Imprisonment and imprisonment are both actions that, when undertaken literally, allow a person to repent of what they have done wrong. Great Expectations is a novel in which Charles Dickens uses the theme of captivity and imprisonment to help the reader enhance the exploration of his characters. Such exploration allows the reader to understand how and why the characters are imprisoned and provides insight into their personalities. Some characters are literally imprisoned and given the chance to think about the horrible things they did to put them in prison. Others who are figuratively imprisoned do not necessarily understand that they too are committing miserable acts, affecting themselves and others, until it is too late. Throughout his novel, Dickens uses the theme of captivity and captivity, both literally and figuratively, and in doing so makes figurative captivity and captivity have a greater impact on the characters' lives. When he first meets Miss Havisham, the reader learns that she is not only cruel, but is also driven to seek revenge on men. As the novel progresses, the reader learns that his revenge is due to his imprisonment in his past. Miss Havisham always wears a dirty, old, ragged wedding dress and sits in a room where the table is festively set with a dirty, old, ragged tablecloth. Additionally, all the clocks are stopped to commemorate the moment when, on her wedding day, she received a letter from her fiancé “which he received… while he was getting dressed for the wedding? At twenty minutes to nine... whereupon he subsequently stopped all the clocks... [and] this mercilessly broke up the marriage" (182). After Miss Havisham is abandoned by her fiancé, she imprisons herself in his house, without. ..... middle of paper......marriage, and his illness that Pip is "freed" from his imprisonment and realizes how important Joe is to him Through the examples portrayed in Dickens' Great Expectations causes his figurative imprisonment to have a greater effect on the characters' lives than literal imprisonment. Those imprisoned figuratively are imprisoned by concepts and/or memories, the impact of which is less obvious than the physical bars of a prison cell. Because imprisonment is more subtle, it may take longer for a person to become aware of the impact that the resulting behavior may have on others. Once they are aware of the impact of their actions, they are released from imprisonment. allowing your true personality to emerge. Sometimes people are not what they seem, until they are freed from the chains that imprison them, allowing others to see who they truly are..