Expectations Great Expectations

How can an individual dazzled by social class and wealth realize that their materialistic world is not as important as love and loyalty to others? In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens presents the reader with Philip Pirrip, also known as Pip, a working class boy born in the marshy outskirts of London, England. Orphaned at the age of two, Pip is adopted by his sister, who is his only surviving relative, and Joe Gargery, his town 's blacksmith. When the wealthiest woman in the area, Miss Havisham, asks Pip to entertain her at her house, he meets Estella, the girl of his dreams and Miss Havisham’s adopted daughter. Both Miss Havisham and Estella show him that he is only “coarse and common” (107). In his shame, Pip is determined to climb the social ranks in 19th-century England in order to be good enough to marry Estella. Through Pip’s journey in Great Expectations, Dickens suggests that the ambition to improve one’s social status can prove extraneous compared to their character, if one humbly allows that love and loyalty to outweigh materialism.

The difference in class structures of Victorian England was dependent on the lifestyles and jobs of individuals. The Victorian era of England lasted from 1837 to 1901. The Victorian England hierarchy was divided into three different classes; the upper, middle, and lower class and was reliant of occupational differences. The hierarchy was very rigid and there was little social mobility, because of the fact that normally a person was born into their class and even their future career. In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens displays the model of class structure through the character Pip Pirrup. Pip struggles to find his place within the hierarchy. Throughout the novel, Dickens writes about the different classes in England. Pip belongs the working class due to his family and is set to be a blacksmith, but finds himself in the societal shift that occurred in England in the nineteenth century. Pip wants to achieve his great expectations and change the path that his life was going on. He wants create a better life for himself than what he would have had if he followed in the footsteps of his family. Dickens also creates various characters in the different classes to expose the relationship between each class. An individual’s class was a dominant factor in creating an identity. People of the upper classes thought very little of the people “below” them. Throughout his journey, Pip reveals information about how the different social classes lived and how members of each

This all begins when he is at Miss Havisham’s and her daughter Estella comments on his lifestyle. As soon as he sees her, Pip immediately adores Estella, he thinks she is so beautiful. When Miss havisham tells Estella to play cards with Pip, she responds in a way that is crushing to Pip; “With this boy! Why, he is a common labouring-boy!” (Dickens 61). They also comment on Pip’s hands and how they are so course from labouring. Pip never before thought of himself as common and he finds this very insulting. He knows he doesn't want to be classified like this again, especially by the one he admires. From then on, Pip desires to impress Estella. He doesn't live in the biggest house and he doesn't come from the wealthiest family and this upsets him. However, he doesn’t even see how good he has it living the life that he lives in the home that he lives in. This makes him ungrateful and unseeing to the things that once made him happy. Pip is ashamed of what he has: “ It is a most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home” (Dickens Ch 14). Pip is so blinded by how he wants to be higher class for Estella that he doesn't see how good he does have it because he is so focused on what more he wants. Because of the way he wants to be seen by Estella, he dreams much of being a gentleman but he

Throughout the novel, Pip wants to be a gentleman. It is easy to see, however, that Pip does not understand what a true gentleman is. Pip thinks a gentleman is a man of fine breeding with a good education, wearing fancy clothes, and showing good manners. If anything, Joe (a man of humble breeding with no education, wearing blacksmith's clothes, showing poor manners) is the best example of a gentleman in the whole book! He is a gentleman on the inside - at the heart. He is able to forgive and loves Pip unconditionally. Joe's great love for Pip can be compared to our Heavenly Father's love for us. Both loves are unconditional. No matter how many times we turn away from God, He is there every time to take us back, forgiving us completely.

In the novel “Great Expectations”, the author, Charles Dickens, shows the views of the people of different social classes. The main character, known as Pip, shows these many views throughout his own life. Pip’s misguided interpretation of what it is to be a gentleman leads him to push people away that matter most to him, follow deceptive dreams, and reject the love that is continually shown to him.

Throughout Great Expectations, the main character Pip seems to undergo a transformation. He starts off as a common boy who will soon be a blacksmith apprentice and will learn from his sister 's husband, Joe, who also acts as a father figure for Pip. Pip has a lot of respect for money and strongly desires to become a gentleman to impress the girl that he is in love with, Estella. Because of this he travels to London where he learns the way of a gentleman. With the people that Pip knows back home and the new ones that he meets in London, his behavior and attitude is clearly influenced by the people that he surrounds himself with. Sometimes it’s a good influence and other times it’s not. Pip also seems to have a set idea of what a gentleman is and because of that he misinterprets what an actual gentleman is suppose to be like.

In Great Expectations, Pip yearns to become a gentleman in order to win the affection of Estella, the daughter of a wealthy and influential woman. To become a gentleman worthy of Estella’s love, Pip works to improve his education and mannerisms. However, as Pip becomes more educated and knowledgeable about the world, he begins to find his closest friends and family embarrassing and inferior to him. Through the connections he builds during his journey of adopting the role of being a suitable suitor for Estella, he is blessed with the opportunity of becoming an apprentice for a famous lawyer in London which only allows this complex of his to grow. Growing to the point of where he is so embarrassed of his family that he doesn’t want them to be seen by his associates, and views their presence as a chore: “Not with pleasure, though I was bound to him by so many ties; no; with considerable disturbance, some mortification, and a keen sense of incongruity,” (Dickens.218). He is talking about his own

Charles Dickens, author of Great Expectations, provides a perfect example of the hope of class mobility. The novel portrays very diverse and varied social classes which spread from a diligent, hardworking peasant (Joe) to a good-natured middle class man (Mr. Wemmick) to a rich, beautiful young girl (Estella). Pip, in particular, elevates in the social pyramid from a common boy to a gentleman with great expectations. With his rise in society, he also alters his attitude, from being a caring child to an apathetic gentleman. During this process, Pip learns how he should act and how to become a real gentleman. Social mobility and wealth, furthermore, carves a disposition and how a character is looked upon.

In Great Expectations, they deal with many social issues. One of which is what it means to be a gentleman. Throughout the story, told through the narration of Pip, the meaning of what it means to be a gentleman takes on several different forms. Charles Dickens masterfully manipulates our view of what a gentleman of the Victorian Era truly is. Pip learns what a gentleman of the time really is through his experiences.

This goal is probably the main connecting factor between the two men. This goal; to make it big in life and become rich. Pip’s first taste of this lifestyle came when he visited Miss Havisham, and from that point on he wanted to be a gentleman and Impress Estella. Dickens’ main reasons for wanting to become a gentleman and become rich were different. Mainly he was tired of being poor and wanted to not have to worry about every single bit of money he was spending.

In the book Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Pip was an orphan living with his sister and her husband Joe Gargery who was a blacksmith. Pip was met by a convict. The convict scares Pip into stealing food and a file for him. Pip meets Miss Havisham and Estella. Pip falls in love with Estella, but she can’t love anyone. Miss Havisham raised Estella to degrade men because she was left at her wedding, so she’s getting payback. Pip wants to be a gentleman because of how Estella is rich and silky and not dirty. One day Pip got an anonymous enormous amount of money so he decides to leave for London to be trained like a gentleman. Pip’s wealth and position changes him to a dissipated life of idleness.

How important is social class in society? The notion of people being separated by social class and living in completely different worlds is timeless, as we see in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and James Cameron’s film Titanic. The novel, Great Expectations, written by Charles Dickens has used this as one of its most important themes. The internal situation of his novel, which is set in London in the 19th century, featuring a young, poor boy named Pip as he faces difficult challenges to improve his social being, is meant to comment the importance of social class during Dickens’s time and to criticize the Victorian society. If Dickens were still alive writing novels today, many of the same problems would still be relevant today. This essay will examine how the setting, characters and plot of Charles

My first piece of supporting evidence of this theme is when Pip first blatantly states that he wants to be a gentleman. Dickens uses this idea a lot in the story and emphasizes how wrong Pip’s understanding of a gentleman was. Pip first makes this realization at Satis House, where Miss Havisham lives and where Estella is living at the time. This scene is Dickens giving the reader indirect information and a hint of foreshadowing. Pip doesn’t audibly express that he wants to become a gentleman until his conversation with Biddy. “’Well!’ said I, ‘we must talk together a little more, as

The settings of Great Expectations are Pip’s homes, one home that he lives in during his childhood in Kent, England, and the other that he lives in when he is grown in London, England. Social status was a big deal in the mid-nineteenth century. The rich were highly respected and liked by all, and the poor were treated unkindly and were sometimes made fun of. The rich could have any job that they liked, but the poor would almost always take over the job that their father had. The narrator of Great Expectations is Pip. If the novel were narrated from any other point of view, it would not have the same effect as it does now.

of his life when he is an adult. Because of this, there are "two" Pips