Great Expectations and Jane Eyre: Comparing and Contrasting Two Bildungsromans”

After gaining his wealth, Pip becomes snobby and lets everything go to his head. Now, after losing his wealth, we, as readers see a new change in Pip's personality. As for himself, Pip appears to feel ashamed of himself and his new class. In ​Great Expectations​, explaining Pip's feelings, Pip thinks, "Next day, I had the meanness to feign that I was under a binding promise to go down to Joe; but I was capable of almost any meanness towards Joe or his name." (Dickens, 391) Pips thoughts here, represent how he starts to realize how he has changed since moving to London. In his childhood, Pip was practically best friends with Joe, then becoming a gentleman, he has this sense that he is above Joe and essentially wanted nothing to do with

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.

Pip experiences the conflict of his personal ambitions of surpassing his social class in order to attain the girl of his dreams. He does not have any kind of desires for himself until he realizes that he is discontented with his social standing to meet Stella’s approval. As Pip starts his progression toward being a gentleman, he is given with numerous amounts of obstacles he must endure in order to attain his goals. When he is sent to London to learn how to become a gentleman, Pip treats his past friend’s appearance with scorn and lack of concern towards them. He has pushed the people who adore him sincerely far from him.

Pip's expectations were to become a gentleman wealthy in love and riches. In a way, he both failed and succeeded. He succeeded in becoming a gentleman of status but not one of heart, therefore he ultimately failed to be a gentleman because of the true meaning of such a word. In failing, he wised up and realized his errors and expanded his capacity for feeling; he matured as a person after all his blundering. In the last chapter, Pip compares how he's treated as an upper class man and a lower class man.

Often in literature, a story tells of a brief portion of a person’s life, often only spanning a few months to a year’s time, however, sometimes, a story will follow a character from their youth into their adulthood, allowing the reading to see how the character develops over the course of their life. Such as story is called a Bildungsroman; it follows one main character from their youth into adulthood. Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre follows the story of Jane Eyre as she goes from a young orphan being sent to school for the first time, into her time as a governess, dependent on her boss for survival, and eventually ending as an individual of equal standing as her husband. Jane Eyre is a clear example of a Bildungsroman as it illustrates the story of Jane's life, beginning with her as a young child being abused by her aunt and following as she goes through school and work as a governess until she ends the story as an independent, grown woman.

In Great Expectations, the novel primarily revolves around the life of Philip Pirrip who is better known as Pip. Pip who is also the narrator reflects on his past as he changes throughout the novel which defines him as a dynamic character. Early in the novel Pip was quite oblivious to his “commonness” until several events such as working for Miss Havisham changed his perspective entirely. In the process of becoming a gentleman, Pip’s attitude and perspective on life were changed. Through Pip’s narration, he describes some of his unfavorable qualities as he changes throughout his life. Charles Dickens allows the readers to see Pip’s development and change of values as he shifts from social classes which reflects the negative consequences of pursuing wealth and social status.

Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens, follows its main character Pip go through a variety of feelings and experiences that many individuals face as they grow up. Two of the most influential experiences that shape Pip's life and lead him into adulthood are gaining a massive fortune from an unknown beneficiary and falling in love with Estella. These two exciting and life-changing experiences ultimately change Pip's view of the world for better by introducing him to new characters and social experiences. However, it also changes Pip for worse by changing his relationships with his past life. By the end of the novel, Pip comes of age by finally understanding he never really had a chance to become a gentleman and win over Estella and that all he had done was ruin his relationship with his true home

He initially believed that London would be a bustling city full of gentleman and upper-class citizens. However, as soon as he stepped foot in the city, Pip “became fascinated by the dismal atmosphere of the place,” (Dickens, p.__) and he gives varying descriptions of the grimy, bloody atmosphere over the next several chapters. Just as much, Pip believed that his benefactor was Miss Havisham and that he would be destined for Estella with a life of luxuries, only to discover the reality that Provis, a scrappy convict with a bounty on his head, was his sponsor all along. Furthermore, the young gentleman believed that his rise in status would distance him from his lifelong association with criminals and poor wealth- but his expectations only brought him closer to both of those things. Association with Magwitch tied Pip into the lifelong conflict between the convict and Compeyson, and the outcome of his expectations was ultimately debt. No matter what he inherited or where he resided, Pip could not cut his permanent ties with his past.

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 the 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 an affluent and prosperous gentleman. Dickens carefully wrote in the periods of Pip’s life; and how those set of circumstances affected by his choices, as well as affected Pip’s later choices he had made. The temptation of class and wealth perverted the actions of Pip and other people that were around him; Pip was therefore contemplating on how he was saved, by reminiscence of the stages of his own life. In the first stage; Pip encountered Magwitch; by accident, this affected the outcome of the later events of his life; Pip was then introduced to Miss Havishism; and Estella, who he fell in love with; consequently then he preceded to be dramatically persuaded by the empty promises he made to himself from his encounters with Miss Havhishism and Estella. Dramatically, Pip then 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 save

“She laughed contemptuously, pushed me out, and locked the gate upon me… I set off on the four-mile walk to our forge, pondering, as I went along, on all I had seen, and deeply revolving that I was a common laboring-boy; that my hands were coarse; that my boots were thick; that I had fallen into a despicable habit of calling knaves Jacks; that I was much more ignorant than I had considered myself last night, and generally that I was in a low-lived bad way.” Pip feels like a pest to the wealthy. He begins to hate his own identity and blames himself for all his troubles. Pip thinks that his visit to Miss Havisham’s was an eye-opener on how terrible he is.

I am disgusted with my calling and with my life. I have never taken to either since I was bound. Don’t be absurd” (130). Pip’s statement reveals that he is repulsed at the thought of living a common life, deeming it atrocious despite how content Biddy is with her own. Instead of cherishing his life with Joe and Biddy, he chooses to take the arduous route, yearning for money and Estella as if she is the newest fashion statement sanctioned on the highest shelf in the store, with her revenge-fixated guardian Miss Havisham governing the price tag and Pip cashing in his friends, family, and ultimately, his mindset. Accordingly, Pip starts to wander astray from his previous beliefs because of the fortune he longs to have, and like a spider spinning an endless web, he comes to believe in all the promises that wealth seems to bring. With the influence of money at his fingertips, he believes he can clearly do anything, and that includes marrying Estella. But everything he’s “worked” for all come crashing down when he loses not only his fortune, but his whole nescient perspective on what it means to be a gentleman. “With [Pip’s] heart beating like a heavy hammer of disordered action, [he] rose out of [his] chair,” shocked beyond disbelief as the once thought

When Pip’s desire for a place in the upper class becomes a reality he is thought to have his whole life completed and figured out.He completely neglects and forgets his family only to find himself unhappy with his expectations.Pip goes on a transitioning journey with the result of his destination being self-discovery.The end contributes to the whole darker mood and tone of the book which is Dickens’s attempt to display it as more realistic.The end of his self discovery is not a happily-ever-after but rather a mistake which was meant to be learned.Likewise,Dickens himself goes through changes throughout the beginning and end of his career years.Dickens relates to Pip.He may not have been happy with some of his actions and decisions,he might’ve made mistakes but at the end has acknowledged that it lead to his self- discovery.The book is based upon Dickens’s reflexion of himself.Great Expectations is Dickens writing of an earlier time in the form of an older Pip looking back on his life during the early eighteen-hundreds with the message to readers that one will face bumps on the road in order to get to the designated destination.

Finally, Pip is largely responsible for his own growth as a young child and later on, as a gentleman. Having survived through many beatings from his sister, and being the lowly apprentice of a blacksmith, Pip expresses an awareness of the different characteristics and qualities of the people around him early on in the novel, as seen when he becomes "conscious of a change in Biddy[...]She was not beautiful—she was common, and could not be like Estella—but she was pleasant and wholesome and sweet-tempered." (Dickens 121) Here, Pip begins to understand the values that matter more than social class and wealth, but his growth is hindered by his desire to be with Estella. Nevertheless, Pip begins to part from his prior innocent self, and starts thinking in ways that makes his strong sense of self-improvement evident. Another example of Pip's awareness, is when he complains that, "Home had never been a very pleasant place to

The novel Jane Eyre and Great Expectations takes and written during the Victorian Era. The years that make up the Victorian Literature Era are 1830s to 1900s, which is the time that Queen Victoria rule. During the time of the Victorian Era, society ideals are given more power to the rich; a line separates the rich and middle/poor class. Charles Dickens’s novel; Great Expectations, and Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre illustrates the differences of the social classes. Dickens uses Pip to show the dreaded life of orphan to a gentleman, while Brontë use Jane to show the life of a mistreated orphan to a rich lady. Throughout Great Expectations and Jane Eyre, Charles Dickens and Charlotte Brontë both promote Gothic elements and Bildungsroman motif to depict the difference in the social classes during Victorian England.

Pip, like most of the characters in Dickens’ books, is of working class, this is the reason he feels different to Ms Havisham and Estella, his appearance and dress are made fun of by Estella “what course hands he has! And what thick boots”, this makes him feel ashamed of who he is, meeting Ms Havisham and Estella and visiting the Satis house changes him into an idealistic boy who wants to become a rich gentleman just to impress Estella.