Interestingly, the opening scene of Great Expectations is similar to that of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter: the motif of a prison looms over the greyness of the garb of the personages who appear in both these opening scenes. Thus, what is relative to these separate narratives is the concept of both the Victorian and the Puritan societies as being restrictive, even punitive.
Both Dickens and Hawthorne perceived the societies about which they write as repressive. In the religiously restrictive Puritan society of Hawthorne's novel, one can not sin. If one does sin, one is severely punished as is Hester Prynne, and is ostracized as was Arthur Dimmesdale. If one conceals sin, one suffers from severe guilt behind one's veil of hypocrisy. In Great Expectations the motif of a restrictive society wherein one is condemned to the class in which he/she is born is pivotal to the plot. For instance, Magwitch was punished more severely than Compeyson because he came from an impoverished state whereas Compeyson was born in the upper class. Mr. Jaggers rescues Estella from the life of the streets to which she would be destined since there is no upward mobility socially in Victorian society.
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