Charles Dickens includes several important themes in his Victorian novel Great Expectations. However, one of the more dominate themes that permeates the entire novel concerns the emotional growth many of the characters experience. Although the story focus' on Pip, and his desire to break free from his predetermined social position, and become something greater. However, during his journey, and perhaps because of his journey Pip, as well as several other characters experience emotional growth.
As the novel opens it seems Pip is in little need of any emotional growth. He is a innocent, generous, yet timid young boy despite the mistreatment he endures from his sister. However, as the story progresses he loses that innocense when he encounters Miss Havishan, a woman who dwells on the fact that she has been jilted and vows to take revenge on the entire male sex. At Mrs. Havisham's house Pip learns to be ashamed of being comon. Estella, a beautiful young girl who he immediately falls in love with reinforces Pip's shame by making fun of him and treating him like he is, indeed, not good enough. Fate intervenes and Pip does become a gentleman, and allows his new fortune to corrupt his innocense even more. He becomes an arrogant and ungrateful individual who thinks only of his possible future with Estella. After a series of tragic events including the revelation of his true benefactor, a convict he once helped in the marshes as a boy, Pip begins to see reality. He realizes that Miss Havisham does not intend to marry him to Estella, and that he has been used and decieved for quite some time. Worst of all he realizes how he has mistreated those who truly loved him - Biddy and Joe. This is where his emotional growth takes place. His suffering has led to a new beginning for him. He no longer allows his pride and arrogants to cloud his vision. He ends up helping a long time friend, Herbert with his money, and apologizes to Joe and even considers marrying Biddy and living at the forge until he finds out that Biddy and Joe are married. In other words, Pip learns that his sudden rise to fortune did not make him better than anyone, in fact, it changed him for the worse.
The cold hearted Estella also undergoes a dramtic change in the novel. Throughout the course of the novel she is portrayed as the beautiful, yet unfeeling, subject of Pip's devotion. She is trained by Mrs. Havisham to break the hearts of men, and becomes quite successful at it. She begins with Pip when they are children by insulting his common demeaner. As she matures, Mrs. Havisham encourages her to meet other men and lead them on to get them to fall for her just so she can crush them in the end. Estella entrapped many men, but she did try to warn Pip on several occations not to love her. She told him that she is incapable of love and that she has no heart, but Pip does not listen and continues to pursue her. The crushing blow occurs when Mrs. Havisham arranges for Estella to marry Bently Drummle, a brutish and sluggish character that Pip despises. During the marraige Estella is mistreated and beaten by her husband and far from any sort of happiness. However, by the end of the novel her husband passes away and she encounters Pip by chance at the site of Satis House. Here, she explains to Pip that her suffering was stronger than all other teachings and it taught her what Pip's heart used to be, perhaps indicating that after suffering she is no longer the cold-hearted Estella of the past.
Oddly enough one of the major antagonists of the story also grows by the end of the story. Miss Havisham was a victim of a scam concocted by the true villain of the story, Compeyson. He pretended to fall in love with her only to acquire money, and jilted her. As a result, Mrs. Havisham is unable to move on with her life - symbolized by all of the clocks stopped at the precise time she found out he was not coming. Mrs. Havisham also wore her tattered old wedding dress, and allowed the wedding decorations to remain, even the cake which was infested with various creepy crawlers. Instead of dealing with her grief, Mrs. Havisham focus' her energy on attempting to make all men as miserable as she is. She adopts a little girl and trains this young lady to break the hearts of men. She is quite successful, and the result is the cold hearted Estella. As the novel progresses she decieves Pip into thinking that she is his benefactor and that she intends for him to marry Estella. Because Pip believes her, his life falls to shambles. It is only when Pip confronts Mrs. Havisham and tells her how she has destroyed his life that she feels remorse. In a dramtic scene Mrs. Havisham begs for forgiveness, and ends up catching herself on fire - where Pip eventually rescues her. She manages to survive and live the rest of her life with the remorse she feels. She finally realizes that she has not only wasted her own life, but she has ruined the lives of Estella and Pip.
The growth that each of these characters experience has one common thread; each character has learned and changed as a result of some type of suffering. Great Expectations is a novel of growth, but that growth did not come easy to any of these characters. Pip loses his innocense and eventually the hope of getting what he wanted most - Estella. Estella has lost the ability to love, and Mrs. Havisham wastes the remainder of her life on a maniacal quest for revenge and is left with nothing more than regret.