One of the main themes of Pride and Prejudice is stated in the first sentence of the novel: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife" (Austen 5). In this statement, Austen has cleverly done three things: she has declared that the main subject of the novel will be courtship and marriage, she h

Pip never seems to enjoy home much and his life at home has never been pleasant for Pip, even though Joe has done his best to make it so, but now it seems "all coarse and common" thanks to Miss Havisham and Estella. Pip would like to run away, but he doesn't because Joe has always been good to him. At this time, Pip's greatest fear is that Estella may see him work and jeer at him. Joe's standards of living and his occupation were measurements of his manhood for Pip. Now those standards have been scoffed at, ridiculed and rejected by a girl whom Pip admires. Estella is a cold siren, luring him, with the help of Miss Havisham, to another world.

In Great Expectations the theme of courtship seems to be expressed in a much different manner. A young boy, Pip, who tells the story in his words, introduces the novel to us, and his perceptions utterly define the events and characters of the book. As the novel progresses Pip is hired by the mysterious Miss Havisham, a wealth, elderly recluse, as a playmate for her beautiful, haughty, adopted daughter, Estella, whom he immediately falls in love. Miss Havisham had her heart broken at the altar and has vowed to turn Estella into a cold-hearted benefactress to seek revenge on all men.

Biddy and Joe are seen as being archetypes of Christian passivity; they endure everything cheerily, and it is in fact, Pip's unwillingness to devote his life to such mere endurance, which makes him great, and dangerous. For Pip, he was unable to find happiness like Biddy and Joe-and what was his greatest crime? Michael Cotsell points out that Pip's greatest crime was, "simply the fact that Pip loved too grandly, despite failure of the women to deserve it; to aspire, despite society's failure to provide anything worth aspiring to; and to dream, despite the fact that in our society dreams equate to monetary value"(Costell 178).

Pip's new life as an apprentice is disturbed only by his annual visits to Miss Havisham. Soon thereafter, Pip becomes aware of Biddy. Her appearance has changed and now she is cleaner and fresher-not beautiful like Estella, but wholesome and sweet-tempered. On a long Sunday walk to the marshes, Pip confides to Biddy "I want to be a gentleman" (Dickens 131). Pip reveals that he has "particular reasons" for wanting to be a gentleman, namely Estella. Biddy gives him the sensible advice that it's not worth changing his ways to spite Estella, and that if he has to change himself to win her, then she is not worth winning. Pip realizes that Biddy is a good woman, and that at any given moment Estella is fully capable of making Pip miserable. In fact, Pip tells Biddy, "If I could only get myself to fall in love with you" (Dickens 134). "But you never will, you see" replies Biddy (Dickens 134). Pip knows that however much Pip should love Biddy he doesn't, and for good reason: she, like the forge world, is good, but only good. She can't dream. Michael Cotsell points out that "the forge provides Pip with simple faith and clear home wisdom, but he needs more in life, and we applaud his reaching out, however inadequately the world rewards the reaching out, however insistently the older Pip characterizes the reaching out as vanity" (Cotsell 177).

However, it is Jane and Bingley that illustrate how mistaken they are. Although Bingley, "who inherited property to the amount of nearly an hundred thousand pounds from his father" (Austen 16) is much wealthier than Jane is, he on the other hand, does not regard himself as her social superior. The marriage between Jane Bennet and Bingley is also an example of successful marriage. Jane Austen, through Elizabeth, expresses her opinion of this in the novel:".... really believed all his [Bingley] expectations of felicity, to be rationally founded, because they had for basis the excellent understanding, and super-excellent disposition of Jane, and a general similarity of feeling and taste between her and himself." (Austen 282). Howe

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 3290
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page double spaced)