In the final chapters of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Pip reconciles with his benefactor Magwitch as well as his brother-in-law, Joe. Magwitch was sent to prison in which Pip makes daily visits. The novel stated, “...I saw him every day…” (Dickens, 438). Pip continued to visit his benefactor as he becomes more and more ill. After Magwitch’s death, Pip sends a prayer for him. When he realizes his mistakes, Pip begins to reconcile with Joe, who had always loved him. He begins to realize that positions in the social class matter little. Pip stated, “‘And now, though I know you have already done it in your own kind hearts, pray tell me, both, that you forgive me!’” (Dickens, 462). Pip wishes for Joe’s and Biddy’s forgiveness of how
However, when he meets Estella and she ridicules him for his mannerisms and appearance, he instantly becomes distraught about those things. It is a huge blow to his self-esteem and he becomes insecure. Instead of standing by Joe, Pip leaves to pursue higher social
Pip's fairy tale like view on the upper class is shattered when Magwitch, a convict, declares that he's Pip'd benefactor. Pip can't believe that a low-class criminal had wealth rivaling that of a wealthy gentleman's. It's a wake up call for Pip. (page 294) Magwitch's death also brings out Pip's softer, more sentimental side as Pip learns to love a person for who they are now and not what their standing or past was. (page 428) Pip sells all his belongings to pay for his debts and starts anew as a humble clerk at Clarriker and Herbert's company.
The money and the status have caused Pip to become insensitive and very apprehensive about what other people thought of him. In rational mind, Joe decides to leave London and return home. Future Joe returns to London to care for Pip when he learns that he is ill, despite Pip’s wrong treatment of him. Dickens pens, “For, the tenderness of Joe was so beautifully proportioned to my need, that I was like a child in his hands. He would sit and talk to me in the old confidence, and with the old simplicity, and in the old unassertive protecting way, so that I would half believe that all my life since the old kitchen was one of the mental troubles of the fever that was gone” (Dickens 466).
With Joe’s metaphor of metalsmiths, Dickens demonstrates the isolating effect of social class. Pip no longer works as a
Then, this reunion at Satis House in chapter 8, changes Pips’s mind and feelings towards his environment, as he starts to think about his origins and the people who surrounds him and feelings of embarrassment come to his mind, especially for Joe’s manners being so common to the eyes of the higher classes. However, Pip will later learn, social classes do not influence a person’s true character and way of being: what matters is honesty, sympathy, humanity, goodness and benevolence, and this is perfectly reflected on Joe’s words in chapter 9: “lookee here, Pip, at what is said to you by a true friend. Which this to you the true friend say. If you can’t
Pip first learns the effect of money after telling Mr. Trabb, the tailor, he has come into great fortune. When Pip goes to buy a suit, he notices how respectful Mr. Trabb is, “he opened his arms, and took the liberty of touching me on the outside of each elbow” (144). Next, Pumblechook has a new admiration for Pip as he transitions into the upper class. Pip describes that Pumblechook repeatedly wants to shake hands with him when he says, “we shook hands for the hundredth time at least, and he ordered a young carter out of my way…” (148). Pip’s final stop before he departs to his new life is Miss Havishams to say goodbye.
Throughout the novel, Pip experiences a feeling of classlessness and detachment in both the city and country that can only be attributed to his emotional abuse from Mrs Joe and Estella. James Crowley analyzes Pip’s
Pip uses the things he has learned from Magwitch with the people that mattered in his life; including Magwitch. During her recovery, Pip forgave Miss Havisham for the “deeper
He says “I only saw a man who had meant to be my benefactor and who felt affectionately, gratefully, and generously, towards me with great constancy through a series of years. I only saw in him a much better man than I had been to Joe” (495). Pip realizes that Magwich is a good man and has been a big part of his life and he never appreciated it until now. He thought that he was not as a good as Mrs. Havisham because he was a manual worker and convict but in the end, he was a gentle good man. Pip is finally able to return kindness and love to Joe.
In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens tells the story in the perspective of a young boy growing up in England during the Victorian Era. Philip “Pip” Pirrip is the protagonist, where we discover his life experiences and expectations through his narration. Pip’s sister, Mrs. Joe, and her husband, Mr. Joe, greatly influence his childhood. He meets many people later on who teaches him that not everyone will be happy and what it really means to have “great expectations”. Through Pip’s journey, Dickens suggests that happiness becomes achievable if one learns to accept and fix their flaws.
Initially, the lesson of how to have compassion portrays the idea of learning through suffering in the novel. One example that proves this is when Estella shows compassion towards Pip. She has been condescending towards Pip throughout the novel because she has been taught to break the hearts of all the male sex. After she had lived a miserable life with an abusive husband, she realizes how kind Pip has been to her even though she has been very insulting. Another good piece of evidence is when Magwitch shows benevolence for Pip.
He undergoes a contrasting change of character, kind, ambitious and in some cases, immature. Young Pip is a gentle boy who treats people with kindness. His kindness goes out to help a convict, Magwitch, that he meets on the marshes. Pip is terrified at the sight of a man with a leg iron.
Through her attempts she replaces her daughter’s heart with ice and breaks young men’s hearts. In Dickens’ bildungsroman Great Expectations, Pip and Miss Havisham’s morally ambiguous characterization helps develop the theme, that one needs to learn to be resilient. The internal struggles that Pip experiences through the novel, reveal his displeasure to his settings and
Great expectations is written by Charles Dickens in 1860. The novel is about an orphan named Pip, he lives with his older sister Mrs. Joe Gargery. She is mean and bossy, but luckily, for Pip his sister is married to Mr. Joe Gargery. He is very nice and kind to Pip, and they are sort of best friends. The novel starts with Pip being on the graveyard, visiting his parents.
In that way, it is possible to get a happy ending even after experiencing something similar to what Pip felt. In the end, Pip became friends with Estella, even after knowing that she was the cause for his change which lead to all his misery in life. A moral theme that was taught in Great Expectations is to not change yourself for anyone or any reason. It is important to always keep your individuality and not to be susceptible to being swayed by someone. Overall, everyone should be their own individual person and not change for