Great Expectations that Dickens' attitude backs Britain's exploitation of Middle East "through trade and travel", and that "Great Expectations" affirms the idea of keeping the Empire and its peoples in their place—at the exploitable margins of British society. However, the novel's Gothic, and Romance genre elements, challenge Said's assumption that "Great Expectations" is a realist novel like Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe". Dickens's novel has influenced a number of writers, Sue Roe's "Estella: Her Expectations" (1982), for example explores the inner life of an Estella fascinated with a Havisham figure. Miss Havisham is again important in "Havisham: A Novel" (2013), a book by
Monks (Oliver Twist) to outwardly be associated with any form of crime (this is not because he is a moral being, but because he fears being caught). Dickens keeps his motives and his true identity a total secret until nearly the end of the novel, thus surprising the reader with an unexpected revelation that adds complications to the plot. Monks does not appear at all in "Oliver!", the musical adaptation of the novel, nor in several film versions of the novel which seek to simplify the story, including Roman Polanski's 2005 adaptation of "Oliver Twist". He does, however, appear in several mini-series versions