Great Expectations: Responding To Pip's Personal Life

‘Great Expectations’ is a highly acclaimed novel written by Charles Dickens first published in 1861, which follows the journey of a young boy commonly known as Pip (his Christian name being Phillip Pirrip) who is born into a middle-class family but goes on to receive riches from a mysterious benefactor in order to pursue his childhood dream in becoming a gentleman. The story is written in first person with Charles Dickens writing back about the experiences of Pip. Although it isn’t his autobiography the events in the book do, in many ways, mirror the events of his childhood. This allows him to reflect on Pip’s actions, which helps in the readers understanding of the Novel.

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.

Charles Dickens’ aptly titled novel Great Expectations focuses on the journey of the stories chief protagonist, Pip, to fulfill the expectations of his life that have been set for him by external forces. The fusing of the seemingly unattainable aspects of high society and upper class, coupled with Pip’s insatiable desire to reach such status, drives him to realize these expectations that have been prescribed for him. The encompassing desire that he feels stems from his experiences with Mrs. Havisham and the unbridled passion that he feels for Estella. Pip realizes that due to the society-imposed caste system that he is trapped in, he will never be able to acquire

Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations the main character Pip starts out as a young boy in Kent, a small village. As the story progresses we see Pip go through his early life, living with his sister and brother-in-law Mr. and Mrs. Joe. While Pip is going through is through his life he shows multiple psychological disorders. In Charles Dickens Great Expectations there are multiple psych disorders shown such as Manic-depression disorder and Social Phobia.

In Charles Dicken’s Great Expectations Pip does not appreciate the surprise fulfillment of his dreams and only becomes selfish and condescending toward those not as fortunate as he. Pip’s character deration as a result of his inheritance is evidenced by his desire to serve “a gallon of condescension, upon everybody in the village” (Dickens 151). Dickens uses Pips ungrateful attitude toward his home town to illustrate the corruption of aspirations when one did not have to work for his success. Pips continued under appreciation of his success and subsequent failure allow Dickens to rebuild Pip through hard work to and achieve “happiness “and fulfill his dreams meaningfully (Dickens 487). Dickens informs the reader that meaningless wealth and success is worthless, and that true success comes from hard work and passion.

In the novel, “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens, the main character Philip Pirrip, who is known as “Pip” throughout the novel, has a series of great expectations that he goes through. The title of the novel, as many other great book titles, comes with various meanings that are present in the story. In the literal sense Pip’s “great expectations” refer to the 19th century meaning, which involve receiving a large inheritance. Meanwhile, on a deeper level Pip sets goals that he hopes to accomplish in the future which could also be referred to as his “great expectations”. The title, with these multiple meanings that are attached to it, ends up being ironic after all is said and done at the end of the novel.

Robin Gilmore writes in his article “The Pursuit of Gentility” about Dickens’ writing skills and his way of describing the upperclass without really having been born into it. Dickens was able to incorporate his experience into his novel Great Expectations when he describes the character Pip and how he wants to become a gentleman (Gilmore 576-582). Furthermore, Gilmore adds an important argument when he talks about the Victorian age and how people may be able to work themselves up to higher classes but never manage to become equals to those who were born “a gentleman”. Classes of that time were slowly merging together and this is the real reason why Pip was able to reach his status of a “gentleman” in the end. However, people of that time were still aware of the discrepancy between classes and were afraid of losing their status as wealthy and understood people of upper class. Pip’s guardian Mr. Jaggers once claims that you have to have a certain education, knowledge and behavior in order to become accepted as a member of the upper class, “It is considered that you must be better educated in accordance with your altered position, and that you will be alive to the importance and necessity of at once entering on that advantage” (Dickens 110). This shows that education has a huge impact on what you become. However, more importantly, the family you are born into decides whether or not you will have the privilege of receiving this education of higher standards. Pip is surrounded by a multi-layered society that influences him throughout his life. All the circumstances of ongoing change in society as well as technology etc. have a huge

Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations chronicles Pip’s struggle to improve his status in English society. He is originally taught that his happiness directly correlates to the amount of wealth he accumulates. Two characters he encounters—Joe Gargery and Miss Havisham—help him realize that this notion is an unfortunate misconception, and their experiences show Pip that he not live his life by such norms.

Great Expectations was a novel written by Charles Dickens. It was first published in serial form from 1st December 1860 and then further on was released in book form in August 1861, although was previously issued by David Copperfield in 1849. This novel reworks his own childhood as a first-person narrative; Dickens was fortunate and had an advantage of writing Great Expectations due to him living in the Victorian times, and he related his life experiences with the main character of the play, ‘Pip’. Charles opened the play with the character Pip; his name was short for his Christian name Philip. In the Victorian times there were 3 different classes, these were known as the upper class, middle class and lower class. Pip belonged to the

Charles Dickens uses his own opinions to develop the larger-than-life characters in Great Expectations. The novel is written from the point of view of the protagonist, Pip. Pip guides the reader through his life, describing the different stages from childhood to manhood. Many judgments are made regarding the other characters, and Pip's views of them are constantly changing according to his place in the social hierarchy. For instance, Pip feels total admiration that, later, turns to total shame for the man who raised him, Joe Gargery. The primary theme in this novel questions whether being in a higher social and economic class helps a person to achieve true happiness. This idea is shown through Pip's innocence at the forge, visits

Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens that thoroughly captures the adventures of growing up. The book details the life of a boy through his many stages of life, until he is finally a grown man, wizened by his previous encounters. Dickens’ emotions in this book are very sincere, because he had a similar experience when his family went to debtor’s prison. Pip starts as a young boy, unaware of social class, who then becomes a snob, overcome by the power of money, and finally grows into a mature, hardworking man, knowing that there is much more to life than money.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is a book that follows Phillip "Pip" Pirrip through his life. A main goal of Pip's is to be educated. How he achieves this goal, or even how he views the importance of this goal, changes throughout his life. Pip, throughout his life, had three major stages that are best defined by the parts of the book they take up. The first is in the beginning, and is centered around the young, kind, and compassionate Pip. The middle section of the book is about the Pip who is being educated, who is hard and even mean to those around him, and who sees education as a goal to work toward for the sake of being above others. The final stage of Pip's life is the Pip we see in the end of the book. He sees that he was not a

As a boy, Dickens himself grew up with a father who didn’t make a lot of money and lived a lower class lifestyle. When we was only 12 he was forced to work in a factory so he could make the money he needed to bail his dad out of jail. Therefore in Great Expectations, he shows how he sympathizes with the lower class. The main way Dickens shows how he feels about the classes is through pip. One example of Dickens's expressing his feelings towards the class differences is through Pip’s realizations towards the end of the book. “...pondering, as I went along, on all I had seen, and deeply revolving that I was a common labouring-boy; that my hands were coarse; that my boots were thick; that I had fallen into a despicable habit of calling knaves Jacks; that I was much more ignorant than I had considered myself last night, and generally that I was in a low-lived bad way.” (113). By Pip realizing that being accepted into the upper class depends on how he actually lives not just how he appears, Dickens shows his belief that class is determined by more than just surface qualities. Similarly, this shows how Dickens believes that the class status of a person doesn’t always show a person's true personality. To illustrate his view of class education differences Dickens uses Pip’s transition from a uneducated blacksmith to a gentleman. Dickens also shows how he feels about the class wealth difference through a difference between Miss Havisham, and Joe and Pip. Miss Havisham had plenty of money but didn’t live the happiest life. On the other hand, Pip and Joe were rather poor and didn’t have a lot of money, but always found a way to pay off debts and live a decently enjoyable life (36). This proves how Dickens thinks that, while the classes might be determined by things like money, wealth isn’t a necessity to having a good life. While some

Great Expectations’ main character, Phillip Pirrip- generally known as Pip- had a rough upbringing as a child. His sister, Mrs. Joe had “brought him up by hand”, after their parents and five brothers had all been laid to rest many years ago. Another character, Herbert Pocket experienced a bizarre childhood, though in a different manner. Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations develops through the novel following Pip, a young “common boy” who grew up in the countryside. As he matured so did his love for a girl of higher class, Estella. However, being a common boy, Pip was not good enough for his Estella, thus once he was given an opportunity to become a gentleman in London he seized it without much hesitation. Charles Dickens’ had his own

Great Expectations was written by Charles Dickens during the Victorian period and follows the life of Pip, our protagonist, as he works his way up the social hierarchy of the Victorian society. It was first published as series from 1860 to 1861. It is written as a bildungsroman: a genre of writing which pursues the life of a character from their childhood to their adult life. This novel has been hugely influenced by the author’s own life; who also worked his way up the social ladder. The story is written in a retrospective narrator: older Pip is looking back to his childhood and telling the story.