had run away from me and a man a tinker he took the fire with him and left me very cold someone had run away from me a man a tinker and he took the fire with him and left me very cold pip too had lost the fire the fire of Joe gargery's Forge that symbolized integrity but through an understanding of what magwitch had gone through his horrible lonely life and yet a life that had a certain Twisted nobility in it pip comes quite simply and literally to himself how does he Express this Insight in one of the great lines of the book indeed its moral Center when he recognizes that the criminal magwitch is superior to to himself he says in bitter self-reproach I only saw in him a better man than I had been to Joe for in the end pip comes back to the one human being who represents not the double life but the undivided heart who always acts not out of repression but out of spontaneity who lives in Freedom because he has never enclosed himself in self-made prisons who could not even pronounce the phrase categorical imperative but who nevertheless acts always in accord with kant's dictum respecting all human beings less as means to an end than as ends in themselves in this book about gentlemanliness and gentility it is Joe gargery who turns out to be the only gentleman it is Joe who is gentle p is it Joe where it Joe you break my heart don't be so good to me which dear old P chap you and me was ever friends when you're well enough to go for roid what LS how long Jo what you mean to say p how long have your illness lasted old CH yes J is the end of my P have you been here all the time Jo pretty no old chap Joe yes old have you have you heard who my Patron was oh you is as it were not miss AVU old CH did you hear who it was Joe well well you is it where they com P which we do seen together on the marshes when you was quite a child so it was asish him did you hear anything of his circumstances Joe well not particular B if you would like to hear Joe now look at here old ever the best of friends AR ASP oh very well and that's all right that's agreed upon well then why go into subjects which is betwix two s must be forever unnecessary ones the subjects an office betx two set without unnecessary ones and with this scene between Joe and pip Great Expectations really ends for pip has finally come of age he's grown up he's passed from innocence through experience to self- understanding to what Socrates meant when he said know thyself he has at last broken down the Prison Walls of false gentility the walls behind which so many victorians lived their lives we've tried to show how in Pip's stumbling progress was mirrored much of the stupidity the hypocrisy and also the virtues of the Victorian age itself we've said that Dickens attacked that age and that he reflected it and I hope that in Great Expectations you can detect both his anger at and his affection for his own time and people but if he had only recorded his age he would not be as widely read and enjoyed as he is today his finest works of which Great Expectations is one register the tension between dickens's almost agonized awareness of his own time and his miraculous power of transcending it for example magwitch is both a victim of the 19th century English penal system and a spokesman for all all those who are cast out by Society in any place at any time and Miss havisham is both a symbol of Victorian repression and a terrible figure who lives in our imagination like some undying witch and pip what shall we say of pip he's the type of all young men from the provinces and the small towns who come to the big city eager bewildered confused anxious to succeed anxious to learn misled by false ideals and values winning through with much pain to a few true ones trying like all of us to find out how to fit into society and at the same time to find himself in these four films I've tried to suggest to you that a novel can be more than a story to be read and forgotten if it is a good good novel it can become part of your life it can enlarge it comment on it ask it questions when it does this it belongs to the humanities [Music] h [Music]