Misery can no doubt come from horrible, uncontrollable forces such as death or disaster, where it is easy to be sympathetic towards the victim. However, despair can also be attributed to the sufferer himself, as is illustrated in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. The protagonist Pip's desolation was especially his own fault through his entire life in stages one, two, and three.
Pip had melancholy times in Stage One even before he left his home. He was always obsessed with self-improvement, as can be seen by his immense guilt of compassionately helping a convict, and this quality became dangerous to him when he met Miss Havisham and Este