Alternate Ending
Dickens actually wrote another, less romantic ending to the
book. In this version, Pip
hears that, after Drummle’s death, Estella
married a country doctor in
Shropshire. Walking through London one day with
Joe and Biddy’s son, Pip runs
into Estella and they have a very brief
meeting and shake hands. Though they do
not discuss the past, Pip says he
could see that “suffering had been stronger
than Miss Havisham’s teaching
and had given her a heart to understand what my
heart used to be.”Dickens changed this ending when a friend suggested he should, the novelist Edward
Bulwer Lytton.
book. In this version, Pip
hears that, after Drummle’s death, Estella
married a country doctor in
Shropshire. Walking through London one day with
Joe and Biddy’s son, Pip runs
into Estella and they have a very brief
meeting and shake hands. Though they do
not discuss the past, Pip says he
could see that “suffering had been stronger
than Miss Havisham’s teaching
and had given her a heart to understand what my
heart used to be.”Dickens changed this ending when a friend suggested he should, the novelist Edward
Bulwer Lytton.