The ending I prefer between the ending in the movie of “Great Expectations” verses the book would have to be Dickens ending. I prefer Dickens ending better than the movie’s because in the movie I felt at the end, although Estella quoted a line out the book I felt her response of her telling Pip she was glad after he told her he still loved her and always has, left the ending off on a cliffhanger note and me wanting more as a viewer. Dicken’s alternate ending painted a happier picture of Estella and Pip as he intended, showing how Pip eventually had a son and grew into a better man who was honorable but still was the same old Pip. Whereas, Estella seemed to have turned her unhappy marriage into a life lesson that has made her see the error of her ways that she learned from Mrs. Havisham and again through her husbands, changing her for the better. Estella no longer sees Pip as just some man that she cannot love but a man who’s always been by her side regardless of her warning for him to stay away from her or he would get hurt but a man that she could potentially love. I am happy the way Estella and Pip end up in Dickens alternate ending as I think where they both end up is where they respectively should be in their different journeys in their life. I did want Estella and Pip to have a romance even though Estella hasn’t been the best character and person to him but I think deep down within her she does have feelings for him.

I don’t really have “favorite” monster movie but if I had to choose one I would say the character, Beast from the fairytale, Beauty and the Beast. What makes Beast my favorite monster is how in the beginning he is just like every other monster, very rude, and inhumane like but once he meets Belle, his views begin to change. I like that he acts as if he does not care about Belle or what happens to her yet he still wants to take care of her or he found himself, in awe of how confident she is and how she is unafraid of him even though, the public fears him. The monster, Beast is definitely not as scary as other “monsters” out there but I think he is one of the many ones who shows the human side of what it means to be a true monster on the inside. This particular monster speaks to me because as a kid I didn’t really understand what it really meant to be a monster, let alone Beast being referred to one but he showed that not all monsters remain the same and can in fact gain back some of their humanity.

When introduced to the characters, Estella and Pip I had mixed emotions about the two characters. My initial thoughts about Pip was I felt bad for him as a child because he was being abused at home by his sister and it seemed like he felt that he was not good enough because he was the son of a blacksmith and not a gentleman but he was very witty and once he got older, he seemed to have more of a backbone and exude confidence but remained humble. As for Estella, I found her to be rude yet have a soft side somewhere inside her but understood because her childhood was stripped about from her by Mrs. Havisham. As for Mrs. Havisham, I believe that she is definately broken inside and feels her last and only resort is to get revenge on men because she was betrayed by the man she loved but two wrongs don’t make a right. My thoughts on Mr. and Mrs. Joe is they seem to really care and love Pip as more of a son and a parent figure to him and are protective of him.

Reading the crime and punishment reading during the Victorian era I was surprised to find out that when they finally established a police force to try to stop the violence, the police began to arrest people for very minor things that were not even criminal, such as little boys being arrested for simply knocking on a door or street musicians being arrested for just playing their instruments. I was also surprised to find out about how women had a hard time gaining custody of their child or children when facing a divorce and they had to prove they had a legitimate reason for wanting to divorce their husband such as adultery even though anything she owned after she married was now her husbands property. There are some correlations between victorian’s crime and punishment and ours because like our prison system it is over populated and we too keep prisoners isolated in the confinement of their cell for long hours of the day until they can be released for food. Similar to the prisoner in Great Expectations who seemed as if he hadn’t had human contact with anyone until he found Pip.

Some elements of Dickens’ childhood that made an appearance in Chapter 1 of Great Expectations is his home life when he was a child such as his family not having a lot of money and being rather poor similar to the character, Pip and his family. Another element is how Dickens’ was forced to be independent at a young age but also showing that just like the character Pip, he was only twelve years old and was scarred psychologically. The character, Pip was inspired by Dickens’ when he was child during a critical time in his life that really changed his state of mind. Pip also embodies the experiences Dickens had and him being an orphan and had to navigate the world and almost grow up in a since in the time when he was just an adolescent. The prisoner was inspired by the people or prisoners Dickens’ may have seen while he was imprisoned with his dad. I think Dickens’ might have witnessed a prisoners escape and maybe he was threatened while at the prison and the escaped prisoner could have been inspired by that event.

The invention of the railway or train during the Victorian era forever changed the way people during that time were able to travel and commute. A horse was no longer the fast route of transportation as with the train changed the lives of Victorians because railways sparked industrial and economic expansion. They could now easily trade goods with the railway because the rates would be low and would be to there destination in no time instead of having to wait months or several days. The railways allowed people to travel at faster speed and get from their home to another city all within the same day without having it be a long journey to get there. Railways made it more accessible for people to have new opportunities and go places they could not before to people of all social classes instead of just the upper class.

The test for me was a bit nerve wracking because the questions were set up as discussion questions where you had to incorporate quotes in order to back up your statements but it was left to interpretation so their was not a necessarily “wrong” answer. However, being that the class is only an hour and fifteen minutes I found it hard for me to process my thoughts because time seemed to be moving faster with each discussion question. I liked that you were able to choose the questions that you wanted instead of the questions being chosen for you but I do think it there was not enough time to put a more in depth response due to the shortness of the class. The test overall for me was scary only because there really was not a set word count so it was hard to tell if my paragraphs were too short or not long enough and I found myself questioning whether or not my responses were good enough. I would not like this for the final I would rather have questions about the stories.

One of my favorite topics we discussed in class so far would have to be the stories. The stories such as the body snatcher were one of my favorite stories because once each story is broken down it is easier to see how elements of Victorian life such as death during that time for instance, relates back to the stories. I also found it interesting how the writers would use their experiences dealing with society such as social class to shed light on some of the injustices of gender rolls and how certain women were treated like the Whores compared to the men. I loved how although the stories were fictional, each story was somehow tied back to real world issues of the time that into the story and how what the Victorians did still lives on today in the 21st century. What made me love the stories such as the Body Snatchers is how the author could take a real life scandal with Burke and Hare and set light on it in a fictional yet close to home basis that still made it interesting as there was clear supernatural references within the story that made it the author’s own. Each story showed a different take on their life or peoples lives in the Victorian era.

Sherlock Holme’s personality in “The Red-Headed League” was a lot more witter and playful than in the other stories I have read. His methods were practical in a way that, although the reader had a inkling of what he might do for instance, with the riding wipe how he used it against John Clay to disarm him to release his gun. I was impressed by Sherlock’s intelligence because he always seemed to be one step ahead of Watson or even Wilson when it came to figuring out why the so called “Red-Headed League” was suddenly disband. He did surprise me by getting physically involved with the bad guys only because it is out of his character and in the stories his character is portrayed as a non-confrontational person. I feel that John Watson got caught up with the wrong people who took advantage of his vulnerability and his narrative was not what I expected I thought it was group of men in a high class army.

Sherlock Holmes is similar to the character Velma in Scooby Doo because they are both curious and observe before they jump to conclusions. Like Velma, Sherlock Holmes like to be presented with as much factual evidence as possible while he tries to decipher the mastermind behind the case and why he or she committed the act. Sherlock Holmes and Velma are also alike because they both engage with who they speak to and ask questions to try to piece together the clues. Sherlock Holmes and Velma are also different because Velma does not really take the initiative by getting physically involved in any altercations unlike Holmes who might every now and again. Both characters are also similar in the retrospect that they are both very intelligent, sometimes for their own good. There are definitely elements of Holmes in modern day detectives such as how the detectives sit down and listen to the victims statement before arresting or trying to catch the criminal.