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Page 23
In the earlier novel based loosely on his own life, Dickens has David Copperfield marry Dora, has him suffer the consequences of yielding to the first mistaken impulse of an undisciplined heart. When Dora dies, David is able to discover his true wife, Agnes, who had seemed almost supernaturally removed from him. Here, Pip falls hopelessly in love with Estella, who is as icily indifferent to him as are the stars, because, as she says, she has no heart. Dickens originally intended for Pip and Estella to remain apart in the end, but Bulwer Lytton persuaded him to change the ending. Dickens has Estella discover, through suffering inflicted in a brutal marriage, her own heart and the value of Pip's love. At this time in his career Dickens seems clear about the values that must be embraced if society is to succeed, the values of selflessness, compassion, and sympathetic love. He does not seem as sure that those qualities can sustain personal happiness, at least not for him at this point.
In Our Mutual Friend, published in twenty installments from May, 1864, to November, 1865, Dickens makes still another advance in his artistic vision. Dominated by the dust heaps and the spiritual wasteland they symbolize, the vision of this novel suggests that we must die to ourselves if we are to be redeemed, and society must forego material pursuits if it is to become spiritually and culturally whole. The recurrent theme of death and resurrection indicates Dickens's developing understanding of the meaning of personal fulfillment that he explores in earlier novels, particularly in David Copperfield and Great Expectations.
