2 min read

THE MAGWITCH PRINCIPLE

Finlay Currie as Abel Magwitch 

The older I get, the more I realise just how much Charles Dickens's Great Expectations has basically informed my entire sensibility and philosophy of life.

The Estelle Complex has featured prominently, with me falling in love with unobtainable women. Besieged by occasional bouts of indignant introspection I've been Miss Haversham also, wallowing in decadent slow decay, minus the wedding cake. This I call the Haversham Takotsubo Syndrome.

But the one fable of the book that I always keep at the forefront of my mind as a constant is what I've now defined as The Magwitch Principle. This is simply the notion that someone/anyone may end up becoming your ally, saviour or patron and why it's a bad idea to shun the down trodden, wretched looking creatures all about you, as you never know which one may end up saving you.

You may remember in the novel that the convict Abel Magwitch is revealed as the unexpected benefactor to young Pip, proving that although this criminal felt personally hard done by and ostricised by society, he could conversely do something good by investing in the young man, transforming his destiny from poverty into prosperity.

As plot twists go, this may be my favourite in all of literature. It throws the reader's assumptions for a loop and teaches us that we can be helped by unexpected figures who we might otherwise ignore or avoid.

This concept is not dissimilar to the one in Beauty and the Beast whereby the young prince mistakenly turns away the beggar woman at his castle door before she puts a spell on him that turns him into a beast, which in turn teaches him to appreciate that beauty is not merely skin deep.

Beggar Woman from Walt Disney's Beauty & The Beast

The Magwitch Principle is a good modus operandi for life. It teaches you to believe in the possibility of redemption, magic and coincidence all at once.

As someone who has now taken this concept to heart, I will get back to you as to whether my fortune is changed in spectacular fashion by an unexpected donor or patron anytime soon, or whether I will have to once again dampen my great expectations.