Great_Expectations

The fundamental aspect of belonging is more than often associated with security and acceptance. The possession of these essential elements guides humanity into happiness. It is however only when an individual is capable of transforming into their true character that genuine belonging can be experienced and sheltered, a place like a home. Hence, belonging is not only a desire to be attached to something but also endorses deeper-rooted aspects. These aspects are exposed in the novel Great expectations by Charles Dickens, the film- animated Shrek by Andrew Adamson and the painting Separation by Edvard Munch. Great expectations was first published in 1861 during the Victorian Era of colonisation and convicts. The Bildungsroman novel begins with the narrator Pip explaining how his name came to be after being unable to pronounce his original, Christian name Phillip Pirrip; “my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or explicit than Pip”. The reader is guided to the first aspect of existential belonging as Pip cannot live up to his family name thus giving himself a name which shelters his knowledge and security. As Pip does not belong in the beginning, it is also foreshadows that he will encounter further phases of being unable to belong in the novel. Through the use of exposition, the reader becomes aware that Pip is in a church yard in which he meets the convict, Magwitch, who ‘seizes’ Pip and advises him to bring him ‘food and a file’ or else his ‘his heart and liver tore out, roasted and ate’ by a young man accompanying the convict. Although this man is not existent, it is used as a metaphorical expression to articulate how Pips ‘great expectations’ symbolically eats him and turns him into a ‘horrible, young man’. To save himself from such misfortune, Pip continues on to his house, where he lives with his sister Miss Gargery and her husband Joe. It is this house that Pip feels real belonging sheltering his social class and his true identity.  It is not until Pip meets Estella that his true identity and connection to his house is diminished. Pip feels as if his house is not good enough for him, or rather, that he is not good enough for Estella, as it is her, together with Mrs. Havisham, who induced this idea. “My coarse hands and my uncommon boots never troubled me before, but they troubled me now, as vulgar as appendages”. Estella is Miss Havisham’s beautiful, young ward who plays with Pip at Miss Havisham’s request at Satis House which Pip describes made of “old brick and dismal, and had a great many iron bars to it”. Ironically the name Satis in Latin is translation for ‘enough and satisfied’ however it is clear that Miss Havisham desires happiness in her life although she grasps wealth and possessions. Thus Satis house resembles a prison, dark, with a few windows and many bars while its rooms are a metaphor for Miss Havisham herself, dismal on the outside and rotten within. Despite these aspects of Miss Havisham’s house, it is evident that it is the only place that she belongs as it connects her to the day of her wedding and the charms alongside. Although Pip describes Estella as being his ’own age’ she was however ‘beautiful and was as scornful of me as if she had been one-and twenty, and a queen’. Estella is taught by Miss Havisham to ‘wreak revenge on all the male sex’ as she herself was jilted on her wedding day. After meeting Estella, Pip cries as to how offended he becomes with her remarks expressing ‘I was so humiliated, hurt, spurned, offended, angry, sorry”. Dickens uses descriptive language to allow the reader to grasp the exact emotions that Pip encounters after Estella calls him an ‘uncommon labouring boy’ as well as to introduce to the reader the impact Estella will start to have on him. The first authorial intrusions by Charles Dickens are presented through the direct linkage to wealth and status. However these intrusions are not quite clear until Pip meets his foil characters Wemmick and Herbert Pocket. After meeting Estella Pip became aware that material wealth and social standings were determined by wealth in a 19th century society at the Satis house. It is only after meeting Estella and Miss Havisham that Pip ‘feels ashamed of home’ and no longer views the ‘forge as the glowing road to manhood and independence’. It is also here that Pip learns the connection between power and money, wishing to become a gentleman of the 19th century in to equalise the status of Estella. This is however ironic as in later chapters  of the novel, the reader becomes aware that Estella is not an any higher class than Pip but rather the daughter of the Convict who seized Pip whilst at the Churchyard.  Thus her belonging to this societal class was only temporary and is disputable.  The end of Pip’s first stage of great expectations ends with the sentence ‘And the mist had all solemnly risen now, and the world lay spread before me’. It is not until Pip departs from the marshes that the mist rises. This is a metaphor for his great expectations that will evolve in London by abandoning the marshes in Kent. The change in Pip's life is characterized in several ways. First of all, there is a physical change, when he moves to London. This accentuates the difference between the two lives. A small town near some marshes which reflected the common side of his life and London is seen by Pip as a great and wonderful city which is a metaphor for his expectations to come. The marshes are depicted as a cold, dark and wet place as shown through the ‘mist’. Hence this also symbolises Pip’s reflection and discontentment of his previous home as he no longer writes to his fellow teacher Biddy and ‘ever the best of friend’ Joe. Charles Dickens strength is most evidently through the use of his characters. There is Magwitch, the convict, who in the end is the Benefactor for Pip’s good fortune as well as Pip’s foil characters Wemmick and Herbert Pocket. It is these foil characters that indirectly induce Pip to remeasuring society and realising that an ideal gentleman will adhere to the Victorian standards of earnestly working for money, remaining loyal to his true friends, maintaining generosity and kindness to those whom society views as ‘uncommon’. “I went along on all I had seen, and deeply revolving that I was a common labouring boy, that my hands were coarse, that my boots were thick, that I has fallen into a despicable habit of calling knaves jacks, on the whole I was in a low-lived bad way”  Wemmick, a man of status and wealth, is one of Pip’s more important foil characters as he displays how to live and belong in a life where you lead two separate lives. Wemmick is cynical and obsessed with “portable property” at work as a Clerk while at his home in Walworth, Wemmick is jolly, wry, and a tender caretaker of his “Aged Parent” at his Castle that he himself built. It is through this character that Dickens’ powerfully uses Authorial intrusion as he leads two very different personalities, depending on where he is  " The office is one thing and private life is another” Herbert Pocket is the welcoming and best friend of Pip in London. Through Herbert, Pip - ‘Handel, learns that you can still be a gentleman and rather marry someone that is not of high status as Herbert hopes to become a merchant to afford his marriage to Clara Barley. Shrek is a modern, 21st century remake of the Ancient English story of Gawain and the Green Knight. The film directed by Andrew Adamson greatly accommodates for the many notions of belonging.. The opening of the film introduces non-diegetic music as the song ‘All star’ is played while Shrek is seen to be performing his Ogre duties in his swamp such as taking a shower with a bucket of mud. This depicts Shrek’s comfort and content of being at his own home. It is also during this time that the army of Duloc is seen to be in preparation to attack Shrek through cut scenes. These scenes are made in this way to contrast a difference in the lifestyle of Shrek as an ogre and that of the Duloc people. For example Shrek lights his chimney by burping onto a match while the army is seen to be coming together and lighting their torches from one another. This is a metaphor for Shrek’s loneliness as he depends on himself for his necessities. The use of humour is this film is used to appeal to a wide audience and portray messages through a comical style. Shrek is projected as a green, spiteful Ogre who ‘like his privacy’ at his swamp. Shrek is deliberately animated as a green character to distinguish his characteristics as opposed to the humans who seem quite ordinary through their conventional garments and human-like characteristics such as facial hair. Shrek in this case can be comparable to the character of Pip as he has ‘coarse hands and uncommon boats’ because of the forge and role as an Apprentice Blacksmith just as Shrek is an Ogre who lives in swamp as opposed to the humans who in this case symbolise Estella as she looked on Pip just as the people of Duloc look down on Shrek. Hence Shrek’s swamp is a metaphor for Pip’s home on marshes as it will always be the only place that he will only ever belong. A princess is usually depicted as a woman of high status who ends up marrying a noble prince. It is thus quite ironic that when Shrek meets Fiona she is not afraid or bewildered of Shrek but rather accepting and asks him to ‘kiss her. Because she initially is accustomed to an Ogre like Shrek, this foreshadows that she might have a connection to an Ogre as the film develops. This is later supported as when Fiona is in a cave after Shrek rescues her , Shrek says to Donkey, ‘ you know Donkey , sometimes things look more than they appear’. It is ironic because Fiona is in the cave listening whilst in her Ogre form. This whole scene is witnessed beneath a full moon- a metaphor for a new beginning between the three characters, Shrek, Fiona and Donkey. Princess Fiona’s hidden Ogre transformation can be compared to Estella’s connection to her father Magwitch. Pip believes that Estella is a beautiful girl of high societal class however Pip is unaware until the end of the novel that she is rather as ‘uncommon’ as he as her father is a convict and her mother Molly is the servant of his guardian Mr Jaggers. Shrek, in the same way as Pip, is also unaware that he and Fiona have something in common until her wedding way with Lord Farquaad. When she transforms infront of the wedding guests, she is unaccepted and thus pleonastic music is played to set the mood. The song Hallelujah makes us feel sorry for Princess Fiona. Separation is a oil painting of Edvard Munch on canvas created around 1896. The painting displays a man grasping his red heart and a woman in a white-yellow carelessly walking away. The woman is seen to be the cause of the pain that the man endures. The painting eloquently demonstrates a contrast of light and dark colours. The man’s figure is presented in a black figure to articulate the agony and anguish left onto the man after being left all alone. This man can be measured to Pip as he is looked down upon by Estella who can be depicted as the careless woman. The woman is portrayed through lighter colours as she is seen as beautiful and innocent. The man, like Pip, has had his heart broken and played with as comparable to Pip as Estella was instructed to also break his heart by Miss Havisham. The proud woman is walking away with pride but her character still has an impact on the man as her hair, as the vector line, flows towards the despaired man. The man is giving an offer gaze through an eye-level angle shot to allow the reader to sense the misery of the man and be able to relate it.