Lamps, candles, torches and stars

The lighting of the scenes in Great Expectations is a very important part of the novel's total effect:

• many of the most important scenes take place in the dark or half-light
• conversely, very few scenes occur in full daylight, much less sunshine
• in this sense, it is literally a ‘dark' novel. (See Darkness; Light)

There is an emphasis on artificial lighting, which is used both literally and metaphorically. Here are some examples from the early chapters of the book:

• as the recaptured Magwitch is taken back to the Hulk, the soldiers extinguish their torches: ‘the ends of the torches were flung hissing into the water, and went out, as if it were all over with him' (Ch. 6; Vol. 1, Ch. 6)
  • this image suggests the way in which transported prisoners were literally extinguished, or banished from England for ever
  • it also indicates a narrative irony, in that it seems to dismiss Magwitch from the book – though in retrospect the qualifying phrase ‘as if' is a hint that he will return

• when Pip first visits Satis House, he finds himself ‘in a pretty large room, well lighted with wax candles. No glimpse of daylight was to be seen in it' and Miss Havisham asks him, ‘‘ You are not afraid of a woman who has never seen the sun since before you were born?'' (Ch. 8; Vol. 1, Ch. 8):
  • the exclusion of natural light dramatises Miss Havisham's strange half-life, cut off from the real world
  • the symbolism then becomes an indicator of the character's state of mind – she has created an external context that reflects her internal experience

• when Pip is ordered to stand ‘in the dark in a mysterious passage' and call for Estella, she appears with a candle which comes ‘along the long dark passage like a star': as he leaves Satis House he sees her in the ruins of the brewery where she ‘[goes] out by a gallery high overhead, as if she were going out into the sky' (Ch. 8; Vol. 1, Ch. 8):
  • this kind of detail emphasises the significance of Estella's name, which means ‘star'
  • it adds to the unsettling quality of Pip's first visit to Satis House
  • most important of all, it signals the role that Estella will play in Pip's life: he will follow her, as if she were a guiding star
  • but the fact that she is associated with a star, a body that belongs in the sky, suggests that in social terms she far above him
  • she is in fact a false star, not leading him to the destination he desperately desires – that of marrying her.

Light can also suggest illumination in the sense of knowledge or understanding, as in the phrase ‘seeing the light':

• in relation to Estella, Pip only ‘sees the light' very slowly, in two senses:
  • first, that she wasnot intendedby Miss Havershamto be his wife
  • second, that she bears a resemblance to Jaggers' housekeeper, something that he notices in a brief moment of illumination:

• Magwitch's reappearance in the novel occurs on an especially dark night, and as Pip holds out his lamp to light his visitor up the stairs we share his point of view:

• as the scene develops it becomes clear that that this is the novel's climactic moment, when Pip learns the truth about his expectations
• the restricted circle of light indicates Pip's partial understanding of what is happening: note the words ‘incomprehensible' and ‘stupid'
• the lamplight finally includes Pip both and Magwitch, pointing to the way in which they will be linked for the remainder of the novel.

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