Development, stasis and detours in Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre and Great Expectations

Abstract Both Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre and Great Expectations suggest the possibility of individual growth and formation leading to maturity and fulfilment, but in each case the hero’s development is problematic. Progress is not linear; it is marked by detours and is threatened or undercut by elements of stasis when time – and life – seems to stop, but equally the hero’s development seems to depend on these moments of stasis. In Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre a number of characters close to Wilhelm, primarily female characters, demonstrate an inability or refusal to engage with life that may be associated with sickness, introversion or the inability to manage past trauma – or indeed the transcendence offered by art and beauty. In Great Expectations Pip’s development as a moral person is undercut by his illusion that the deathly Miss Haversham has plans to provide him with the wealth and social status to put him on a level with Estella. His social advancement as ‘a gentleman’ thus hinders his true development as a moral person and produces a temporary moral stasis. Nevertheless, in both novels the female characters associated with stasis play an essential part in setting the hero on a course that promises positive development and self-fulfilment. In the end, though, neither author is entirely able to resolve the tensions within their idea of development, which seems to run counter to the idea of stasis but also, somehow, to require it: correspondingly, the endings of both novels are open and uncertain.