In the novel great expectations by Charles Dickens the seeking of revenge is considered a worthless pursuit. It is shown that revenge not only harms the life of the individual seeking it but also the lives of those who have not harmed the revenge seeker in any way. The main character of the story pip, a naive boy who wishes to become a gentleman suffers the most pain of all due to the quest of others for revenge. In the novel the characters wanting vengeance not only do not recieve it but their lives are adversely affected and take a turn for the worse in most cases resulting in the characters death. The characters who seek revenge are Miss Havisham an eccentric old woman , Dolge Orlick a jealous adversary of pip, and Magwitch a reformed criminal that still ends up paying the price for his pursuit of vengeance.
             The character who seeks vengeance the most intensely is Miss Havisham. She is a wealthy old woman who lives in a rotting mansion and wears an old rotting wedding dress. Her life centers around one event , the jilting of her on her wedding day by compeyson a gentlemenly criminal and the adversary of another major character, magwitch. She adopts and raises a orphaned child named estella to use as a weapon to do one thing break men's hearts so more can feel like she does and her first target is pip a very young child at the time of their introduction. Miss Havisham's quest for revenge does only one thing causes pain to a great deal of people including herself. She causes other peoples hearts to be broken in the same manner as hers. Miss Havisham is redeemed when she begs pip for his forgiveness which he accepts, "Take the pencil and write under my name I for give her (p.405)."
             Someone who tries to take the life of another to achieve his revenge is a day laborer named Dolge Orlick. He is a day laborer in the iron forge that is owned by the brother in law of pip. He is an evil ignorant man who take...