Essay on Charles Dickens' Great Expectations

Pip’s early life is detailed to show that it is not an ideal one. With both his parents deceased, he is brought up by the hand of his sister Mrs. Joe, and her husband Joe the blacksmith. While visiting the cemetery one day, Pip meets Abel Magwitch, an escaped prisoner who hides in the marshes nearby. He is a “fearful man, all in gray, with a great iron on his leg. A man with no hat, and broken shoes, and with an old rag tied around his head.” (Dickens 2) In addition to his unruly looks, he “limped, and shivered, and glared, and growled” (Dickens 2) which added on to his menacing aura. He threatens and demands Pip to get him a file and “wittles.” (Dickens 5) Fearful and obedient, Pip does so. Stealing these items

isn't as close to Pip as he used to be, as he now calls him Mr Pip,

that he, the convict Pip met at the marshes, is the man who gave Pip

Pips life however is not turning out as he wants and he becomes an apprentice to his brother in-law Joe, until one fateful day, a lawyer named Jagger’s informs him that a secret benefactor has left Pip with a large fortune. Excited with the news Pip agrees to go to London immediately so he can learn the ways of a gentleman. In hope that it is indeed Miss

think this is a big turn in the story as Pip always thought it was

This is Pip’s life story in one passage. Even though he has been through many dark times, he has seen just enough light to keep him going. He’s been faced with challenged at every turn, and has had to stop to think things through many times. He has bee afraid to do what he knew was right, and he’s come closer than ever with new

We come to see this ambition in Pip after his first visit to Satis House. During his visit he meets a cold-hearted yet beautiful young girl named Estella who insults his attire. Later on when he goes to the courtyard Pip reflects upon this and says, "I took the

When Pip was a young boy, he instantly connected to Joe Gargery who was a father-figure to him and taught him many important lessons such as friendship. When a benefactor presents Pip with an auspicious offer to become a man in London, Joe states “if you think as money can make compensation to me for the loss of the little child-what come to the forge-and ever the best friends!” Joe proves that money wasn’t going to end their friendship, although he wants what was best for Pip. During his journey to London, Pip

Despair can be a symptom of it.“For some, it defines a fleeting mood, for others an outward physical appearance of sadness, and for others a diagnosable clinical disorder.” (Oyama et al.) Pip had a rough childhood and an his adulthood, “I consumed the whole time in thinking how strange it was that I should be encompassed by all this taint of prison and crime; that in my childhood out on our lonely marshes on a winter evening I should have first encountered it; that, it should have reappeared in two occasions, starting out like a stain that was faded but not gone; that, it should in this new way provide my fortune and advancement.” (Dickens 207). Throughout the book he had always bad things happen to him, pretty much non stop. It seems like whatever he got there was a consequence. Suicide is common in depression. “While most psychiatric disorders are nonfatal, clinical depression can lead to death. About 60 percent of individuals who commit suicide have a mood disorder such as depression at the time. In a lifetime, however, only about 7 percent of men and 1 percent of women with lifetime histories of depression will commit suicide.” (Omoya et al). Whenever you are alone and depressed, all you can do is think about yourself in those times of suicide. “Many a time of an evening, when I sat alone looking at the fire, I thought, after all there was no fire like the forge fire and the kitchen at home.” (Dickens 213). Pip has his thoughts for

Pip goes to the forge and feels terrible about himself, and then he finds out from Jaggers that he can become a gentleman. In London he meets Herbert and they become best friends. He finds out more about Miss Havisham. Pip helps Herbert become a ship investor. Pip tries to help his benefactor, Magwitch, escape to main land Europe (264).

Pip is sent to Miss Havisham’s house because she wanted a child to come and play there. She asked Uncle Pumblechook if he knew any children and he suggested Pip. Pip feels common after he leaves and wishes to go back. He believes this is a day that shaped him and later that night looks back on it with nostalgia, even though it has only been a few hours. When Pip describes his day to his family he lies about it. He feels the need to do this because he doesn’t believe that Miss Havisham will be understood by his family.

Pip's evolution from innocence to loss of innocence with a return to innocence as a spiritual prodigal son who recalled the simple truths of Joe Gargery. Pip,who resides and works with Herbert Pocket, holds a view about himself, they owed so much to Herbert's ever cheerful industry and readiness that he frequently thought how he had figured that old idea of his inaptitude, until the day he was enlightened by the reflection that perhaps the inaptitude had never been in him at all, but had been within himself.

An eerie setting he encounters is the Satis house. Pip describes it as "The cold wind seemed to blow colder there, than outside the gate..." (54). The Satis house is Pip's first taste of "higher society". Unfortunately it is a bitter one because it leaves him torn between being insulted for being a lower class boy by Estella and his attraction to Estella. The Satis house makes Pip yearn for the life of wealth and privilege it represents.

Pip went see Estella at the train station, he continued thinking they would marry Estella in a future. When Pip turned 21 years old, he finally was and adult and didn’t had to go to Jaggers to access his

During Pip’s journey, readers see his apparent ambitions of pursuing the goal of becoming a gentleman. When readers first meet Pip, he is extremely dedicated to making sure he puts himself on a path of success and would “have sacrificed, if it had been necessary to do so” (Holbrook 125). Although the economic conditions were not favoring Pip, he ultimately believes that he will be able to advance through society and “stays visionary on his reach of his goals” (Wilson 98). Through the interactions in the Satis House with Estella and Miss Havisham, Pip is disillusioned into believing that “[Estella] could provide him with the happiness he had not received as a child without parents” (Holbrook 29). This love prevents him from realizing that he was straying from the friends and relatives he had been so close to when he was a child, especially Joe and Biddy. After being provided with the funds to attend his private education, Pip views himself with a “new sense of unwarranted arrogance” that ultimately occurs from his elevation of social status (Holbrook 134). His callousness and disregard to the family and friends that he loves ultimately haunts him later in his life, specifically when he learns Magwitch is his benefactor. He feels “sick and distraught” with the way he had been acting (Wilson 25). At that moment, he also recognized that this feeling of longing for becoming a gentleman for his own satisfaction was the result of “his own ignorant vision” (Mar). When Pip returns to repent for the sins he had committed to the Satis House, he cries to Estella and Miss Havisham about how he realizes that it was never meant to be his intention to marry her. This disillusion “captivated and held [Pip] from pursuing a satisfactory future,” where he could have easily