More handpicked essays just for you.
How did joe influence pip in great expectations
Character analysis joe from great expectations
Setting in the beginning of great expectations analysis
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
To what extent is Joe’s influence a help or a hindrance to Pip’s
development?
In Great Expectations, the character of Joe is portrayed upon the
reader as the comical but also sensitive grown-up figure towards Pip.
Much of Joe’s upbringing was simple. As a result he lacks the
intelligence to question the moral values that he was taught as a
child. “There’s one thing you may be sure of Pip, said Joe, after some
rumination, namely that lies is lies. How sever they come, they didn’t
ought to come, and they come from the father of lies, and work round
to the same. Don’t you tell no more of ‘em Pip” Due to this he does
not have the same moral dilemmas that most people have. Joe’s
innocence is then passed onto Pip who is the closet thing to a son
that he will ever have. This innocence that Joe aspires can be
considered a good thing, which aids Pip’s moral development, but it
can also be considered a hindrance to Pip’s personal growth and his
self-esteem.
In a way, much of the story comes across with Joe acting more like a
child with Pip than a father. “I always treated him as a larger
species of child, and as no more than my equal.” Because of Pip’s lack
of proper parents when he was young and Joe’s lack of love from Mrs
Joe Gargery, the two of them form a strong bond with each other as
both of them share the same treatment by Mrs Joe Gargery. “Joe and I
being fellow sufferers and having confidences as such, Joe imparted a
confidence to me…” As a result of this bond Joe’s personality is then
somehow absorbed by Pip as Pip portrays a typical childlike quality in
which he is easily influenced by those around him.
Joe’s influence to Pip can come across as a positive outlook on Pip as
Pip learns to respect others and their wishes as well as himself, but
also not to retaliate and lower himself to someone else’s level if
they provoke him. “She says many hard things of you, yet you say
nothing of her. What do you think of her? I don’t like to say, I
stammered.” In this quote, Pip refuses to tell Miss Havisham what he
thought of Estella, because he did not want to create any more tension
than there already was. This then backs up my point as its
illustrating Pip’s control over his emotions due to Joe’s influence
over Pip’s social behaviour.
On the other hand, Joe’s influence can also be established as a form
Joe acts respectful of everyone no matter what class they are in or what life position they are in. When Joe visits Pip in London, Joe taught him that it does not matter
In Great Expectations, during the middle of the book, Pip creates a rather low opinion of himself acting arrogant and conceited to others. For example, When Joe is coming to visit Pip, Pip thinks to himself, "I was looking forward to Joe's coming not with pleasure, thought that I was bound to him... If I could have kept him away by paying money, I would have paid money (pg.841). Evan though Joe protected and assisted Pip throughout his juvenile years, Pip was still embarrassed by him. Pip is an ungrateful person showing Joe no gratitude. In addition, when Pip learned who his benefactor was he replied, "The abhorrence in which I held the man, the dread I had of him, the repugnance with which I shrank from him, could not have been exceeded if he had been some terrible beast (pg.876). Pip is surprised by this intrusion of his mind realizing that Miss Havisham did not raise him to be with Estella. Evan though Pip was not raised to be with Estella he is an vicious human being thinking such vile thoughts against a man that gave him the life of a gentleman. In relation, as Provis lays down to sleep Pip reflects on meeting him, "Then came the reflection that I had seen him with my childish eyes to be a desperate violent man:" (pg.879). Pip can only think of what horrible things Provis performed. Pip is an unforgiving person, still thinking of Provis as a convict after all he did for him. Pip displays himself as a heartless feign, believing himself to be of upper society and forgetting people who helped him through his journey of life.
This character is uneducated and doesn’t really have any aspirations. Throughout the story Joe is a very generous humble man and doesn’t ask anything in return, for example; everything he teaches to Pip, he doesn’t want to take the money because all his actions are out of pure love. Also, later on when Pip gets into financial problems, Joe has no problem with paying for his debts and he sneaks out so Pip won’t be ashamed of him.
When Pip was a small boy, he felt close to Joe, as Joe was like a
The way Joe acts throughout the novel develops his character as a good man, and his concern for Pip makes Joe the fatherly figure for Pip in his earlier years. In the beginning, Joe recounts how he had brought Pip and his sister into his home, saying “‘God bless the poor little child,’ I said to your sister, ‘there’s room for him at the forge!’” which develops his selflessness (55). Pip held Joe with highest regard and mentions how Joe had “always aided and comforted [him] when he could, in some way of his own” (29). Joe doesn’t only offer indirect parenting, such as when he
In the beginning of the story, he helps an escaped convict, the act of which he “knew to be wrong” but was “too cowardly to avoid doing,” then fails to “do what I knew what was right” and tell Joe the truth, which he is “too cowardly to do” (Dickens ). Such internal conflict provides transparency to Pip’s innocence as he struggles with morality. He is aware that telling Joe about the incident would morally correct but does not do so and, therefore, chooses moral transgression to protect his relationship with him. Pip fears even the slight possibility of hurting Joe or losing his trust, which, to me, shows that, at this point of the story, he is innocent and values human relations very highly. Consequently, I can personally relate to him by drawing upon my own childhood experience.
makes many new, high-society friends. When Joe Gargery comes to visit Pip in his new way of life, Pip is
Pip lived his entire life without ever knowing his “real” parents. As a result, young Pip was deprived of the most basic key morals and values that life has to offer. Due to Pip's parents being dead, he was raised by his sister Mrs. Joe Gargery and her husband Joe. Mrs. Joe was very abusive to Pip as well as Joe. Dickens reveals this by writing “… knowing her [Mrs. Joe] to have a hard and heavy hand, and to be much in the habit of laying it upon her husband as well as upon me, …”
of the story. This is where Pip admits to Biddy he is in love with
Pip encounters all of the influential people in his life during his childhood. The first and most obvious are his family. Mrs. Joe and Joe Gargery, Pip’s sister and brother-in-law, are the only family that Pip has ever known. Mrs. Joe Gargery is Joe’s wife and Pip’s only living relative. She is a very domineering woman who is always punishing Pip for something. Joe is like a father to Pip, who goes to Joe with all of his problems and worries. They are always truthful with each other and protect each other from Mrs. Joe when she is on the rampage. Despite the fact that Joe is an adult, he is also Pip’s only real friend during his childhood. Joe is the most loyal person in Pip’s life.
The main character, Pip, is a gentle character. His traits include humbleness, kindness, and lovingness. These traits are most likely the cause of his childhood poverty. In the beginning of the story, Pip is a mild mannered little boy who goes on with his own humble life. That, though, will change as he meets Magwich, a thief and future benefactor. Pip’s kindness goes out to help the convict, Magwich when he gives food and clothing to him. Magwich tells Pip that he’ll never forget his kindness and will remember Pip always and forever. This is the beginning of Pip’s dynamic change. Throughout the novel, Great Expectations, the character, Pip gradually changes from a kind and humble character to a character that is bitter, then snobbish and finally evolves into the kind and loving character which he was at the beginning of the story.
Pip always talks with a polite tongue and never speaks out of place. This shows that Pip, although having been brought up by a poor family and lost his parents and brothers very young, has still been raised well. Even when Magwitch is threatening young Pip and turns him upside down, he still talks courteously and with respect. The reader’s feel sympathy towards Pip as he obviously misses his parents a lot and will never get the chance to meet them.
ing his time living with Herbert, Pip learns from him and evolves into a more gentlemanly figure, although he still lacks certain things. When Magwitch arrives, Pip plans for him to leave the country, putting his own life at risk. Pip also sets Herbert up in business, without his knowledge. At the end, after losing Magwitch's money, he is quite content in moving back to the forge to live with Joe. These three things show that Pip has completed his personal evolution from a simple country by into a gentleman.
Many characters were treated differently because of their social class in Great Expectations. Seeing the contrast between how the poor and the rich were treated will give a clearer understanding of how much social class mattered. In chapter 27 when Joe comes to see Pip, he treats Joe in a different manner than before because Joe was now in a lower social class. His feelings about Joe's arrival were "Not with pleasure... I had the sharpest sensitiveness as to his being seen by Drummle." (p. 203). He was afraid that Drummle will look down on him because of Joe's lower class. Not only does Pip treat Joe differently, Joe also treats Pip differently because of their difference in social class. He begins to call Pip "sir" which bothered him because "sir" was the title given to people of higher class. Pip felt that they were still good friends and that they should treat each other as equals. Joe soon leaves and explains his early parting, "Pip, dear old chap, life is made of ever so many partings welded together, as I may say, and one man's a blacksmith, and one's a whitesmith, and one's a goldsmith, and one's a coppersmith. Diwisions among such must come...." (p. 209). He creates this metaphor than he is a common blacksmith and Pip is a goldsmith. This difference in social class had brought upon their separation. Other characters that were also judged by their social class were Magwitch and Compeyson. They were both on trial for the same crime but Compeyson got off easier than Magwitch because of his higher social class. Magwitch describes Compeyson's defense speech, ."..here you has afore you, side by side, two persons as your eyes can separate wide; one, the younger, well brought up... one; the elder, ill brought up... which is the worst one?" (p. 325). The decision of the trial was solely based upon social class appearance.
In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens paints a heartwarming scene between Joe and Pip: “He would sit and talk to me in the old confidence, and with the old simplicity, and in the old unassertive protecting way, so that I would half believe that all my life since the days of the old kitchen was one of the mental troubles of the fever that was gone. He did everything for me except the household work, for which he had engaged a very decent woman, after paying off the laundress on his first arrival” (518). Instead of Joe being angry with Pip and leaving him high and dry, he helps and comforts him in his time of need. When given the opportunity to say no and walk away, Joe says yes and offers as much help as he can give.