Great Expectations: Gods Law Vs. Human Law Essay

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.

Soon after the incident in the graveyard, Pip is introduced to a class of people deemed superior to his own only by virtue of their wealth. From them, Pip learns to judge others, and himself, by the quantity and quality of their material possessions, rather than the quantity and quality of their humanity. Thus blinded by the tangible, or material, Pip adopts the values of this better class and goes off in blind pursuit of such possessions as will make him an acceptable member of their numbers.

Home in today’s society can be described in many ways, but is ultimately expressed as more of a feeling of safety and love. Sonsyrea Tate claims "You can leave home all you want, but home will never leave you." In essence, the feeling of home is a part of the character and who he/she will become. In Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, Pip examines the true meaning of home and how the subjective opinion of home can reflect who a person becomes. He illustrates this idea using recurring appearances of home-like symbols, the way Pip’s definition of home changes throughout the novel, and how he shows Pip’s acquired feelings after moving into higher society.

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.

Throughout history, people have been trying to create an improved, fair, and equal system of justice, not only to better society in which one lives, but to also find a sense of meaning in what responsibilities people should hold within their civilizations in order to create this just way of living. As early as the Old Testament within the Bible, we see examples of how the Hebrews formed their own justice. This can be seen in the in text of the Ten Commandments which were written in a form of law. Laws were significant even in this basic form of context, such as the Ten Commandments, which offered the ideas of right and wrongdoings and the sin for violating others for one’s own benefit. This not only

Throughout the book Pip was not happy with his life and wanted to become something more; his name meant “seed”, like a seed Pip was “planted” and the reader watches him grow. Estella told Pip that he was just a common-labouring boy. (chapter 8) Pip had never thought as himself as common, but now he wanted to become a gentleman so that he would be worthy of Estella. However once Pip becomes a gentleman he realizes that it is not what he thought it would be. Consequently he starts to neglect Joe and Biddy, however in the end, Pip starts to change back to the person he used to be and tries to repair his relationship with Joe and Biddy. In addition he gives his money to Herbert so that he can go to merchant school and Herbert ends up giving Pip a job in the end. This shows that you gain from giving, if Pip would not have gave Herbert the money he would not have gotten the job offer.

Throughout Great Expectations by Charles Dickens parallelism is developed to show the outcome of characters who share parallel lives. A set of parallel characters can be recognized as Joe Gargery and Abel Magwitch. The characters both share common similarities in their own separate lives, to better progress the theme or plot in a sense of Great Expectations. In Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, the characters Joe and Magwitch reflect each other in several ways, such as being treated poorly, being shamed upon by others, and loving Pip dearly, which reveals one’s social class standing has no correlation to their true character.

The criminal justice system incorporates some of the standards of biblical justice, while disregarding others. Biblical and secular justice both require the recognition of a criminal act and necessitate the application of an appropriate punishment. When God established His law the ultimate goal intended was to bring justice that promotes forgiveness and restoration of the sinner in honor of His covenant with mankind. Psalm 130:3-4 says, “If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared” (KJV). Criminal law’s definition of justice suggests the idea of redemption while penalizing and punishing offenders in an effort to exact vengeance and maintain order and peace.

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 renowned poet, Richard Lovelace, once wrote that "Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage." Although many think of a prison as a physical building or a jailhouse, it can also be a state of mind. A great number of people are imprisoned mentally and emotionally. Charles Dickens expresses this message in his eminent novel, Great Expectations. This book is about a simple laboring boy who grew into a gentleman, and slowly realized that no matter what happened in his life it couldn't change who he was on the inside. On the road to this revelation, Pip meets many incarcerated people. Through these people, Dickens delivers the message that people can be

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

“That’s just what happens when you’re rich and you don’t have a job, you get crazy.” This line, spoken by Zoey Murphy in “Dear Evan Hansen,” could not have fit the ideas stated in Great Expectations any better. One of the major ideas conveyed consistently throughout Great Expectations is of never being satisfied, and the constant desire for wealth and fame. Also indirectly relayed through the novel very often is Charles Dicken’s social commentary. He looks down upon the desire for wealth and fame, and this is disguised through his descriptions of the middle class’s goal of becoming high-class, and high class mannerisms. This can also be connected to the 21st century.

There are salient junctures in Pip’s upbringing that make him who the person he was; this is a tale that in which Pip was soliciting for awareness of himself, as well he realized that his life had major elements of obscurity; due to the fact, he was presented clearly, two radical different lifestyle choices; one, involving a life as a blacksmith and the other; involving the path as life as am affluent prosperous gentleman. Dickens carefully wrote in the periods of Pip’s life and how those set of circumstances; affected by choice, as well affected Pip’s later choices he had made. The temptation of class and wealth perverted the actions of Pip and other people around him; Pip is therefore contemplating on how he was saved by reminiscence of the stages of his life. In the first stage; Pip encounters Magwitch; by accident, this affects the outcome of later events of his life; Pip is than introduced to Miss Havishism and Estella, he fell in love with Estella, and was dramatically persuaded by the promises he made to himself, from his encounters with Miss Havhishism and Estella. Dramatically; Pip than learned the truth about his wealth and that Magwitch was Estella 's father; this collapsed Pip’s vision of reality and forced him to alter his exceptions concerning the truth; Pip than had to save himself from his own selfishness, as well as his malice actions, to the ones who were faithful to him; finally, at the end Pip is a full grown adult and had gain

be seen when Joe covers for Pip when he is late home or when he says

Harshly administered punishment and conformity to order was emphasized from an early age, as indicated in Pip’s conflicted conscience in his choice for the lesser of two evils; robbing and lying to his sister, or risking potential bodily harm from an escaped convict. The dilemma renders Pip distressed, as if he “ had to make up [his] mind to leap from the top of a high house, or plunge into a great depth of water” (16). His perpetual guilt is attributed to his sister’s deontological