History YMMV / GreatExpectations

** Miss Havisham's entire backstory. She fell in love with a man who conspired with her bastard half-brother to steal her inheritance...something she only found out as she was getting dressed ''for their wedding!'' She becomes so despondent that she becomes a recluse, never takes off her wedding dress, wears only one shoe and leaves everything ({{Squick even the wedding cake}}) to rot. It's to the point that she had the servants stop the clocks at twenty minutes to nine (the exact time she got the letter from her ex fiancé revealing what happened). As much as readers hate Miss Havisham for how she raised Estella...it's really hard to not feel sorry for her when you learn why she became that way.

** Miss Havisham's entire backstory. She fell in love with a man who conspired with her bastard half-brother to steal her inheritance...something she only found out as she was getting dressed ''for their wedding!'' She becomes so despondent that she becomes a recluse, never takes off her wedding dress, wears only one shoe and leaves everything ([[Squick even the wedding cake]]) to rot. It's to the point that she had the servants stop the clocks at twenty minutes to nine (the exact time she got the letter from her ex fiancé revealing what happened). As much as readers hate Miss Havisham for how she raised Estella...it's really hard to not feel sorry for her when you learn why she became that way.

** The ''original'' ending, on the other hand, is ValuesResonance in this regard, in that Pip realizes he was LovingAShadow all along.

* ValuesDissonance: In the revised ending; Estella is openly cruel to Pip and yet he falls for her anyway, with her beauty being the only explanation. With the rising awareness of the dangers of rushing into love, this has raised eyebrows from readers. The ''original'' ending, on the other hand, is ValuesResonance in this regard, in that Pip realizes he was LovingAShadow all along.

* ValuesDissonance: Estella is openly cruel to Pip and yet he falls for her anyway, with her beauty being the only explanation. With the rising awareness of the dangers of rushing into love, this has raised eyebrows from readers.

* TheScrappy: Most readers did not like Estella, finding her cold and haughty persona intolerable. There is an in-universe reason for it which makes her a little more sympathetic, but they also felt that Creator/CharlesDickens got really carried away with the descriptions of her beauty, and Pip pretty much falls for her based on her beauty alone even though she treats him with indifference at best. It was the 19th century where young men weren't able to socialize with women like they can now, but this comes across as shallow now. She does go through some CharacterDevelopment that humbles her and makes her more friendly, but this happens at the very end. And off-screen.

* TheWoobie: It's a ''Dickens'' novel! What do you [[IncrediblyLamePun expect]]?

* HilariousInHindsight:
** Creator/GillianAnderson (Miss Havisham in the 2011 miniseries) previously played Lady Dedlock in ''Literature/BleakHouse'' (2005).
** Creator/VanessaKirby (Estella in 2011) and Gillian Anderson both appeared (though not at the same time) in ''Series/TheCrown2016'', as Princess Margaret and UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher.

* FanPreferredCouple: The vast majority of readers want Pip and Estella to end up together. Even the adaptations swing heavily in this way. The revised ending, preferred by both Dickens and his friends, is the one used in modern printings of the book, while the original draft is sometimes included as an extra.

* BrokenBase: Original ending or RevisedEnding? {{Big Name Fan}}s such as Creator/GeorgeOrwell and Creator/GeorgeBernardShaw have argued the original is superior and more fitting, while Creator/JohnIrving wrote that Dickens "did the good thing and the right thing" by changing it.

** Creator/GillianAnderson (Miss Haversham in the 2011 miniseries) previously played Lady Dedlock in ''Literature/BleakHouse'' (2005).