Great Expectations Theme of Time
If we could turn back time … we'd tell Pip to refuse to enter Miss Havisham's garden. But we can't. So, instead, we'll just point out thatGreat Expectations is, more than anything, a novel about the passage of time. (Is it a coincidence that Dickens wrote it squarely in the middle of his middle age, at age 48?) Miss Havisham may stop the clocks, but she can't stop time: Pip may not be stuck in a tattered wedding dress, but he—like all of us—is still worn down by the passage of years.