More handpicked essays just for you.
Summary and analysis of book great expectations
Critical view of great expectations
Social commentary with great expectations
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is an elaborate retelling of the Biblical parable of the prodigal son (Ryken 157). It follows the life of Pip as he rises through and falls from society. He begins his life as an orphaned boy in a blacksmith’s home to become a young gentleman of “great expectations”. Pip forsakes the love and care of his guardian, Joe Gargery, for advancement in society. Misfortunes befall him; he loses all his wealth and he is forced to return to his home. Pip is the prodigal son who ungratefully leaves his home and squanders all his wealth. Joe Gargery is the loving father who patiently forbears and lovingly welcomes his boy back. Pip’s redemption is revealed in the novel. Great Expectations is a bildungsroman; it is a novel which shows the education of Pip. Pip learns about the corruptness of society and the shallowness of social class. In true Victorian fashion, Dickens’ novel is a form of social criticism; it attacks the conceited notions of society.
The allusion to the parable prodigal son is hinted at early in the novel. Mr. Pumblechook and Mr. Wopsle constantly admonish Pip to be “‘grateful…to them which brought [him] up by hand’” (Dickens 54). Mr. Wopsle declares that “‘swine were the companions of the prodigal’” and an ungrateful child is worse than swine (Dickens 26). Mrs. Joe often reproaches Pip for being ungrateful. She resents having to raise Pip up since his infancy. However, Mrs. Joe abuses Pip (Ryken 156). She whips him for unnecessary reasons and is annoyed by any question he asks. The person to whom Pip owes his gratitude to is Joe. Joe had “sanctified” his home, making it a “pleasant place” (Dickens 112).
Like the father in the parable, Joe loves Pip wholeheartedly and unconditionally....
... middle of paper ...
...oe, his two fathers who devoted their lives for his happiness. Pip’s journey home demonstrates that he has learned the important lesson of gratitude. Like other literature of the Victorian Age, Great Expectations is a novel which provides entertainment, social criticism, and moral lessons.
Bibliography
Primary Source
Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. New York: Bantam, 1986. Print.
Secondary Sources
The Bible: Authorized King James Version with Apocrypha. New York: Oxford UP, 1997.
Kappel, Lawrence, ed. Readings on Great Expectations. San Diego: Greenhaven, 1999. Print.
Ryken, Leland. Realms of Gold: The Classics in Christian Perspective. Wheaton, IL: H. Shaw, 1991. Print.
"Redemption and Love". Brooklyn College: Department of English. 11 May 2002. Web. 10 Dec. 2010..
‘Great Expectations’ showcases the variety of ways in which Pip discovers a sense of belonging and makes us question our own choices in life and how belonging is not always apparent at the time. Relationships and places are closely intertwined with a person’s sense of acceptance and can make all the difference in being fulfilled mentally in life which is shown in both a negative and positive note in ‘Great Expectations’ and ‘Pleasantville’.
As humans grow up, they must all experience the awkward phase of the teen years, as they leave behind childhood for adulthood. In these times of transformations, one often finds themselves marred by the wicked ways of naïve love and the humiliation many experience. In Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations, one is able to watch an innocent boy’s transformation into a mature gentleman who is still a child at heart. Pip is plagued with the daunting responsibilities of adulthood and deciding where his loyalties lay. Torn between the alluring world of the rich and his roots in a destitute village, Pip must make a decision.
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.
Many people strive for things that are out of their reach. In the novel Great Expectations, Charles Dickens shows the themes of personal ambition and discontent with present conditions. The main character, Pip, shows early on in the story that he is unhappy with his current situation. Throughout the story he strives for the things that are beyond his reach, and is apathetic to the things that he can obtain. Pip demonstrates this by striving for Estella when he could have Biddy, and yearning to be a gentleman when he could be a blacksmith.
Charles Dickens utilizes his life for inspiration for the protagonist Pip in his novel Great Expectations. They both struggle with their social standing. Dickens loved plays and theatre and therefore incorporated them into Pip’s life. Dickens died happy in the middle class and Pip died happy in the middle class. The connection Dickens makes with his life to Pip’s life is undeniable. If readers understand Dickens and his upbringing then readers can understand how and why he created Pip’s upbringing. Charles Dickens’ life, full of highs and lows, mirrors that of Pip’s life. Their lives began the same and ended the same. To understand the difficulty of Dickens’ childhood is to understand why his writing focuses on the English social structure. Dickens’ life revolved around social standing. He was born in the lower class but wasn’t miserable. After his father fell into tremendous debt he was forced into work at a young age. He had to work his way to a higher social standing. Because of Dicken’s constant fighting of class the English social structure is buried beneath the surface in nearly all of his writings. In Great Expectations Pip’s life mirrors Dickens’ in the start of low class and the rise to a comfortable life. Fortunately for Dickens, he does not fall again as Pip does. However, Pip and Dickens both end up in a stable social standing.
The settings of Great Expectations are Pip’s homes, one home that he lives in during his childhood in Kent, England, and the other that he lives in when he is grown in London, England. Social status was a big deal in the mid-nineteenth century. The rich were highly respected and liked by all, and the poor were treated unkindly and were sometimes made fun of. The rich could have any job that they liked, but the poor would almost always take over the job that their father had. The narrator of Great Expectations is Pip. If the novel were narrated from any other point of view, it would not have the same effect as it does now.
In the novel, Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens the principal character, Pip, undergoes a tremendous change in character. I would like to explore with you the major incidents in Pip’s childhood that contribute to his change from an innocent child to someone consumed by false values and snobbery.
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.
Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens is a fascinating tale of love and fortune. The main character, Pip, is a dynamic character who undergoes many changes through the course of the book. Throughout this analysis the character, Pip will be identified and his gradual change through the story will be surveyed.
The first fatherly figure Pip ever had was Joe Gargery. Joe was a great father-like influence because he did many things that a father would do for his son. He cared about Pip’s well-being. “I wish there warn 't no Tickler for you, old chap; I wish I could take it all on myself; but this is the up-and-down-and-straight on it,
It can be seen through Dickens’s highly successful novel Great Expectations, that his early life events are reflected into the novel. Firstly the reader can relate to Dickens’s early experiences, as the novel’s protagonist Pip, lives in the marsh country, and hates his job. Pip also considers himself, to be too good for his ...
These elements are crucial to the structure and development of Great Expectations: Pip's maturation and development from child to man are important characteristics of the genre to which Great Expectations belongs. In structure, Pip's story, Great Expectations, is a Bildungsroman, a novel of development. The Bildungsroman traces the development of a protagonist from his early beginnings--from his education to his first venture into the big city--following his experiences there, and his ultimate self-knowledge and maturation. Upon the further examination of the characteristics of the Bildungsroman as presented here it is clear that Great Expectations, in part, conforms to the general characteristics of the English Bildungsroman. However, there are aspects of this genre from which Dickens departs in Great Expectations. It is these departures that speak to what is most important in Pip's development, what ultimately ma...
In the novel Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Pip's struggle and ultimate failure to become a gentleman was due to social pressure. Dickens comments the stratums of the Victorian social class system. The novel shows that money cannot buy love or guarantee happiness. Pip's perspective is used to expose the confusing personality of someone transcending social barriers. Dickens also shows a contrast between both class and characters.
In the opening of the novel, Pip encounters the convict who was in dire need of help. Pip, innocent and unexposed at the time, did the right thing and helped the dangerous stranger. As he scales the steep cliffs towards gentility, however, his innocence and rectitude fades. The hustle and bustle of London transforms Pip into conceited, shameful, snob. "Let me confess exactly with what feelings I looked forward to Joe’s coming.
Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations (1861) has great significance to the plot. The title itself symbolizes prosperity and most importantly ambition. The main character and the protagonist, Pip (Philip Pirrip) was born an orphan and hand-raised by his sister Mrs. Gargery and her husband Joe Gargery. Pip was a young boy when he was threatened by a convict, Magwitch, at his parents’ grave to aid him. Pip nervously agreed to lend him a hand and was haunted day and night of the sin he committed which involved stealing food and tools from his Mr. and Mrs. Gargery’s house. Later on, he is called for at the Satis Manor by a rich woman, Miss Havisham. There he met a beautiful young girl, Estella, to whom Pip falls in love with. The novel being divided into three volumes, Pips great expectations arise soon after visiting the Satis Manor.