Tag Archives: Great Expectations

Shots That Signal a Promising Future

By Robin Bates | Published: April 7, 2021

I’ve just had my second Covid shot, which has me thinking of Alexander Hamilton’s shot in Miranda’s musical. Pip’s cautious optimism about the future also comes to mind.

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Lindsey Graham as a Dickens Toady

By Robin Bates | Published: January 11, 2019

Friday High school teacher Carl Rosin, whose Great Expectations class interviewed me by telephone yesterday, suggested that Donald Trump’s national shutdown is giving us our own versions of Dickens’s “toadies and humbugs.” For a while I’ve seen Vice President Michael Pence as candidate #1, but I must say that South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is […]

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No Miss Havisham for Hillary

By Robin Bates | Published: September 18, 2017

In her account of the 2016 election aftermath, Hillary Clinton resolved not to become a Miss Havisham. This is testimony to her depth of soul.

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Trump as Miss Havisham

By Robin Bates | Published: August 2, 2017

Frank Bruni compares Donald Trump to Miss Havisham, forever fixated on November 8 before the rose lost its bloom. The GOP would do well to break free as Pip does.

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Lit Is Aristotelian Road to Happiness

By Robin Bates | Published: December 8, 2015

Psychologists say that a strong sense of narrative identity can lead to the profound sense of happiness described by Aristotle. Literature helps us make sure we have available to us the best narratives.

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Social Media Invades the Classics

By Robin Bates | Published: November 14, 2014

Imagining literary characters using social media opens up new insights into a work.

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10 Famous Fetish Objects in Lit

By Robin Bates | Published: November 6, 2014

Literature is filled with fetish objects that take on outsized significance to various characters.

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Who Is Your Favorite Dickens Character?

By Robin Bates | Published: April 18, 2012

Characters from Dickens novels reside so deeply within us as to become virtual lifelong friends.

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