Commission, helped to partially heal the country’s
deep wounds and allow citizens to move forward
together.
In Charles Dickens’s Great expectations,
Pip regrets much. He regrets that which is beyond
his control: his parents’ death, his difficult upbring-
ing, his meeting Magwitch in the cemetery. This
type of regret does nothing good for him; it makes
him bitter, greedy, and distrustful of others. But
more important, he feels regret for things that were
of his own doing. He regrets abandoning Joe and
Biddy; he regrets the way he acted after receiving
the money from his mysterious benefactor; and most
of all, he regrets the way he treated Magwitch upon
the convict’s return from Australia. Pip learns from
this regret, however; he reforms his ways and ends
the novel treating Magwitch as only a son would.
Even more important, the novel ends with hope, as
Pip has developed a stronger moral compass than
before and will undoubtedly make better decisions
in the future.
In general, Pip’s sense of regret helps him to
grow. For many, however, regret is a destructive,
paralyzing force to be avoided at all costs. Harry
Truman, the 33rd president of the United States,
said, “Never, never waste a minute on regret. It’s a
waste of time” (quoted in Landman 9). Regret can
keep us from looking forward and experiencing life
to the fullest extent. It can also play a destructive
role in decision making. As we are apt to worry
about what effect the decisions we make now will
have on us later, fear of future regret may keep us
from acting as we know we should. Such is the
case for both Clarissa Dalloway and Peter Walsh in
Virginia Woolf’s Mrs daLLoway. As a girl, Clar-
issa loved both Peter and her free, wild friend Sally.
Fear of bucking convention made her seek stability
over lasting attachments with them. She regrets
those decisions now but attempts to live her life as
though she has no regrets. The result is that she is
a person who moves through life without feeling
much of anything. Avoiding the pain of regret is so
paramount that she must block out all other feelings
as well. Peter, on the other hand, feels the pain too
much. After many years, his regrets over his failed
relationship with Clarissa still sting as though it
happened yesterday. This pain prevents Peter from
truly moving on in life; his obsession with what
might have been has paralyzed him.
Despite our admonitions to the contrary, few
of us could truly live a life without regret. Indeed,
since regret can function as a catalyst toward change,
redemption, and reform, it would be unwise for
human beings to avoid this emotion entirely. Healthy
regret—that is, regret that does not consume us but
allows us to move forward—is undoubtedly an inte-
gral part of life’s journey.
See also Alexie, Sherman: Lone ranGer and
tonto FistF iGht in heaven, the; Eliot, T. S.:
“Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The”; Ishi-
guro, Kazuo: reMains oF the day, the; Morri-
son, Toni: sonG oF soLoMon; Tan, Amy: Joy Luck
cLub, the; Tolstoy, Leo: war and peace; Wil-
liams, Tennessee: streetcar naMed desire, a.
FURTHER READING
Gilovich, Thomas, and Victoria Husted Medved. “The
Experience of Regret: What, When, and Why.”
Psychological Review 2, no. 2 (1995): 379–395.
Landman, Janet. Regret. New York and Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1993.
Lazare, Aaron. On Apology. London: Oxford University
Press, 2005.
Jennifer McClinton-Templerejection
In Charles Dickens’s Great expectations, Miss
Havisham is rejected by her would-be groom before
the novel’s action begins. For many years, she has
sequestered herself in her mansion, surrounded by
the aging relics of her doomed wedding ceremony.
More important, though, is the effect this ancient
rejection has had on Miss Havisham. She is bitter,
to be sure, but the bitterness goes so far and runs so
deep that she is eager to raise her ward, Estella, to
exact a kind of revenge for her by hurting others,
specifically men. Great Expectations is somewhat of
a treatise of the effects of rejection on the human
psyche. In addition to Miss Havisham, Pip, Joe,
Biddy, and Magwitch all experience this deep pain.
Pip is rejected by his sister and Estella, Joe, and
Biddy by Pip, and Magwitch by his country. For
these and other literary characters, rejection creates
a void that is difficult to fill and that is capable of88 rejection