Great Expectations
Theme Essay
Ever wonder what was one of the main themes in the novel, Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens? Well, Pip trusts a few people before his “great expectations”, but he also made lifelong friends when he goes to London. Before Pip’s “great expectations”, he had one person he told everything to and trusted them. When Pip went to London, he became good friends with his roommate, who helped him throughout the novel. But finally, without helping his benefactor before he had “great expectations” Pip would have never gotten a chance to view life as a gentleman. Without friendship, Pip would have never had so many great things happen to him, or get to experience the world as much as he would have without friendship.
In Stage One, Pip has a strong friendship with Biddy, Mr. Wopsle’s great aunt’s grand-daughter, which teaches him that he can have a friend that he trusts. She was an orphan just like Pip, and when he went to Mr. Wopsle’s great aunt’s school, he was taught mostly by Biddy. Pip is not afraid to tell Biddy anything, for example meeting the convict to telling her about Estella. “I woke that the best step I could take towards making myself uncommon was to get out of Biddy everything she knew… Biddy, who was the most obliging of girls, immediately said she would, and indeed began to carry out her promise within five minutes” (67). Pip wants to learn everything he can to be a gentleman. He knows Biddy is smart and Biddy is willing to help him learn more. This shows that Biddy cares about Pip and his learning. “‘Biddy’ I cried, getting up, putting my arm around her neck… ‘I shall always tell you everything’” (119). Pip has a good friendship with Biddy and can tell Biddy everything, including that he...
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...e never had the opportunity to have “great expectations” and to find true friendship. Magwitch may look like a convict, but he can also be a true friend.
In Dickens novel, friendship helps Pip find his “great expectations” and also helps him learn that he can be happy without wealth. Pip and Biddy are very close friends and pip trusts her enough to tell her a lot of thoughts on his mind. When Pip goes to London, him and Herbert become best friends and stick by each other’s sides. When Pip learns that his benefactor is Magwitch, he does not like it but soon after, Pip stands by Magwitch’s side tell the very end. Without friendship in pip’s life, he would have not had as much happy of a life because without Joe, he would be living with his mean sister alone, and without Magwitch, he would have never gotten “great expectations”. Friendship is an important role of life.
Magwitch states, “As I giv ' you to understand just now, I 'm famous for it. It was the money left me, and the gains of the first few year wot I sent home to Mr. Jaggers—all for you—when he first come arter you, agreeable to my letter.” (Dickens 300). By stating this, Magwitch demonstrates that increasing his wealth and notability permits Pip and himself to be able to escape their social classes, and thus allows him to endeavor to become a gentleman and obtain what he was told was impossible. Magwitch does this so that like Compeyson, he can have a better life and less trouble with law enforcement, adding to his motivation to switch classes as he desires to seek revenge with Compeyson by progressing beyond his tailored lower class. Magwitch uses his position as benefactor to subtly compose himself to receive fame off of Pip’s success, bitterly attempting to show Compeyson that he can make a gentleman and redeem himself after his twofold jail sentence. By utilizing his position in this way, Magwitch overcomes injustice and achieves
Charles Dickens used Great Expectations as a forum for presenting his views of human nature. This essay will explore friendship, generosity, love, cruelty and other aspects of human nature presented by Dickens over 100 years ago.
As humans grow up, they must all experience the awkward phase of the teen years, as they leave behind childhood for adulthood. In these times of transformations, one often finds themselves marred by the wicked ways of naïve love and the humiliation many experience. In Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations, one is able to watch an innocent boy’s transformation into a mature gentleman who is still a child at heart. Pip is plagued with the daunting responsibilities of adulthood and deciding where his loyalties lay. Torn between the alluring world of the rich and his roots in a destitute village, Pip must make a decision.
In Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens, the author begins the tale by revealing Pip's arrogance towards previous companions. By the end of the story, we learn of Pip's love and compassion for everyone.
Many people strive for things that are out of their reach. In the novel Great Expectations, Charles Dickens shows the themes of personal ambition and discontent with present conditions. The main character, Pip, shows early on in the story that he is unhappy with his current situation. Throughout the story he strives for the things that are beyond his reach, and is apathetic to the things that he can obtain. Pip demonstrates this by striving for Estella when he could have Biddy, and yearning to be a gentleman when he could be a blacksmith.
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.
No novel boasts more varied and unique character relationships than Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. This essay will serve to analyze three different relationships, paying special attention to the qualities that each uphold. Dickens created three types of character relationships: true friends, betrayed friends, and loving relatives.
Living in a world where much about a person’s character is measured by wealth, it has become increasingly important to maintain a separation between material characteristics and intangible moral values. Pip, in Dickens’ Great Expectations, must learn from his series of disappointments and realize the importance of self-reliance over acceptance to social norms. Through his unwavering faith in wealthy “ideals,” such as Miss Havisham and Estella, Pip develops both emotionally and morally, learning that surface appearances never reveal the truth in a person’s heart.
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.
Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens is a fascinating tale of love and fortune. The main character, Pip, is a dynamic character who undergoes many changes through the course of the book. Throughout this analysis the character, Pip will be identified and his gradual change through the story will be surveyed.
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 ...
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.
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is a coming-of-age story written from December 1860 to 1861. Great Expectations follows the life of Phillip Pirrip, self-named Pip; as his “infant tongue could make of both name nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.” (I, Page 3) The story begins with Pip as a young child, destined to be the apprentice of his blacksmith brother-in-law, Joe Gargery. After spending time with an upper-class elderly woman, Miss Havesham and her adopted daughter, Estella, Estella, with whom he has fallen in love, he realizes that she could never love a person as common as himself, and his view on the social classes change. Pip’s view of society grows and changes with him, from anticipating the apprenticeship of Joe, to the idealization of the gentle class, and eventually turning to the disrespect of the lower class of which he once belonged. Although Pip may grow and physically mature, he did not necessarily grow to be a better person. He loses his childhood innocence and compassion, in exchange for the ways of the gentlemen.