In Great Expectations, there are many odd points of view of love and what love should mean. Pip’s love toward Estella is a yearning craze, and he is blinded by her fascinating beauty. On the other hand, Uncle Joe has a very respected love for Mrs. Joe, considering how harshly she treats him, Mrs. Joe doesn’t seem to love Joe at all. Biddy’s love for Pip seems true, until Pip leaves his home to become a gentleman. Estella also gets married to a man that loves her, Bently Drummle, but does not return his love, and chooses to marry for profits only. Love plays a large part in this story, binding some of the characters together, and ruining other’s relationships.
When Pip was very young, he was confused at what love should really be. It is no surprise that Pip has a very odd point of view about women at this point in the story. He’s met so many harsh women, he must think at his young age, that most women are like that. Estella, Pip’s first love, looks down on him, and Miss Havisham, confuses him and even tells Estella to break his heart. It is a mystery to know how Pip actually learns what love is with all the confusion from when he was young. Estella does not return Pip’s love when they are young, but when they grow older, she learns to love him dearly as a friend. When Pip traveled to London to become a gentleman, he becomes very close friends with the convict Magwitch. Later, Pip finds out that Magwitch is Estella’s real father, and on his deathbed, Pip, by his side, admits h...
She has taken Estella under her wing and raised her to be a heartbreaker. She even says in the novel, “Break their hearts, my pride and hope…have no mercy!” Miss Havisham clearly lives vicariously through Estella and enjoys seeing Pip struggle to win Estella over. Furthermore, Miss Havisham continuously brings up the topic of her heartbreak and rancor at men. She states, “…when they lay me dead…will be the finished curse upon him…” She hopes to have one last piece of her vindictiveness rest upon the man who left her at the altar. Moreover, Miss Havisham also makes Pip put his hand on her heart at one point in the story. When he does so, she simply tells him that it is “broken.” Similarly, Miss Havisham also tells Pip, “…this heap of decay…The mice have gnawed at it, and sharper teeth than teeth of mice have gnawed at me.” This demonstrates the idea that Miss Havisham is still heartbroken and apoplectic over her being “jilted.” She routinely proclaims how her heart is broken, which in turn paves the way for her acrimony to set in, which then results in her creating taunting Estella as her last revenge on all young men who vie for the affection of
After Estella defies Miss Havisham and breaks Pip’s heart by announcing her marriage to Drummle, “the spectral figure of Miss Havisham, her hand still covering her heart, seemed all resolved into a ghastly stare of pity and remorse” (Dickens, ). In this moment, several significant changes happen to Miss Havisham. For one, she sees the heartbreak and agony she experienced when she was left at the altar mirrored in Pip. Instead of feeling satisfied and healed, Miss Havisham’s pain is only deepened by her guilt. Many other things also backfire. Miss Havisham realizes the monster she created from Estella by filling her with only pride, not love, is her ultimate downfall. From this, her delusion is vanished as she sees the world for what it truly is with Pip as a mirror for seeing the wrong in her actions. Trying to redeem herself, Miss Havisham begs for forgiveness, helps Herbert Pocket, and leaves a fortune to Herbert’s father. These actions display maturity because she sacrifices her pride by begging for Pip’s forgiveness and giving away the weapon she used to enthrall people- money. Additionally, after Pip shows her grace even after experiencing Miss Havisham’s pain, it is possible that she could realize that she should forgive herself and everyone else too. By being able to overcome her pride and her unforgivingness, we can infer that Miss Havisham is able to move on from the
The title of Great Expectations captures the main character comprehensively yet simply. Pips ambitions and expectations for himself are actual tangible things he believes he will achieve, and this belief is both his downfall and his success. His ambitions cause great discord, and stand to cause many more, and yet they are the reason Pip moves so greatly through life.
Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens is a compelling work that highlights the life of a young man Pip from childhood to adulthood. In his life this character goes through so many experiences that all contribute towards his growth and development. The theme of love is dominant in this novel as presented by the main characters and the other characters. The different types of love articulated in the story have important roles in the life of Pip as the main character. The life of Pip as the story unfolds is full of so many miseries. He is an individual who want to achieve a new status in the society but he has to face the social injustice that seems to be in his way towards success. Characters like Miss Havisham, Estella, Drummle, Herbert Pocket and Magwitch play a crucial role in the development of the theme of love. They are in one way or another associated with Pip and their interaction impact on his life in different ways. The course of life taken by Pip’s character is to a great extent influenced by the kind of love he is exposed to by all these characters.
Pip starts to view the world differently when he meets a wealthy woman named Miss Havisham and her adopted child Estella. Miss Havisham is a wealthy old woman who lives in a manor called Satis House near Pip’s village. Pip’s views change when Estella starts pointing out and criticizing Pip’s low social class and his unrefined manners. Estella calls Pip a “boy”, implying Estella views herself as above Pip. For example, when Miss Havisham requests for her to play w...
When Pip starts to regularly visit Miss. Havisham’s Satis House, he gradually apprehends how low his placement is in the social class. Miss. Havisham is a wealthy old lady out of touch with reality. She and her adopted daughter, Estella live in a mansion that is, theoretically, stopped in time. Estella is a beautiful girl, but don’t be fooled by the eye, beneath her beauty lies a terribly rude, cold-hearted monster raised to trick and manipulate the hearts of men. She victimized Pip, and constantly criticized him, making comments to attack and destruct Pip’s self-esteem. She sees him as nothing more than a common boy, and she takes pleasure in emotionally hurting Pip. “He calls the knaves, jacks this boy, and what coarse hands and thick boots” (63). Previously, Pip had thought everyone had called knaves jacks, but now that he...
In Great Expectations, Pip was one of lower class. Although he did not have the fortunes, Pip was happy. Once he was introduced to the rich Miss Havisham and her daughter Estella, he fell in love. Estella became the object of his affection, yet because she was considered high class, there wou...
The first way that Pip demonstrates these themes is by reaching for things that are unattainable to him. For example, Pip is in love with Estella, but he can't have her because she doesn't like him. Also Miss Havisham's man-hating ways have brushed off on her, and she wants nothing to do with Pip. Another thing that Pip strives for is to become a gentleman. He cannot become a gentleman, however, because he is just a commoner. He is very smitten, for example, with "the beautiful young lady at Miss Havisham's and she is more beautiful than anybody ever was and I admire her dreadfully and I want to be a gentleman on her account" (780). Thus, Pip wants to become a gentleman only for Estella.
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.
Estella is the main incident in Pip’s life that ultimately leads to his obnoxious and contemptible behavior in the future. This is because of his love for her, even after their first encounter he describes Estella as “very pretty” yet “very insulting”. Unperturbed by this description, Estella continues her disgraceful treatment of the young and impressionable boy when she feeds, and treats him as if he were an animal, continuing to address him like an animal, she does not bother to learn his name, still referring to as boy.
taunts Pip and is very cruel to him, but he still falls in love with her. Miss Havisham is teaching Estella to
Pip’s first and only love is Estella. Estella is very mean and nasty to Pip. Although he receives verbal abuse from Estella, he continues to like her and will not stop liking her, he sees the good inside of her and will not stop until the good comes out. In contrast to her treatment of Pip as a child when she had called him a common laboratory boy with coarse hands and thick boots, she tries to explain to him that emotion is something that she is incapable of feeling. The fact of that is evidence of his illusion, not her cruelty.
Appropriately, the characters who bring about Pip's "expectations" play an integral part in his life; they influence him and shape his development throughout the novel. Firstly, Miss Havisham's was a significant impact on Pip's life. It is at Satis house, her strange, decaying mansion, that he initially comes into contact with the upper class life for which he later aspires. As his first contact with a wealthy person, Miss Havisham prompts Pip to try and better himself financially. She also, indirectly, pressures Pip into changing through her influence over Estella. Estella's cruel behaviour towards Pip is the direct result of Miss Havisham's teachings. Embittered by her own broken engagement, Miss Havisham taught the girl to be cruel to men, so she learned to "break their hearts and have no mercy!" (Dickens, 108). Thus, the beautiful Estella's cold reaction to Pip and the way she patronizes him are major reasons why he felt the need to change. It was she who convinced him that he was "in a low-lived bad way" (75) and needed to heighten his social status in order to be worthy of her notice. The impact of Miss Havisham's financial splendor and indirect cruelty make her a crucial instigator of change in Pip.
Adopted by Miss Havisham as a baby, Estella rises to a high social standing. Raised to be protected from Miss Havisham’s mistakes in love, she is trained to repress notions of romantic love. By “[stealing] her heart away and [putting] ice in its place,” Miss Havisham thus prevents Estella from gaining the ability to achieve true happiness in life. The true meaning and feeling of love is unknown to Estella. Condescension and insensibility to others is sowed into her being early on, and she only can become more incapable of loving as she matures. When Pip is hired to become her playmate, she revels in the opportunity to exercise her prowess. Encouraged by Miss Havisham, Estella hones her ability to break hearts with Pip, but he is only the first of the many destined to befall that fate.
and breeding, who did not necessarily posses the moral values and graces a true gentleman should have. After his initial visit to Satis House, Pip was infatuated by Estella’s beauty, wealth, and self importance. He allowed himself to be degraded by her scornful references to his "coarse hands", and "thick boots", not realizing at this point that these factors are unimportant on the route to becoming a true gentleman. At that very moment, he deludes himself into believing that if he were to meet Estella’s interpretations of gentlemanly conduct, that she would regard him as her equal. Unfortunately, he completely fails to recognize the true moral values present in Joe and Biddy, and is attracted instead by a fantasized version of Miss Havisham’s and Estella’s lifestyles. He sees his visit to Satis House as the first link in the long chain of events which will lead to his eventually becoming a gentleman.