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

Few people argue that Great Expectations, one of Dickens’s later novels, is a Darwinian work. Goldie Morgentaler, in her essay â€Å"Meditating on the Low: A Darwinian Reading of Great Expectations,† is one of those few. She argues primarily that Darwin’s Origin of the Species was a major topic of discussion in Dickens’s circle at the time he wrote Great Expectations, and that Great Expectations â€Å"marks the first time that Dickens jettisons heredity as a determining factor in the formation of the self† (Morgentaler, 708). This fascinating insight draws one to read more of Morgentaler’s essay. It does not, however, compel the reader to admit that Dickens became Darwinian. Morgentaler’s main argument, though useful, could point just as well, if not better, to Dickens’s growing maturity as a Christian. Dickens gives very little emphasis to effects of heredity in Great Expectations. Three major characters, Pip, Estella, and Magwitch, grow up without any contact with their biological parents. Pip’s 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 might 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 capable of violent passion and murder – quite the opposite of Estella’s calm, almost heartless personality. And Magwitch, constantly in and out of jail, â€Å"was took up, took up, took up to that extent that [he] reg’larly grow’d up took up† (Dickens 321). These three characters’ environments and upbringings, not their parental her i... ...roughout her essay, but she stretches them to make them fit a Darwinian reading, and she ignores Christian wording that attributes the course of Great Expectations and the growth of characters to the influence of the Judeo-Christian God. Rather, in direct opposition to Darwin, Dickens denies that inherited genetic traits control a person. If all 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 Cited Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. New York: Bantam Books, 1981. Morgentaler, Goldie. â€Å"Meditating on the Low: A Darwinian Reading of Great Expectations.† Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 38.4 (Autumn 1998): 707-721.