Читать книгу Great Expectations - Charles Dickens - Страница 1

It is a great human weakness to wish to be the same as our friends. If they are rich, we wish to be rich. If they are poor, then we don’t mind being equally poor. We are not ashamed of being stupid, we are only ashamed of being more stupid than our friends. It is a matter of comparison.

It is also a matter of expectation. We don’t miss things that we never expected to have. We are not disappointed at being poor if we never expected to be rich.

Pip is poor and uneducated, but so are his friends. For them, this is normal; this is what life is like. But when Pip is told that he has ‘great expectations’, he becomes dissatisfied. He is ashamed of his friends, and he is ashamed of himself. His expectations are in danger of ruining his life.