Great Expectations: Females Influence on Pip

Great Expectations: Females Influence on Pip

In the opening of the novel, Pip is a naïve young boy who as been

brought up in a traditional Victorian manner. He is a very innocent

and kind-hearted boy who when asked brings the convict the file and

food, here we also see that Pip is quite a gullible child as when

threatened by the convict Abel Magwitch who says that he’ll get a

fellow convict to ‘tear his heart and liver out while he sleeps’

unless he does as the convict says, and Pip being an innocent and

gullible young boy believes him and acquires for him these items.

When Pip meets Estella his behaviour and attitude towards his current

life changes, this is due no-doubt to Estella’s continual name calling

and putting down of Pip. She constantly calls him ‘common’ and other

names which make him feel ashamed of his current quaint life-style

with Joe at the forge; this shows what a large impact Estella has on

him. It is at this stage that we see Pip begin to develop a snobbish

side to his persona; he begins to become dissatisfied with his life at

the forge and his apprenticeship to become a Blacksmith with Joe.

However it is not until Pip discovers that he has come into a great

fortune that he reveals the true snobbery of his character as he is

quick to drop all of his former lower class friends and family so as

they do not hold him back and embarrass him when he becomes a

gentleman. He feels some pangs of guilt about this decision; however

he thinks better of them and goes ahead with his decision anyway. Here

we see his snobbery developing, as he now has elevated himself above

his lower class former friends and family, just as Estel...

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...ham's most defining characteristic

being her Psychosis, and yet unsurprisingly we see that Pip is

unaffected. Pip could also learn from Miss Havisham that the rich

are very eccentric and are allowed to get away with anything, but

again we see that Pip is unscathed by this. In fact there is very

little which Pip takes away from his visits to Satis house, except an

ever fonder heart for Estella.

Miss Havisham is the character in ‘Great Expectations’ who managed to

deny Pip the one thing that he longed for and desired with all his

heart, Estella. She succeeded in ruining his life which he was

surprisingly grateful for, especially as he was always so kind and

polite to her. Miss Havisham is the one who tempted Pip and encouraged

him to fall in love with Estella and then made sure that he was denied

such love.