To Love or Not to Love

To Love or Not to Love
-Blog Post #4-
Topic A
May 8, 2015


‘”I am what you have made me. Take all the praise, take all the blame, take all the success, take all the failure; in short, take me’” (295).

This quote from Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations is said by Estella to her adoptive mother, Miss Havisham, in the middle of an argument. It describes how Miss Havisham’s “success,” raising Estella as cold-hearted and cruel, and her “failure,” not allowing Estella to express her emotions or love, makes her who she is (295). However, the person she is does not make her happy. She is who her mother desires her to be, not who she wishes to be. Estella wants to be able to love people, whether it is a man or Miss Havisham herself.

This sudden argument between the mother and daughter shows the large strain in the relationship. Miss Havisham’s complaining of how Estella is cruel and unloving shocks Estella because she taught her to be that way. Estella mentions in the next few paragraphs how Miss Havisham used to frighten her as a child, and it is because of her teachings that she cannot reciprocate the feeling of love for Miss Havisham.

            The fact that Estella is brave enough to say this to her adoptive mother shows how much she has grown up and that she realizes that who she has become is wrong. This discovery will lead Estella to move on after her past and perhaps allow her to love someone in return for the first time.