Great Expectations Coming Of Age Analysis

From pages 100 to 199 many different things happened to our young protagonist Pip. He became closer to Miss Havisham, and continued his complex relationship with Estella, until he was asked to leave the Satis House and become Joe’s blacksmith apprentice. Pip also begins to disregard his common lifestyle, and those within it, to continue his search for wealth and knowledge. Until he is prompted by the attack on his sister, who becomes brain damaged and incapacitated, to remember where he came from.

After the realization overcomes Joe, he is able to piece together more and more what reality has in store for his future. He knows that he can’t live a normal life, but he just wants to be able to experience being outside, away from the prison that he is trapped in for the rest of his life. When he is finally able

The whole time they were growing up he was the only thing that stayed the same in his ever-changing life. “… but it was the only childhood I was going to get. And Joe was just about the beginning and end of it. And now somebody had killed him. I sat there in the back of the police Chevorlet listening to a tiny voice in my head asking me what hell I was going to do about it.

Pip is content at the forge until pompous Uncle Pumblechook, Joe's uncle, takes him to visit to Satis House, for the first time, where he makes the acquaintance of Miss Havisham and Estella. Satis House is dismal and devoid of life with the exception of Estella, in Pip's eyes. Estella is a pretty, proud, and emotionless girl with who treats Pip badly yet still causes Pip to become completely infatuated with her. The forge now makes Pip ashamed and embarrassed because a coarse, common man could never spend an eternity with such a beauty. Pip is so confused about Estella's insults intertwined with her flirting that all he really knows is that he is ashamed of his social standing. Pip's love for Joe was shadowed by this embarrassment. "…I was ashamed of the dear good fellow—I know I was ashamed of

Pip at first seems like an innocent child safe from harm, hopelessly abandoned without his parents. Suddenly Pip is attacked by an unknown stranger, clad in chains and dishevelled in appearance. The immediacy of the situation seems comedic at first but develops to become the focus of the passage. The reader feels sorry for Pip as the escaped convict threaten him just after he realised the death of his parents. The

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

He gets apprenticed to Joe as a blacksmith and he hates it and he is still in love with Estella and he wishes he could wed her! Suddenly, a sketchy looking lawyer called Mr. Jaggers appears and tells Pip that a mysterious benefactor has given him tons of money. Pip selfishly abandons his job with Joe and moves to London assuming that his benefactor is Miss Havisham. Pip continues again on his deluded quest to become a gentlemen and woo Estella, despite her rejecting him over and over again! Pip meets several new characters in London such as his new best friend Matthew Pocket and his father, Herbert. He also meets a rival lawyer to Mr. Jaggers named Mr. Wemmick. Matthew and his father, alongside Wemmick and Jaggers, teach Pip how to be a gentlemen. Pip mostly succeeds but gets into some financial debts down the road. Pip becomes snobby and rude to Joe and his old

One of the characters who shapes Pip’s maturation is Magwitch. According to the Merriam Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature, “ [Magwitch] plays a major role in the growth and development of Pip”(“Magwitch”). This quote supports the idea that Magwitch is an essential secondary character in the novel. Magwitch grows as a supporting character in this part of the book because he realizes that Pip is disgusted with him since he thinks that Miss Havisham is his benefactor. This encounter makes both Pip and Magwitch realize that their expectations for one another are false, and brings them back to reality, thus developing both characters. Another character who aids in Pip’s psychological advancement is Startop. Pip’s initial impression of Startop is that he is a spoiled person from the upper class, along with Drummle. However, throughout the novel, Pip and Startop eventually become friends and when Pip and Herbert are planning Magwitch’s escape, Startop agrees to help them. This aid provided by Startop contrasts with Pip’s first impression of the higher social classes, showing Pip that not all people from the upper class are inconsiderate. This realization that not all members of the upper class makes Pip understand that he does not know everything about social class, just like how he thinks that he will end up with Estella but is wrong. Therefore, Startop’s development during this moment in the book helps to further advance Pip’s coming of

All of this Pip did for his best friend; he took money out of his own pocket and used it to make his friend's life better. The friends cared deeply for each other and loved each other sincerely. Every incident they found themselves in served to deepen their friendship.

The entire story is told through the eyes of an adult Pip, even though Pip is a small child during parts of it. In his early years, Pip was strongly influenced by his guardians, Joe Gargery and his wife, Mrs. Joe. Joe instills a sense of honesty, industry, and friendliness in Pip, while Mrs. Joe does a great deal to contribute to his desires and ambitions through her constant emphasis on pomp and property. Pip is generally good-natured and thoughtful, and very imaginative. His false values, which are bolstered by his love of Estella, decrease the amount of respect that he has for Joe. His alienation from Joe and Joe's values builds through the second part of the novel, as Pip becomes selfish, greedy, and foolish. During the period when his expectations are intact, his only morally positive act was to secretly help Herbert Pocket into a good position. Upon discovering that Magwitch is his benefactor, a new phase begins in Pip's moral evolution. At first, Pip no longer feels the same human compassion for Magwitch that he did the first time he saw him out on the marshes. Gradually, Pip changes his perception of Magwitch, unlearning what he has learned. Pip becomes concerned with the man, and not the expectations that he could provide. When Jaggers presents the thought that there may be a way for Pip to get his hands on Magwitch's property, the idea sounds hollow and utterly empty to Pip. Pip learns about Estella's parentage through

After being released from Ms. Havishams service, Pip becomes Joe’s apprentice. Four years into his apprenticeship, Pip is approached by a man who he vaguely remembers meeting once at the Satis House. This man is Jaggers, a lawyer, who proceeds to tell Pip that an anonymous benefactor has made Pip

In the first stage of Great Expectations, Pip begins as a contented boy, happy with his own way of life, but soon becomes humiliated by the ones he loves, and starts

The class system becomes a focal point in young Pip's life. Pip first began to think about his place in society when he was sent to visit the wealthy, old lady, Miss Havisham at her mansion. Through these visits Pip becomes socially conscious and begins to dislike his commonality. Almost instantly he wants to become uncommon. The adopted daughter of Miss Havisham, Estella, becomes a focal point and goal for Pip to obtain. Any morality Pip used to have slips away with each visit. Pip walks in circles in a barely lit room with Miss Havisam holding onto his shoulder and in doing so, Pip is somehow leaving behind all the values he was raised with. Miss Havisham and Estella end up corrupting Pip with the rich life. Greed, beauty and hubris are Pips downward spiral into an immoral life. Pip finds Estella very attractive, but Estella calls him common and this does not sit well with Pip. All of Pip's expectations of becoming a rich gentleman are due to this love of Estella.

There he confronts a convict, who is called Abel Magwitch. At this point of the story, it is not acknowledged that the convict has any importance. He just seems like a grubby ruffian trying to escape justice. As he threatens Pip for food and a file under the circumstances that he would be eaten if he didn’t comply. Pip obeys the convict and brings him some food and the file from the forge. Magwitch is also later known as Pip’s secret benefactor. He, along with Jaggers, helps Pip become a gentleman. Using Jaggers as a mutual medium, Magwitch finances Pip's basic needs into his transition to a higher

After he first met the rich Miss Havisham, Pip feels ashamed of his family's financial status and for being relative of a blacksmith. Dreaming to reach Estella's heart one day, he starts the process of an education by learning things on his own. Then, one day,