preview

Females Influences on Pip in Great Expectations Essay

Decent Essays

Females Influences on Pip in Great Expectations

By Charles Dickens

There are many influences on Pip’s life regarding his thoughts on women. This would therefore mean that Pip would take his views on women from those that were a played a major role in his life, for example:

* Mrs Joe Gargery is Pip’s sister and has raised Pip because their parents have died. Mrs Joe Gargery has raised both Joe Gargery and Pip by hand as she is not happy with the way her life has turned out.

* Ms Havisham is an old, frail woman who has been devastated by her fiancé who ‘stood her up’ at the reception of their wedding. She has now dedicated her life to destroy the love lives of …show more content…

Another feature in Mrs Joe Gargery’s character that may have affected Pip is Mrs Joe’s snobbish behaviour. She showed this behaviour when her uncle was to visit especially when her uncle, who has had a ‘successful’ life.

She plays a great part in the rearing of Pip as she was a very close relation of Pip although she raised him by ‘hand’. Unlike all the other female characters of ‘Great Expectations’, Mrs Gargery is the first female Pip grows up with and therefore Pip will take all he’s perceptions of all the female characters he meets from the characteristics of his sister.

She influences Pip to see women as very violent people, but at the same time may influence Pip to become a stronger person as these situations could return during life. ‘To attack or to be attacked?’ may have been the major question on the mind of Mrs Joe. But is it not better to be in control than to be controlled?

How does Ms Havisham influence |Pip?

Ms Havisham, like Mrs Joe Gargery, is a snob and shows this by the way she refers to the characters in the play such as Pip. for instance, she refers to Pip as “Boy” instead of Pip. By this we can see that Ms Havisham sees herself as a ‘higher individual’ in class than Pip (which she is) and has no respect for those in a ‘lower class’ than her.

Ms Havisham is a woman who lives with hatred (of men) in her life

Get Access