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Great Expectations Thoughts
I'm reading Great Expectations for the first time, and at some point I found myself wondering, why does this story work so well? How did Charles Dickens come up with these outlandish and crazy people, put them in these weird and improbable situations, and get away with it?
What I mean is, it would be so easy to screw up a story like this. A withered old woman spends years living in a sunless, dust-choked room, never changes out of her decaying wedding dress, and for reasons unknown suddenly invites a random boy over to play in her moldering house? I can't help thinking if most people tried writing a story like this, it would come off as unrealistic or trying too hard. But somehow Dickens makes things like this work, and I haven't figured out how he pulls it off.
What I mean is, it would be so easy to screw up a story like this. A withered old woman spends years living in a sunless, dust-choked room, never changes out of her decaying wedding dress, and for reasons unknown suddenly invites a random boy over to play in her moldering house? I can't help thinking if most people tried writing a story like this, it would come off as unrealistic or trying too hard. But somehow Dickens makes things like this work, and I haven't figured out how he pulls it off.