How Does Pip Change Throughout The Novel

977 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Theme of social class in Great Expectations

Great Expectations People can change in the blink of an eye. You can look away for one second and once you look back they are gone. In the book ‘Great Expectations’ written by Charles Dickens, Pip changes a lot throughout. He changes from a poor little boy to a grown gentleman very quickly. “I took the opportunity of being alone in the courtyard to look at my coarse hands and my common boots,” was said by Pip when he was in Miss Havisham's garden (76-77). He realized that Miss Havisham's things were very nice and he was dressed very sloppy and he didn’t like how he was so he wanted to change. Pip is originally from the lowest class you can be in, but as time went on he grew to be a wonderful gentleman. Pip is a very kind gentleman with a huge heart. When Pip was a little boy, he helped a convict even though he had done …show more content…

When Pip was younger he wasn’t treated very well, but once he was brought to Miss Havisham, he was loved dearly. When he grew up he was brought by Mr. Jaggers to England so he could become a gentleman, and he was treated so greatly there. When Pip lived in England and was a gentleman, his ‘great expectations’ were met because he was the highest class and he was treated like royalty. Pip had said “I wished Joe had been brought up, and then I should have been so too,” because Pip wanted to be a higher class, and he wanted to be so proper like Estella and Miss Havisham (77). He knew he wasn’t as proper and he was a mess most of the time. He wished that he had been taught to be a gentleman. Pip’s social class affected Magwitch because once Magwitch was out of trouble he wanted to pay Pip back. Magwitch worked a lot so he could pay Pip, but Magwitch never had enough money to take care

Show More
Related

  • How Does The Satis House Influence Pip's Behavior

    292 Words  | 1 Pages

    Often, people are influenced to change their behavior or personality in different settings and situations. Pip, the main character in Charles Dickens Great Expectations, was no exception.

    Read More

  • Pip's Perspective Of Magwitch In Great Expectations By Charles Dickens

    366 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, the author shows how Pip's perspective of Magwitch's changes throughout the last stage of the novel. The first time that we see Pip's perspective changing, is when Orlick holds Pip captive in the old sluice house. When Pip realizes that Orlick is planning to kill him, he starts to consider the consequences of his death. Instead of thinking about how he will never see his beloved Estella again, or how he will also never eat a fancy diner again; he thinks about Magwitch and how he will blame Pip for deserting him when he is caught and brought to jail. This really shows how Pip's perspective of Magwitch has changed because when Magwitch first came to stay with Pip, he

    Read More

  • Essay On Great Expectations

    534 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the novel Great Expectations, Pip's character and personality goes through some transformations. He is somewhat similar at the beginning and end, but very different while growing up. He is influenced by many characters, but two in particular:Estella and Magwitch, the convict from the marshes. Some things that cause strength or growth in a person are responsibility, discipline, and surrounding oneself around people who are challenging and inspiring. He goes through many changes some good and some bad

    Read More

  • Great Expectations

    825 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • How Does Magwitch Influence Pip's Life

    130 Words  | 1 Pages

    Even the two were important in Pip’s life, he didn’t necessarily glean a great deal of influence from them. He still retained a lot of his own personality traits, which in the case of Jaggers was a good thing. He helped Magwitch because he likely felt obligated to do so, considering that Magwitch had left him the money. Even in hatching a complex escape route, the plan was still foiled and Pip of course ends up losing all of his fortune in the end. But while Magwitch considered himself a father figure to Pip, perhaps the reason that Magwitch and Jaggers (both less than decent people in many areas of their lives) did not influence who Pip would become as a person is because Pip did not necessarily idolize them.

    Read More

  • The Maturation of Pip in Great Expectations

    695 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the end of the novel, Great Expectations, Pip redefines himself as a dependable honorable character. For example, when Pip is hovering over Provis' deathbed he says, "Dear Magwitch, I must tell you, now at last, You had a child once whom you loved and lost, she lived and found powerful friends.

    Read More

  • Great Expectations: Pip’s Transition

    671 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Pip's Education

    1547 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Great Expectations: Changes in the Character of Pip

    895 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Book Report on Great Expectations

    1697 Words  | 4 Pages

    There are so many important characters in this book that it would take me longer to describe the characters and there importance than it would to summarize the book. So I will keep it to a minimum with just a few crucial people. First there is Pip he is the main character in this book. When he was very young his parents died and know he is raised by his sister and her husband Joe Pip is a very innocent and caring person who wants to have a greater fate than the one presently owned. But is burdened by the fact that he lives in poverty. Next there is Mrs. Joe who raised Pip but is very mean to him and controlling of everyone in her house. Then Joe he is the person that gives Pip help. They play games and explain a lot of things to Pip he is about the only nice person in Pips life. Mrs. Havasham she lets Pip come over to her house and is very wealthy and the people around him think that she will raise him to be a gentleman. But hates men and never changes out of her wedding dress. She also has a daughter named Estella that was adopted and is very beautiful. But is being raised to hate men as well and is using her looks to break there hearts. Magwitch escapes from prison at the beginning of Great Expectations and terrorizes Pip in the cemetery. But out of Kindness Pip still bring the man what he asks for. Pip's kindness, however, makes a deep impression on him, and he subsequently devotes himself to making a fortune and using it to elevate Pip into a higher social class. Herbert pocket who is a good friend of Pip's and gives him advice throughout the book.

    Read More

  • Magwitch's Manipulations of Pip in Great Expectations

    2502 Words  | 6 Pages

    In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens criticizes the motivation of the lower classes to rise to the level of wealth and education held by the upper classes by showing the extent to which Pip is exploited by Magwitch to meet these goals. To meet the expectations of the gentleman, Pip must leave his family and any possibility of earning his living in order to satisfy the educational and societal demands of this standard. Magwitch, a social deviant, hopes to prove his viability by using his unfortunate circumstances to produce a gentleman entirely by his own effort. Magwitch exhibits Pip to the world as a gentleman who is not hardened by labor, but he does so by his own physical labor. Charles Dickens uses references to the exploitation that took place in the fairs of the nineteenth century to criticize Pip's gentlemanly aspirations by showing how Magwitch's creation of a gentleman through his physical labor resembles the often dishonest efforts of a fair Exhibitor to display his oddities.

    Read More

  • Importance of Social Class in Charles Dickens's Great Expectations

    882 Words  | 2 Pages

    (p. 209). He creates this metaphor that he is a common blacksmith and Pip is a goldsmith. This difference in social class brought about their separation. Other characters that were also judged by their social class were Magwitch and Compeyson. They were both on trial for the same crime, but Compeyson got off easier than Magwitch because of his higher social class.

    Read More

  • Miss Havisham's Ambition In Great Expectations

    915 Words  | 2 Pages

    Pip, in Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, is an idealist. Whenever he envisions something greater than what he already has, he passionately desires to obtain the improvement and better himself. In the Victorian Era, as an underprivileged orphan though, dreams are often easier dreamt than accomplished. Pip however, has an instinctive ambitious drive. His unstoppable willpower, plus the benefit of a benefactor, elevates him from the bottom, to the top of the social, educational, and moral food chain in the Victorian Era.

    Read More

  • Pip's Development Through Character Interactions

    1288 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout Dickens’ novel Great Expectations, the character, personality, and social beliefs of Pip undergo complete transformations as he interacts with an ever-changing pool of characters presented in the book. Pip’s moral values remain more or less constant at the beginning and the end; however, it is evident that in the time between, the years of his maturation and coming of adulthood, he is fledgling to find his place in society. Although Pip is influenced by many characters throughout the novel, his two most influential role models are: Estella, the object of Miss Havisham’s revenge against men, and Magwitch, the benevolent convict. Exposing himself to such diverse characters Pip has to learn to discern right from wrong and chose role models who are worthy of the title.

    Read More

  • The Development of Pip in Great Expectations

    533 Words  | 2 Pages

    As Pip grows throughout the novel, he develops and matures from a naive, young boy to a moral gentleman by the three main stages that take place throughout his life.

    Read More

More about How Does Pip Change Throughout The Novel

Open Document