Women's Role in the Influence of Pip in Great Expectations Throughout the novel “Great Expectations”, we meet several interesting characters, each with their own unique way of affecting the life of the character in which the story is circulated around. This very character, known as Pip, has the displeasure of having to deal with three of such characters from a very young and vulnerable age. The fact that these three characters are all female, and incredibly cruel individuals at that, certainly would not help a growing male child in having a very good image of women as he gets older. It is, in fact, a wonder why Pip does not grow up to despise every woman he meets. One of the three women that Pip is influenced by is that of Mrs Joe Gargery, a woman who makes her blacksmith husband seem tiny in comparison to her temper. She is a woman who has had a series of unfortunate events, the worst being taking her little brother under her own care after the death of their parents. This being the case, Mrs Joe seems convinced that Pip should worship her, because he is - after all - a burden – “Who brought you up……And why did I do it, I should like to know?” She often says that Pip should not be “Pompeyed”, meaning he should given no privileges. This gives the reader the impression that Mrs Joe does not allow her little brother to be a child, even though he is. However, the reader is in a way inclined to feel for her because she did not have to take Pip in, but did, albeit reluctantly. The thought of being brought up “by hand” - as Mrs Joe so often puts it - also makes Pip think that she bullied her husband into marrying her by hand. This suggests that Pip is slightly intimidated by her and seems to fear her to some extent. Pip is even further intimidated by “tickler” – the object used on Pip when he Mrs Joe feels she needs to
When Pip is on the road to becoming a gentleman, many thoughts of negativity towards others are established in him. Pip feels he has more power over people who are in a lower social class than him. When Joe, Pip's brother-in-law, comes over to London to visit Pip, Pip thinks, "I could hardly have imagined dear old Joe looking so unlike himself or so like some extraordinary bird" (100). Joe's appearance and poor manners disgust Pip, which displays how Pip is being domineering over a person t...
Miss Havisham has heavily impacted on how Pip lives in many ways. The one that impacted Pip the most was how Miss Havisham raised Estella to break Pip’s heart:
In the novel Great Expectations written by Charles Dickens, Pip has many male influences that help him in his overall development over his lifetime. This novel is a coming of age story, having many different father like figures that help him through many things in his life. People such as; Joe, Jaggers, Matthew Pocket and Abel Magwitch. The character I believe to have the most influence on Pip is Joe. Joe is the husband of Pip’s sister, and practically raised Pip, knowing him the longest out of the all four male influences. In the beginning of the novel, when Pip was a young boy, Joe was always there for him and helped him. For example, at the moment Pip steals the piece of bread and then lies to Mrs Joe, saying he ate it, Joe gets worried.
First, Pip has great expectations Joe. At the beginning of the novel, Pip expects Joe to be a fatherly figure, and protect him from Mrs. Joe and Pip "looking up to Joe in [his] heart" (Dickens 86). Joe and Pip are friends and rely on one another to survive their home life by warning one another when Mrs. Joe "went on the rampage" [173]. However, after Pip receives his benefactor and money, he expects Joe to be a different person than himself. He expects Joe, like himself, overnight, to go from "being co...
He always wanted to fit in and would treat people bad. When Joe came to visit Pip he was embarrassed of him because how he was a blacksmith. He didn’t even tell the people where he came from because he was embarrassed of his family and where is from. But when Pip goes broke and knows he has no money he changed back into the Pip he once was when he was little. After Joe paid his debt he felt like he was in debt to Joe, but Joe being the great guy he is he tell Pip not to worry about it. Pip still didn’t become a blacksmith; therefore, he did get a job with the business he helped pay for and he was still Pip this
Pip's Sister and his Mum and Dad died she had to bring Pip up by
While Pip was ill, he saw how much he missed Joe and Biddy. He realized Joe was a true blessing. Joe was the only thing that remained constant in Pips life. When he became ill, Joe came and helped Pip get better. Joe even paid off his debts. Pip said about Joe "There was no change in Joe.
nursed back to health, Pip starts to appreciate Joe and begins to look past the fact that he is “common.
In the first stage of Great Expectations, Pip begins as a contented boy, happy with his own way of life, but soon becomes humiliated by the ones he loves, and starts to morph into someone who is very status-conscious. At the start, Pip looks up to Joe, and even says, “Joe and I (were) fellow-sufferers…” showing that Pip regarded Joe as an equal (Dickens 7). At this stage in Pip’s life, he has not yet realized what social class is, and so he is perfectly happy being with Joe. Joe and Pip are good friends at this point, and Pip really appreciates him as a person. This all changes after Pip’s first visit with Estella, especially when he says, “Her contempt for me was so strong that it became infectious, and I caught it,” showing that he is beginning to take into account other people’s thoughts about himself (62). Although Estella looks down upon Pip for being ‘common’, there is irony in his statement, because Estella comes from an even lower class than him. Throughout the whole novel, Pip tries to impress her, thinking that she is well above him, when she is actually the daughter of a convict. Finally, Pip shows betrayal to Joe when he says, “I was truly ...
Joe and are forced to find and make joy out of everyday things; like eating a slice of bread. Joe often seems to feel bad for Pip, and therefore tries to bring smiles to both Pip’s face, and his. Although Joe is often seen as an equal to Pip, Joe protects Pip from Mrs. Joe and tries his hardest to not let her hurt him by telling him that Mrs. Joe is “a coming! Get behind the door, old chap”(9). Joe does not like to see Pip being hurt the same way he is hurt by Mrs. Joe and thinks that he should do what he can to protect him because he is older, although he is often thought of equal to Pip. Joe struggles like Pip with the constant fear of Mrs. Joe, and never being able to do what is not permitted by Mrs. Joe. Both Pip and Joe are “brought up by hand” setting them to be almost equals in the household, causing Joe to be more of a brother to him than Mrs. Joe is a sister to Pip (8). Since Joe and Pip are treated equally, Joe feels that, since he is older, he must protect Pip like an older brother would protect a younger brother. Pip sees Joe as an equal to him, leaving him without a father figure in his life and instead giving him an “equal” to protect him and understand what he goes though
Pip’s first and only love is Estella. Estella is very mean and nasty to Pip. Although he receives verbal abuse from Estella, he continues to like her and will not stop liking her, he sees the good inside of her and will not stop until the good comes out. In contrast to her treatment of Pip as a child when she had called him a common laboratory boy with coarse hands and thick boots, she tries to explain to him that emotion is something that she is incapable of feeling. The fact of that is evidence of his illusion, not her cruelty.
Joe's actions are those of a true gentleman. For example, Joe defends Mrs. Joe from Orlick even though he is scared of Orlick himself: "What could the wretched Joe do now...but stand up to his journeyman...so, without so much as pulling off their singed and burnt aprons, they went at one another, like two giants" (773). Joe is intimidated by Orlick and by Joe defending Mrs. Joe from Orlick shows that Joe has courageousness. Joe is a benevolent person by stepping up to Orlick to help Mrs. Joe. In addition, Joe pays off Pip's debts and Pip finds "a receipt for which they had been paid off" (899). Joe paying off Pip's debts shows he is a helpful and caring person. Joe is being considerate by helping Pip become debt-free. It is ironic that Joe helps Pip because Pip hasn't been a considerate person to Joe but he helps Pip regardless.
While living in the Satis Mansion, Pip begins to realize how different he is from the people living inside of it. Pip reflects, "I took the opportunity of being alone in the court-yard to look at my coarse hands and my common boots. My opinion of those accessories was not favourable. They had never troubled me before, but they troubled me now, as vulgar appendages" (102). This quote specifically proves that Pip is ashamed of appearance. He had not once thought about himself as common but looking at himself and seeing his "common boots" impacted him. Pip seems almost angry at himself for the way he dresses. He compares his boots to "vulgar appendages" that he is embarrassed of. Pip 's image does not meet the standards of the higher class. When Pip receives news that Joe, his former best friend, is coming into town he is not excited. As he is becoming accustomed to the high society he is living, Pip only thinks of himself. Pip thinks, “Not with pleasure, though I was bound to him by so many ties; no; with considerable disturbance, some mortification, and a keen sense of incongruity. If I could have kept him away by paying money, I certainly would have paid money” (285). Pip 's thoughts depict how his great expectations made him superficial. Rather than spending time with someone who raised him, Pip worries about Joe 's commonality staining his upperclass image. Pip 's "mortification" of Joe was so strong he "would have paid money" to keep him from coming to London. This verfies that Pip 's social class is more important than family, whom he once loved and cared so deeply for. Towards the end of the novel, Pip 's ambition to be an upperclassmen becomes less important to him when he it is revealed that Magwitch, the convict, is his benefactor. Pip
Another challenge that Pip was forced to face was that of a convict that he had helped in the beginning of the story; a convict had threatened his life out of a want for food, and Pip brought him food that he had stolen from his kitchen. Pip was wary of helping the convict; after all, he had threatened his life! This nagged at him, but in the end, the convict proved to be a great positive influence; his benefactor. Also, his compassion and love for Estella proved to be a positive as well as negative influence. Pip’s desire for Estella guided him in becoming a “gentleman”; this is an example of existentialism; the belief that any individual assumes the responsibility of their existence, allowing them to control their own destiny. The real influence in his becoming a gentleman was in fact, ironically, the convict; the convict financed his change, while Estella only fueled his desire; without one or both of these essential influences, I believe that Pip would not have become a “gentleman;” although Joe was a good influence, with Estella on his back, he did not realize this. Pip’s change was in response to Estella, he “learned” that he was just a common boy, and thus could be considered both behaviorism and existentialism, while at the same time part of Freudian psychology , because of his love/hatred for common life, and his love/hatred for Estella.
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.