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The development of pip in Great Expectations
Title and symbolism of great expectations
The development of pip in Great Expectations
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Charles Dickens’ novel Great Expectations examines the human experience of growing up. The bildungsroman nature of the novel follows the trajectory of Pip Pirrup as he learns about the pitfalls and plateaus of growing older. In particular, Pip learns the hard truths that love, family, security, and wealth cannot always be reconciled with happiness. Pip’s realization in Chapter 9 that his life was forever changed by the visit to Havisham’s house hones in on a particular point: life takes unexpected turns and becomes more complicated as one grows older. To accomplish its task, Dickens’ novel employs an analogy of life to a physical chain and the symbolic juxtaposition of mundane materials and Pip’s actual life. Dickens makes clear that the …show more content…
Two juxtapositions are made, the first describing the difference in Pip’s futures with “iron or gold” (65). The iron is representative of being a blacksmith as it is seen as uglier and more brutish even though it is more durable and functionable. Living as a blacksmith would be less exciting and glamorous for Pip, but it holds stability and gives him something to be good at and content with. The gold is representative of being a gentleman as it seems much better and more beautiful when it is less useful except for being ornamental. He could live with a certain purpose in life and on a higher pedestal than others, but his life could easily be manipulated with less promise of useful tools being given to him. Pip’s entire future could be different based on this turn of events of going to Miss Havisham’s, it could be simpler with more convenience to him or more complicated with more money. Another juxtaposition is that of “thorns or flowers,” to show the contrasts between the realities of his possible futures (65). The thorns show the rough and ugly exterior Pip’s life could seem to be like even though it would be extremely strong and defensive. His life would be uneasily broken or messed with even though the cost of that is a less likeable appearance. The flowers show the beauty Pip’s life could be with the downside of being extremely fragile and breakable.
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.
Another way that Pip shows his discontent with his present life is by not wanting to be a blacksmith when it would be very practical for him. Pip's brother-in-law is a blacksmith which would make it easy for him to learn the trade. Also, Miss Havisham agreed to pay for his apprenticeship, yet Pip insists that he is better than that and is upset by that fact that he is just a commoner. He states his dissatisfaction" with my home, my trade and with everything" (773). Pip also turns away Biddy when she is something that is obtainable to him. Biddy is somebody in the story that really loves Pip, yet he turns her away and uses her to get what he wants. Pip also gives the impression that he is better than Biddy when he is no less a commoner than she is.
Beginning with Great expectations, in chapter one Dickens introduces us to ‘Pip’ by using repetition, imagery and symbolism. On the surface, the audience may notice repetition of Pip’s name which communicates his character to the audience in the quote “So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip”. This creates a playful, child-like tone as it emphasises a simple style of speaking which is normally reserved for children or less developed speakers. Also, the imagery of a Pip, or seed, is implanted into the readers minds as they first meet this character which may cause the reader to associate Pip with being timid, or other connotations of the word ‘small’ (as a pip). However, a pip may also represent other parts to Pip’s personality as
Now, just because Pip is a gentleman, he realizes that his materialistic hope of being a gentleman does not make him happy. In this quote, Victorian era values become evident, as money, which is desired and thought to make happiness, changes Pip’s feeling from happy to dissatisfied. Now, the reader realizes that Dickens believes that money has nothing to do with being happy, but, what a society values. Finally, Pip realizes Estella’s adversity when she declares “suffering has been stronger than all other teaching[s]" (515). Through this quote, Pip finally realizes that, even though Estella was brought up with money, it does not help her any more than being raised without money.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In his numerous literary works, Dickens strong sense of right and wrong, and his recognition of the many injustices present in Victorian Society are clearly displayed. There is no better an example of these strong set of ideals then those portrayed in his novel, Great Expectations, which tells the story of Pip, a young boy who is initially fooled into believing that material wealth is a substitute for the real moral values a gentleman should posses. However, through the many trials and tribulations he is forced to go through, he is finally able to identify what it means to be a "true gentleman", one that has acquired true wealth and value. It is only then that he is able to see the real meaning behind Matthew Pocket’s wise words, that:
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 ...
Charles Dickens’ aptly titled novel Great Expectations focuses on the journey of the stories chief protagonist, Pip, to fulfill the expectations of his life that have been set for him by external forces. The fusing of the seemingly unattainable aspects of high society and upper class, coupled with Pip’s insatiable desire to reach such status, drives him to realize these expectations that have been prescribed for him. The encompassing desire that he feels stems from his experiences with Mrs. Havisham and the unbridled passion that he feels for Estella. Pip realizes that due to the society-imposed caste system that he is trapped in, he will never be able to acquire Estella’s love working as a lowly blacksmith at the forge. The gloomy realizations that Pip is undergoing cause him to categorically despise everything about himself, feeling ashamed for the life he is living when illuminated by the throngs of the upper class.
Charles Dickens is well known for his distinctive writing style. Few authors before or since are as adept at bringing a character to life for the reader as he was. His novels are populated with characters who seem real to his readers, perhaps even reminding them of someone they know. What readers may not know, however, is that Dickens often based some of his most famous characters, those both beloved or reviled, on people in his own life. It is possible to see the important people, places, and events of Dickens' life thinly disguised in his fiction. Stylistically, evidence of this can be seen in Great Expectations. For instance, semblances of his mother, father, past loves, and even Dickens himself are visible in the novel. However, Dickens' past influenced not only character and plot devices in Great Expectations, but also the very syntax he used to create his fiction. Parallels can be seen between his musings on his personal life and his portrayal of people and places in Great Expectations.
On the surface, Great Expectations appears to be simply the story of Pip from his early childhood to his early adulthood, and a recollection of the events and people that Pip encounters throughout his life. In other words, it is a well written story of a young man's life growing up in England in the early nineteenth century. At first glance, it may appear this way, an interesting narrative of youth, love, success and failure, all of which are the makings of an entertaining novel. However, Great Expectations is much more. Pip's story is not simply a recollection of the events of his past. The recollection of his past is important in that it is essential in his development throughout the novel, until the very end. The experiences that Pip has as a young boy are important in his maturation into young adulthood.
At the start of the novel, Pip is a poor uneducated orphan boy unaware of social classes, or even the existence of such things. As a result, he is content with what he has and who he knows. Moving on in life, he comes across new people from all spectrums of social classes, and his content turns to shame and greed, as he longs to be “better”. All of a sudden Pip becomes ashamed of both his family and his social class. As Pip begins to understand the true meaning of life, his childish attitude does however change. “Pip learns as he grows older, however, that having money and power and being of a higher social class is not necessarily better than having true friends that care about him - even if they are of a lower social class” (Bloom, “Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations” 236). As the aforementioned quote suggests, in the final stages of the story Pip’s mindset changes for the better and Pip is able to give up having the “money and the power” and focuses ...
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