Charles Dickens' Great Expectations

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Before Charles Dickens story of Great Expectations begins, Pip’s parents and brothers are killed. Pip’s sister, his only living relative, becomes his guardian, and she marries the blacksmith Joe Gargery. Joe and Pip form a very close relationship. However, neither Joe nor Pip embrace a father-son relationship. Since Joe and Pip do not sustain a father-son relationship, but rather stay as two good friends, Joe’s values of honesty and hard work are not communicated to Pip. However, the failure of Joe’s values to be communicated to Pip, do not reflect poorly on Pip, but rather, show the impossibility to expect that that should happen. Joe does not adopt a role as father for Pip. We see Joe’s reluctance to accept this role one night when a group was “assembled round the fire at the Three Jolly Bargemen'; (133). When Jaggers comes and offers to take Pip to London, Joe does feel as though he is losing something, but he certainly did not feel as though he was losing a son. We can learn more about Joe’s behaviour through what does not say than through what he does. After Jaggers reveals that he has “with an offer to relieve [Joe] of this young fellow,'; he continues, without a breath, and asks if Joe would like compensation. By not stopping to ask if Pip’s removal would be permissible, Jaggers assumes, and correctly, that it would not be a problem. Joe does not interrupt Jaggers to say that it would be a problem, and, in doing so, gives pip away without a thought. Would a father give away his son, even if it was to the son’s benefit, without a thought? The reason that Joe does not interject is that he has not embraced the role of father. However, he clearly does act as a friend would. Had Joe been Pip’s father, or even acted as such, it would have been appropriate for Joe to determine whether or not Pip can leave. However, since Joe acts as Pip’s friend, it is not his place to make this decision. Joe does not only passively take this role, though. He also behaves as Pip’s friend. Joe forcefully takes on the role of friend when he tells Jaggers that “Pip is that hearty welcome…to go free with his services, to honour and fortun’'; (141). Prior to this, Joe was telling Jaggers that Pip was free to go through his own inaction, but with these words Joe tells Jaggers that Pip is free, and tells us that Pip is his friend.

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