Conflict and Dialectic in the Interpretation of Great Expectations

Abstract

Great Expectations is a novel that, one feels sure, critics will always be interested in interpreting. The critic’s problem, however, is that there are already in existence more interpretations of it than one can easily read. A new interpreter is likely to feel uneasy at adding to this accumulation of interpretations when he has probably read only a fraction of what has been published on the novel. But, even if a critic makes a great effort and reads through all existing interpretations before working on a new interpretation, he will not be able to retain in his mind and take account of more than a small part of what he has read. And, if the critic decides merely to ignore previous intepretations and concern himself only with his own reading, he is inviting future interpreters to ignore his interpretation also. Critical interpretation is then reduced to a very atomistic or solipsistic activity. The critic, therefore, needs to find a way of engaging with previous interpretations without being swamped by their sheer number.