An additional feature of Great Expectations is its autobiographical nature. H.M. Daleski, in his book on Dickens, notes that Great Expectations is “one of Dickens’ most personal novels . . . it bears the marks of his own cravings to an unusual degree.” Before writing the novel Dickens reread his autobiographical story, David Copperfield. While one object of this rereading was to avoid duplication in his new novel, Dickens was also reviewing his life at age forty-eight. In David Copperfield, Dickens focused on his own self-pity for his humble beginnings and his pride in rising above the shoe-polish factory to fame and wealth. Great Expectations, however, has a more mature analysis of life. Pip and Dickens undergo a humbling self-analysis that results in the wisdom that fortune does not equal personal happiness.
There are some differences between Dickens and Pip, though. While Pip never earns his fortune, Dickens did. Dickens worked intensely throughout his life while Pip rather has an aversion to working too hard. Also, Dickens loved his work, working passionately in his writing and theatrical pursuits. Pip seems fairly unemotional when describing his work with Herbert’s firm — to him, it is a means to survive — and he lacks passion for anything in the novel except Estella, and even with her, his emotions are repressed, rather the antithesis of Dickens’ and his fire for life.
