Comment on the ending of “Great Expectations”

“Great Expectations’ while written first time had an unhappy ending. Estella
remarried after the death of Bently Drummle, her husband and Pip never got her
in his life. They came across in the street of London. Estella was no more
attractive. She was remarried to a poor doctor. Therefore Pip remained solitary in
his life.
Wilkie Collins suggested Dickens to change the ending of his novel Great
Expectations so that it ended with a happy note. In the second ending Pip met
Estella at the garden of Satis House. That time she was a widow. He made an
ambiguous comment that he saw “the shadow of no parting from her”. After
decades of longing for her it seems possible that Pip would get Estella for the rest
of his life. Thus the readers can have a satisfaction in this conventional ending.
Two endings of the same novel caused much controversy among the scholars.
Dickens’ biographer John Forster felt that original ending was more consistent
with the draft as well as the natural working of the tale. Eminent writers like G.B.
Shaw, George Orwell, Edmund Wilson agreed with Froster’s view on the original
ending while the Modern criticism supports the second ending.
According to the supporters of Original ending the second ending is morally cheap
and its purpose was to please the audience that expects conventional happy
ending. Estella’s conversion in the second ending was not only unconvincing but
contradicted the logic of the narrative. She was raised by Miss Havisham as a
perpetrator but her transformation negated the fact. In the Original ending Estela
though softened by her suffering remained the lady with those characteristics
infused by Miss Havisham in her.
The second ending can be supported on the ground that characters underwent
change as in reality man changes with time and experience. If Pip gets a change in
his character then Estella’s transformation is no wrong. Pip and Estella learnt from
the experiences of life and got united. Thus the novel finished the journey of the
characters with an acceptable mood.