Great Expectation as a Fairy tale

Great Expectation can also be seemed as a fantasy. It is a fantasy which the children as well as the adults love alike. In spite of its theme of disillusion Great Expectation is not in its pervading atmosphere a melancholy book. But it contains many scenes of high spirited enjoyment and of comic gusto.

The fantasy begins with Pip, the main character, who is a little boy. He is an orphan brought up by his harsh sister and kind husband of her, the Joe family. In the routine life, Pip will be apprenticed to his brother-in. law, Joe, he will learn blacksmithing and he will pass his life somehow. This is what expected at the beginning of the novel. But there is a sudden change in Pip's life due to entry of fantastic elements. 

First fantasy is observed with the entry of Magwitch, the criminal. He is a convict escaped from the prison who happens to meet Pip at the graveyard and threatens Pip. He demands that Pip steal food for him from Mrs. Joe's larder and a file fro his leg irons from Joe's forge. Pip does both in the terror. This encounter with the convict leaves a slimy trail across Pip's life until he meets Magwitch next time.

The other benefactor and fantastic figure in Pip's life is Miss Havisham. She is a rich lady who has experienced the failure of love in her life and therefore, she is always in a search of opportunity to take revenge against all males by pseudo love. She lives in Satis House means enough house and she is a lonely lady enjoying in this house by inviting person like Pip to play. 

Estella is another figure of the fairy world. She is being brought up by Miss Havisham to break the heart of young men. Pip is totally blind after Estella's beauty. It is the beauty of Estella that brings a lot of jerks in the life of Pip. Pip dreams of a new world with Estella that is collapsed at one place and once again it is reconstructed at the end of the novel.

 Another fantastic turn in Pip's life is the of call from the lawyer, Mr. Jagger who informs that an anonymous benefactor has decided to lavish luxury and education on the boy, to turn him into gentlemen, Thus, Pip is shifted from Mr. Joe to the Inn where he happens to meet different people and he becomes spendthrift also. After leaving the Joe, Pip faces many colours of life. When he comes to know the real identity of his benefactor Magwitch, he decides to protect him also. Pip is torn between two conflicts; first his moral obligation towards Magwitch and other love- bond for Estella. 

Thus, it is observed that the story is a fairy tale with a terrible ogre Magwitch, a widely eccentric fairy godmother Miss Havisham , an exquisite princess Estella. But apart from the fantasy, it is set in a moral universe. Through fantasy, it gives a message of good and evil. It also throws light on the rise and fall of the great expectations of a child named Pip. The end of the novel has a fable like quality of the tale. It is psychological, suitable to the theme and like the end of a fairy tale. The end of the novel as said by Pip,

“I rose ,and  took her hand in mine.

  The mist had gone, 

 and I saw in the peaceful light of the moon, 

 no shadow of another parting from her.”

      (chapter-32 ; page-133)