As American poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, once said, “To be yourself, in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” In other words, pressure and temptation lurk in every corner and create a self-image that everyone feels obligated to have and people should not fear being themselves for the sake of others’ opinions. Charles Dickens conveys this message primarily through his protagonist, Pip, in his classic Great Expectations. Before Pip gained wealth and confidence, he constantly tried to impress the beautiful, yet arrogant Estella. His expectations only fueled the burning desire to please her, along with his drastic change in attitude. Estella, side effects of wealth, and loyal family like Joe all helped Pip realize that others can help form his opinions, but he possesses the ability to act for himself. Throughout Great Expectations, Charles Dickens implies that in order to attain true happiness, people must stay true to their character regardless of negative influences.
In Great Expectations, Pip became elegant and educated for Estella, which succeeded, but failed to win Estella’s heart. Pip begins to feel conscious of his common beginnings and family to impress her, although he knows that Estella holds no feelings for him. Estella often tests his resilience with her verbal and mental abuse, particularly when “her eyes laughed mischievously” (101) at him. Pip obviously senses that Estella is not a compassionate person, yet he is still drawn to her. He wanted to gain her respect by rising to her own level through any means possible, even using an innocent friend like Biddy for his own selfish purposes. Pip decides “that the best step I could take towards making [himself] un-common ...
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...kens’ Great Expectations. He now realizes that no one, not even Estella and Joe, can set standards for who he should be. Another significant lesson Pip learns is the effect money should have on his life. Wealth should not affect or change who he is in any way, shape, or form. Even in a Victorian society, riches are merely a means of obtaining concrete possessions and personality is what really counts. Pip’s many disappointments in himself show that others can influence his character, but he makes the final choice that reflects his real persona to the world. The reader should now sense that straying away from one’s true nature can only result in unhappiness and confusion. In Great Expectations, Pip overcomes the ultimate challenge of ignoring the world’s values in life and emerging as one of God’s unique individuals.
Works Cited
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Great Expectations tells the ultimate rags to riches story of the Orphan Pip. Dickens takes his readers through life changing events that ultimately mold the identity of the main character. Dividing these events into sections will provide the basis for interpreting which events had the most profound effect on Pip’s identity towards the end of the novel. These life-changing events provide the catalyst for the development of Pip’s character from childhood, his adolescence, maturing into a social gentleman, and finally becoming a self-aware man of society.
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.
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 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...
In the novel Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Pip is a character of many different perspectives because his life story is being told from his older self. At a young age, Pip is overrun by innocence such of that as every young child should have, but as he grows older his worldly view changes. He becomes ever more embarrassed of his background and longs to become a gentleman. His story and his character continually change through trials and tribulations and mold the final Pip that narrates this story.
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.
Throughout Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, the main character Pip goes through quite the journey and it ends up changing who is he. These experiences and rough patches end up proving how mentally tough Pip is. From Pip’s self-awareness progression over the book, and with the type of book Dickens wrote characters end up realizing by the end of the book who they really are. Also, class structure within the book shapes Pip and dictates what Pip goes through on his journey. When the Mid Victorian Period comes around, the middle class explodes as capitalism does as well and this has a big role in Pip’s experiences.
This mockery and abuse is the thing that initially kindles Pip’s desire to become a gentleman, breeding the great expectations which go on to drive Pip throughout the course of the novel. This is also a clear example of the theme of class inequality present throughout the novel, with Estella and Miss Havisham looking down on Pip, whilst Pip aspires to reach their position in the class hierarchy – therefore, these women serve to further a major theme of Pip’s Bildungsroman. Miss Havisham also teaches Estella to “deceive and entrap [men]” (311), in order “to wreak revenge on all the male sex” (177) – an outlook which dictates most of Estella’s interactions with Pip, often disturbing him, and, as a result of his fixation on her, strongly influencing his development throughout his
In Great Expectations the character Pip is one of the many characters that suffer through the book. One situation that Pip suffers in is the fact the loves Estella and she doesn’t even care on bit about her. All in the book he is trying to show Estella that he truly loves her and
Great Expectations is essentially a novel of the education of a young man in the lesson of life. Pip is analyzing himself through his memories and from the point of view of maturity (“Charles Dickens” 1).
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.
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.