In April 2024 the class IV-1 performed a school play inspired by the book “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens. The goal of the play was to portray the main themes and motifs of the book through short dialogues and scenes from the novel. The students did a magnificent job by acting and portraying the smallest details so the play was a great success. The organizer and leader of the project was the English Professor, Mrs. Sanja Salihović who made the idea come to fruition with nothing but vivid imagination, discipline and accuracy.
The book “Great Expectations” consists of various life questions including love, hatred, spite, expectations, money, trust and much more. The story follows a young orphan Pip who in the beginning of the novel encounters a convict Magwitch who scares him into stealing food for him, which gets him into trouble. Later, as Pip falls in love with a young girl named Estella, he finds out that he received a huge amount of money from a secret benefactor. This takes him to London where he works on his education and manners, to fit in the circle of wealthy people, so that he could feel like a gentleman, and therefore, win Estella’s love. However, it is not as simple as it seems. Pip experiences many changes in his life. However, what he truly wants and needs is love. He finds out that the reason Estella is always turning him down is Miss Havisham’s spiteful advice that she should break his heart in order not to get hers broken. It is because Miss Havisham was disappointed in love in her past, so she decided to make sure every man’s heart gets broken so she could get her revenge, even if it meant hurting innocent people. In the end, Pip finds out that Magwitch was his secret benefactor because Pip helped him when he was in need of it. He then sorts out his problems with Estella and they end up together.
This novel taught us a lot about the ways love can change a person’s behavior, way of thinking and life overall alongside with dealing with rejection and feeling of inferiority. No matter how much money we have, we will never find true happiness if we do not already have it within ourselves. Additionally, showing mercy to those in need, or giving out favors to people, if we are capable, it is always the right thing to do because we never know when those people could help us back when we are the ones in distress. Do good things and expect good to come back to you. Furthermore, we have learned that being spiteful and vindictive does not serve us in any way. It can only make us more sad and angry instead of healing us. The moral of the story is that good, indeed, does win in the end.
