Great Expectations - Miss Havisham and Abel Magwitch are Living through Others

In the coming of age novel Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Pip and Estella are both puppets and prisoners under similar situations with contrasting intentions and origins. Estella is just a baby girl when her parents get into a fight and her mother threatens to murder her. She is taken away from her parents, leaving her father to believe she is dead, and given to Miss Havisham; a woman whose heart becomes shattered by a man from which she becomes obsessed over. Pip is a small boy whose family with the exception of his sadistic sister have all perished. Pip’s sister constantly beats him over the tiniest of things and when Joe, his sister’s husband, tries to step in, is only beaten harder.

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

Miss Havisham and Mrs. Joe. Joe and Magwitch. Estella and Biddy. Magwitch and Compeyson. These are only a few of the doubles in Great Expectations. Charles Dickens writes a lot of characters to be similar to each other, but with one or two major differences. In this book, some of these doubles include people such as; Miss Havisham and Mrs. Joe, Joe and Magwitch, Estella and Biddy, Matthew Pocket and Herbert, and many more people. Some people might say that this is unimportant, but here are some of the reasons that it is not. Doubles are recurring to show us how people can be very alike and different at the same time, and even though there are many doubles, this will be about three; Miss Havisham and Mrs. Joe, Magwitch and Compeyson, and Estella

Dickens depicts an eccentric and rather malevolence women who has been jilted on her wedding day. therefore, she has stopped all clocks and sits in her yellowing wedding dress. Furthermore, leaving her in an agony. Consequently, that agony and misery turned into hatred towards men. When Miss Havisham employs Pip to play with Estella, Pip sees an " old brick and dismal " house which reflective the owner. Furthermore, this shows the reader that Dickens tried to give a hint on how Miss Havisham appearance might be or could be, Alternatively he wanted to show that Miss Havisham has stopped caring on her appearance as she has stopped time and rots within the house and the house within her.

Here, seeing Pip along with the soldiers, the man must have suspected that it was Pip who led people to him. Therefore, while first reading this line, I interpreted this as a look of disbelief, disappointment, and even anger of

When Pip finds out it is shown that he does not appreciate him as he states “the abhorrence in which I held the man, the dread I had of him, the repugnance of which I shrank from him, could not have been exceeded if he had been some terrible beast”(319,320). Charles Dickens uses words such as abhorrence, dread, repugnance, and beast to show how Pip feels about the convict. He uses these words to illustrate that Pip is repulsed and disgusted by the convict. Pip does not appreciate the convict for making him a gentlemen and is so ashamed of the fact that the convict is the

Pip proves that he will go to the ends of the earth for the cruel girl when he decides to become intelligent. Also, in chapter one, Pip's life becomes entwined with that of an escaped convict. The orphan never once betrays the stranger's trust. Pip tossed his morals aside when he stole a file from Joe-his best friend-and wittles from his family. Continuing to not share any information about the convict, Pip is once again controlled by the man.

Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations narrates the coming of age of Philip Pirrip, better known as Pip. Throughout the novel, Pip, along with many other characters, grows both morally and socially. Miss Havisham, a seemingly generous elderly woman is a reoccurring character who is ultimately responsible for much of the plot. Throughout his novel, Charles Dickens utilizes the theme of moral improvement. This theme is most evident through the debilitated Miss Havisham.

This passage is one of the very first sentence to describe Pip. By this passage, Dickens made readers feel sympathy or empathy towards Pip by telling them that he is an orphan. This is very interesting and ironic because this contrast the title of the book. Pip expresses his love for Mr. Joe, a father figure, in this passage, but he also makes readers feel compassion by stating that “perhaps for no better reason… than because the dear fellow let [Pip] love him.” This shows how deserted he is. He expresses that he cannot love someone because they do not let him. This foreshadows that throughout the Pip’s journey, he will find what true love and true friendship is. In this passage, Pip decides not to tell Joe that Pip was the one who stole the pie and had given it to Magwitch. This important passage leads Pip, who is innocent and impeccable, to mature into an adult world. Pip learns how to tell lies to protect what is valuable to himself. He mentions himself as an “untaught genius” who “made the discovery of the line of action” for himself. This shows that the brutal world has forced Pip to give up his own morality to survive.

. felt affectionately, gratefully, and generously toward me with great constancy through a series of years” (Dickens 605). When the convict was arrested, Pip pledged never to leave his

Pip’s sister is particularly brutal and he seems to spend his early life in fear of her. Even though she has hurt him, he feels extremely guilty for stealing from her. After merely agreeing to steal the food for the convict he meets, Pip says, “If I slept at all that night, it was only to imagine myself drifting down the river…a ghostly pirate calling out to me… that I had better come ashore and be hanged at once, and not put it off. ”(p 24) The guilt Pip feels before he even steals anything overpowers him, keeping him awake at night.

him a file or Magwitch will kill him. Pip is sad because he had just

However, when he approaches her and questions her motives, she explains that she attempts to capture the hearts of people when saying to Pip, “‘Yes, and many others,- all of them but you’” (183). Estella is misleading in multiple ways that become clear during their conversation. Firstly, time and time again throughout the novel she uses her words to assure Pip that she has no heart or feelings. In contrast, she shows signs of caring when trying to spare his heart by saying that she was trying to make all the men jealous except for him. Secondly, through her actions she misleads him before explaining that making him jealous was unintentional. She misleads Pip into becoming entranced by her as well as jealous of the other men close to her. Later on, Estella ensures Pip she did not mean for her behavior to affect him, but either way, she misleads him. Additionally, at the end of the story, Estella encounters Pip after many years without contact at the old home of the late Miss Havisham. No longer the vain young girl she once was, and after having

The first example of Dickens’s claims is Pip’s first terrifying encounter with his future benefactor. As Pip visits his mother and father he is disrupted by a thundering voice, “‘Hold your noise!’ cried a terrible voice, as a man started up from among the graves. ‘Keep still, you little devil, or I’ll cut your throat’” (Dickens 5). As the convict threatens Pip’s life, it scares Pip for what is to come the unknown man. The convict makes Pip promise to steal food and a file to give for himself.

Pip had also been asking about “convicts” that night before he was sent to bed. In the middle of the Pip had gotten up and robbed his sister and brother in law of all their food and the tools that the old man wanted. As Pip comes back to the marshes he finds who he thinks is the man that wanted the things. But actually he isn't the man Pip was looking for. He was another man that was in the marshes. As Pip was near him he tried to swing at Pip but it was weak and he almost fell himself and then ran away. Pip came upon the original man and gave him the things. He had told the man about the other man in the marsh which seemed to bother him. As he was filing his leg Pip ran home. Pip starts to become guilty for helping the convict in the marshes. He becomes very worried that there is an officer to take him away as soon as he gets to the house. But only to come home to find Mrs. Joe (Pip’s sister) cooking dinner for Christmas later that night. Pip and Joe eat breakfast together and then go to Church together as Mrs. Joe stays home and cooks. Later that night when eating dinner Mr. Wopsle the church clerk asked for the