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Characterisation in great expectations
Character analysis in the great expectations
Character analysis in the great expectations
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Personal Growth in Great Expectations
The coming of age novel Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens showed how a young simple boy grew into a gentleman, and slowly discovered that no matter what happened in his life it couldn't change who he was on the inside. His attitude and personality fluctuated throughout the three main stages of his life.
The first line of the book showed Pip's simplicity of thought by the way he described his nickname: "My father's family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip." (Pg.3)
His personality continued in the same manner until he met the stunning Estella and disturbed Miss Havisham. That was the point when his ignorance turned into envy, for all that his life was lacking living with his sister and Joe. He realized how much his family was different from that of the rich and wanted nothing more than to be accepted as a gentleman. The night he came home from Estella's he couldn't help but think of how common Estella would think his family was:
"Estella would consider Joe, a mere blacksmith: how think his boots, and how coarse his hands. I thought how Joe and my sister were there sitting In the kitchen and I had come up to bed from the kitchen, and how Miss Havisham and Estella never sat in a kitchen, but were far above the level of such common doings." (Pg.89)
After thinking of what the higher class would think of his family his own opinion of the Gargery's also shifted. He began to treat them with disrespect and acted as though he were better than them, even Joe, the one who had been his closest friend.
When Jaggers announced that there was an unknown person who wanted to send Pip to London to become a gentleman, Pip was overwhelmed with excitement and couldn't believe his dream had come true. He felt that this gave him the opportunity to become the man of Estella's dreams, which was all he could think about.
Pip lived the high life in London; he hired a servant and spends more money than he was supposed to.
Thomas Fowler in the novel is the more sinister character. Despite his obvious wit he is very cynical, and has an almost pessimistic outlook upon human relationships. It is Pyle in the novel that we are slightly softer towards, for Fowler is quite bitter. He says that he doesn't care for Phuong's interests, he just wants her and her body, and that he'd rather have a woman in the room with him that he didn't love rather than no woman at all.
We view The Prince as a guide for political power plays and remains a polarizing piece of literature that still guides politics today. However, much of what Machiavelli refers to in The Prince is out of date and doesn’t apply to the leaders of the United States. In some ways, The Prince helps guide those involved in politics because to be involved you must be ruthless and unforgiving, however, The Prince was written at a different time in history, when rulers used military might to obtain
Machiavelli believes that a government should be very structured, controlled, and powerful. He makes it known that the only priorities of a prince are war, the institutions, and discipline. His writings describes how it is more important for a prince to be practical than moral. This is shown where he writes, "in order to maintain the state he is often obliged to act against his promise, against charity, against humanity, and against religion" (47). In addition, Machiavelli argues that a prince may have to be cunning and deceitful in order to maintain political power. He takes the stance that it is better for the prince to be feared than loved. His view of how a government should run and his unethical conduct are both early signs of dictatorship.
In The Prince, Machiavelli separates ethics from politics. His approach to politics, as outlined in The Prince, is strictly practical. Machiavelli is less concerned with what is right and just, and instead with what will lead to the fortification of the government and the sustainment of power. Machiavelli believed that a ruler should use any means necessary to obtain and sustain power. He says, “…people judge by outcome. So if a ruler wins wars and holds onto power, the means he has employed will always be judged honorable, and everyone will praise them” (Machiavelli, 55). According to Machiavelli, the ends of an action justify the means (Machiavelli, 55). His motivation for these views in The Prince was the reunification of the Italian city-states (Machiavelli, 78-79). Machiavelli wanted Italy to return to its glory of the Roman Empire (Machiavelli 78-79). Some of the beliefs of Machiavelli could be perceived as evil and cruel, but he found them necessary. Machiavelli was not concerned with making people happy. His purpose was outcome and success, and in his opinion, the only way to be successful was to be realistic. These views of Machiavelli could classify him as one of the earliest modern
As Pip grows throughout the novel, he develops and matures from a young boy that doesn’t know what to do to a young man who has a great outlook on life. In the first stage of Pip's life he is young and does not understand what it means to be a gentleman and how it can affect his life. During the first stage of Pips life, he only wants 3 things. He wants education, wealth, and social advancement. These three wishes are mostly so he can impress Estella, who is the symbol of this first stage. Pip does not want to be just a blacksmith like Joe. He wants to be intelligent and considered a person of high importance. At the end of this stage he moves to London and begins to have a different outlook on his future.
Machiavelli’s, The Prince, discusses topics with great importance. He has knowledge that is very useful to people in power. He also has a specific way of thinking when it comes to certain ideals. He had a different way of viewing things during his time which has made his knowledge so great. Machiavelli has exclusive outlooks on human nature, people, and
In The Prince he writes to a ruler about how to keep power and that word – Prince – is used on purpose as a representation of a political system. The Discourses is a little less about power and a little more about behavior in politics and more of Machiavelli’s ideas’ themselves are talked about. This is where one of his most famous quotes comes from: “It is best to be both feared and loved. But if you have to choose between the two, it is better to be feared than loved.” This is a pretty good generalization in one sentence of his overall ideas on politics. He didn’t care about how things SHOULD work, he focused on how to be successful with how things DID work. He was a
Machiavelli’s The Prince shows how to gain political power in anyway possible. He is almost completely pragmatic in the book with little regard to morals. He states at the outset of the book that he is not dealing with republics but with princes and the best ways for them to rule over the people (1). Machiavelli believes that one of the most needed traits in a prince is that he be both feared and loved. He knew this was hard to accomplish and said that if a prince had to choose between being loved or feared he should choose fear. Machiavelli describes men as “Thankless, fickle, false, studious to avoid danger, greedy of gain, devoted to you while you able to confer benefits upon them… but in your hour of need they turn against you”(43-44). This low view of man that Machiavelli expressed impacted the way he felt a prince should rule. He seem...
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.
“The Prince”, by Niccolo Machiavelli, is a series of letters written to the current ruler of Italy, Lorenzo de’ Medici. These letters are a “how-to” guide on what to do and what not to do. He uses examples to further express his views on the subject. The main purpose was to inform the reader how to effectively rule and be an acceptable Prince. Any ruler who wishes to keep absolute control of his principality must use not only wisdom and skill, but cunning and cruelness through fear rather than love. Machiavelli writes this book as his summary of all the deeds of great men.
The classic novel, “Great Expectations,” by the highly respected and well-known author Charles Dickens has many symbolic items masked within its text. Each of the characters that make up the story represent a certain aspect of human nature, supporting the idea that everyone has both good and bad qualities in themselves and things that are important to a person’s life can greatly influence the character of a person as a whole, and how that in turn affects others around them.
As a bildungsroman, Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations presents the growth and development of Philip Pirrip, better known as Pip. Pip is both the main character in the story and the narrator, telling his tale many years after the events take place. Pip goes from being a young boy living in poverty in the marsh country of Kent, to being a gentleman of high status in London. Pip’s growth and maturation in Great Expectations lead him to realize that social status is in no way related to one’s real character.
utterly lower class that would be to Estella. "I thought how Joe and my sister were then sitting in the kitchen and how Miss Havisham and Estella never sat in a kitchen, but were far above the level of such common things (Dickens 55)." This shows how the minimal differences between the two classes contribute to a greater variance in the attitudes of the two. Through his exposure to Estella and Miss Havisham, Pip discovers the realit...
Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations depicts the desire of improvement through the conversation and actions of the characters, including Pip. Taking place in the 19th century, Great Expectations shows the important events of Pip’s life from the age of seven years old until his mid-thirties. Along the way, Pip meets a variety of friends and acquaintances that have an influence on him in forming his decisions and goals. They are constantly leaving him in confusion; however, Pip has the same influence on them. The friendships formed throughout the novel constantly make the characters reevaluate their choices, education, and rank in society in hopes of improving their life.
Pip was an innocent and somewhat gullible child. When Abel had told him that, “There's a young man hid with me, in comparison with which young man I am an Angel,” (II, Page 6) as a threat to ensure that Pip would bring him the food without speaking a word of what he had seen, Pip not only believed the tale, but assumes another man in the marsh is the young man, on the way to bring Abel the food. “It's the young man!" I thought, feeling my heart shoot as I identified him. I dare say I should have felt a pain in my liver, too, if I had known where it was.” (III, Page 16) He also shows compassion to Abel, although frig...