Darwinism in Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Essay -- Social Darw

Few slew argue that Great Expectations, one of daimons later novels, is a Darwinian work. Goldie Morgentaler, in her essay Meditating on the Low A Darwinian Reading of Great Expectations, is one of those few. She argues primarily that Darwins Origin of the Species was a major topic of discussion in Dickenss raft at the time he wrote Great Expectations, and that Great Expectations marks the premier(prenominal) time that Dickens jettisons heredity as a determining reckon in the formation of the self (Morgentaler, 708). This fascinating insight draws one to interpret more of Morgentalers essay. It does not, however, compel the reader to admit that Dickens became Darwinian. Morgentalers main argument, though useful, could point just as well, if not better, to Dickenss growing maturity as a Christian.Dickens gives in truth superficial emphasis to effects of heredity in Great Expectations. trine major characters, murder, Estella, and Magwitch, grow up without any contact wit h their biological parents. Pips parents, in fact, never make an appearance, except as a tombstone in the first several paragraphs of the book, and the reader knows as little about them as Pip does. It is impossible to tell what traits Pip superpower have inherited from them, and such facts seem irrelevant to the plot. Estella, of course, is raised by a vengeful Miss Havisham. In fact, her true mother, when she is discovered, turns out to be sure-footed of violent passion and murder quite the opposite of Estellas calm, almost heartless personality. And Magwitch, constantly in and out of jail, was took up, took up, took up to that limit that he reglarly growd up took up (Dickens 321). These three characters environments and upbringings, not their maternal heri... ...roughout her essay, but she stretches them to make them fit a Darwinian reading, and she ignores Christian phraseology that attributes the course of Great Expectations and the growth of characters to the in fluence of the Judeo-Christian God. Rather, in coordinate opposition to Darwin, Dickens denies that inherited genetic traits control a person. If all(a) people are equally low, they are also equally capable of a Christian love, goodness, and grace. And if Dickens emphasizes this theme more distinctly in Great Expectations than in previous works, the effect is only to create a novel that is more, not less, profoundly Christian.Works CitedDickens, Charles. Great Expectations. New York little Books, 1981.Morgentaler, Goldie. Meditating on the Low A Darwinian Reading of Great Expectations. Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 38.4 (Autumn 1998) 707-721.