Saturday & Sundry Astrological Expectations

Finely drawn characters in books and movies sometimes tempt me to surmise on their astrology. It's a fun way to exercise and strengthen the astrological muscle. Off the top of my head I recall writing posts in that vein about characters from Gone With the Wind; Little Women; A Tale of Two Cities; maybe others too.

Gone with the Wind Zodiacal Connection
Little Women
A Tale of Two Cities: Sydney Carton.

We watched the 2012 film version of Dickens' novel Great Expectations (via Netflix) this week, and it had me pondering on predominant signs and planets for one or two of the novel's main characters. There have been numerous films, mini-series, stage versions of the novel, I've seen a couple of different ones. The 2012 film packs a lot into 2hrs 8 mins, this is a nice version, but David Lean's film from 1946 still lurks in memory, which must mean that the old one had made a very deep impression.

Anyway...on to the characters' characters, astrologically speaking:

Pip ~ Though he's the tale's leading character he comes across as a tad colourless at times, when compared with the rest of the bunch. One telling characteristic of his was his early eagerness to "become a gentleman", to get away from his humble beginnings in a blacksmith's family. Sun in Leo perhaps? Yet Pip wasn't really yer typically bright Leo go-getter, not at first anyway. Leo Moon might be a better fit, with Sun in Pisces - he was always a bit of a romantic dreamer. His stroke of luck, in being able to follow his dreams, funded by an initially anonymous benefactor smells of Jupiter - in first house perhaps, or at mid-heaven.

“The unqualified truth is, that when I loved Estella with the love of a man, I loved her simply because I found her irresistible. Once for all; I knew to my sorrow, often and often, if not always, that I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be. Once for all; I love her none the less because I knew it, and it had no more influence in restraining me, than if I had devoutly believed her to be human perfection.”

―"Pip" in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations

Estella ~ In childhood and beyond she was evilly manipulated by Miss Havisham, taught to grow up cold, uncaring, completely without empathy or appreciation of love, so that she would wreak pain on men: Miss Havisham's twisted method of revenge. Difficult one this. Estella would doubtless have become a quite different person altogether had she grown up away from Miss Haversham's influence, and within an average family environment. She didn't crumble though, so must have been, astrologically, made of fairly sturdy stuff. Taurus I'll guess, for either Sun or Moon, or even for both. She was beautiful, Taurus is ruled by Venus, though is still one of the sturdiest of signs.

 Miss Havisham & Pip by Marcus Stone

Miss Havisham ~ Bitter and twisted by her experience of being jilted, turned eccentric and determined to have revenge on men by grooming a young Estella to grow up cold-hearted, unable to feel any emotion. She had stopped all the clocks in her mansion, still wore her wedding gown and lived among her wedding decor many years after the event. Saturn (restriction) Scorpio (dark, obsessive), Uranus (eccentricity). How about Sun in Cancer (Cancer = known to withdraw when in danger of hurt) with Saturn close-by, Scorpio rising, Uranus in first house?

Joe Gargery ~ Pip's relative and father figure. Down-to-earth, simple, patient, generous and good-natured, hard-working blacksmith. Loved, as he would often say, "to have a lark". Capricorn Sun, Mercury in Sagittarius, perhaps.

Magwitch ~ The convict who became Pip's benefactor, after having made a fortune in Australia. Mixture of Scorpio and Sagittarius is the best I can come up with for him. His eternal gratitude to Pip, for a comparatively small amount of help when in dire need, was so profound that Magwitch must have possessed unusual depths of feeling, despite a hardened criminal background.