How Does A Great Wealth Corrupt A Person

Throughout Dickens’ novel Great Expectations, the character, personality, and social beliefs of Pip undergo complete transformations as he interacts with an ever-changing pool of characters presented in the book. Pip’s moral values remain more or less constant at the beginning and the end; however, it is evident that in the time between, the years of his maturation and coming of adulthood, he is fledgling to find his place in society. Although Pip is influenced by many characters throughout the novel, his two most influential role models are: Estella, the object of Miss Havisham’s revenge against men, and Magwitch, the benevolent convict. Exposing himself to such diverse characters Pip has to learn to discern right from wrong and chose

Charles Dickens’ aptly titled novel Great Expectations focuses on the journey of the stories chief protagonist, Pip, to fulfill the expectations of his life that have been set for him by external forces. The fusing of the seemingly unattainable aspects of high society and upper class, coupled with Pip’s insatiable desire to reach such status, drives him to realize these expectations that have been prescribed for him. The encompassing desire that he feels stems from his experiences with Mrs. Havisham and the unbridled passion that he feels for Estella. Pip realizes that due to the society-imposed caste system that he is trapped in, he will never be able to acquire

How can an individual dazzled by social class and wealth realize that their materialistic world is not as important as love and loyalty to others? In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens presents the reader with Philip Pirrip, also known as Pip, a working class boy born in the marshy outskirts of London, England. Orphaned at the age of two, Pip is adopted by his sister, who is his only surviving relative, and Joe Gargery, his town 's blacksmith. When the wealthiest woman in the area, Miss Havisham, asks Pip to entertain her at her house, he meets Estella, the girl of his dreams and Miss Havisham’s adopted daughter. Both Miss Havisham and Estella show him that he is only “coarse and common” (107). In his shame, Pip is determined to climb the social ranks in 19th-century England in order to be good enough to marry Estella. Through Pip’s journey in Great Expectations, Dickens suggests that the ambition to improve one’s social status can prove extraneous compared to their character, if one humbly allows that love and loyalty to outweigh materialism.

The very essence of money creates an urge in human nature to obtain it and have an excess of it. When people come into wealth and begin rising on the social ladder, they usually become corrupted, and compromise their personal values. In the novels, Great Expectations and The Great Gatsby, the protagonists, Pip and Jay Gatsby respectively, believe their wealth is used for the common good, but in reality many values are being compromised. Pip and Gatsby both utilize their money in an attempt to bring the women they love into their lives. Along the way toward achieving their goal, they violate ethics, which, in turn, change them as people.

In Charles Dicken’s Great Expectations Pip does not appreciate the surprise fulfillment of his dreams and only becomes selfish and condescending toward those not as fortunate as he. Pip’s character deration as a result of his inheritance is evidenced by his desire to serve “a gallon of condescension, upon everybody in the village” (Dickens 151). Dickens uses Pips ungrateful attitude toward his home town to illustrate the corruption of aspirations when one did not have to work for his success. Pips continued under appreciation of his success and subsequent failure allow Dickens to rebuild Pip through hard work to and achieve “happiness “and fulfill his dreams meaningfully (Dickens 487). Dickens informs the reader that meaningless wealth and success is worthless, and that true success comes from hard work and passion.

Wealth can develop a unique interpretation upon a person’s life and can impact their future. Wealth can be such a strong impact on someone that can determine whether they’re selfish or a given person. Wealth can definitely be overpowering and misleading, which could portray their true identity. In the historical fiction novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, it shows us how misleading wealth can be in a person’s life.

There are five aspects of a quest discussed by Thomas C. Foster in How To Read Literature Like a Professor. They are “(a.) a quester, (b) a place to go, (c) a stated reason to go there, (d) challenges and trials en route, and (e) a real reason to go there” (Foster 3). These five aspects all apply to Charles Dicken’s Great Expectations. The quester is Pip, the place to go is London, the stated reason is for Pip to become a gentleman and be worthy of winning over Estella. The final aspect, a real reason to go there, could be for him to realize that money cannot find happiness, that being too ambitious can blind someone from what is truly important, or to state that Pip was better off as a common boy with good morals and manners.

It is said that right before someone dies, they see their life flash before their eyes. They are said to see the things most dear to them. However, no one on their deathbed regrets the amount of money that they have. In the moment of clarity, most realize that a number on a paycheck is not as important as emotional and mental possessions. People always tell each other that money can not buy happiness, yet most end up spending every waking moment thinking about money. Why do people waste their time and energy pursuing something that is not what they truly need? Often, they use social class to fill a void in their lives that can not be filled by materialistic possessions. Many people realize this, but it is often too late. Charles Dickens demonstrates the effects of social climbing in his novel, Great Expectations. This novel explores the connections and effects of human nature and society, which are the two most powerful forces that guide people’s decisions. Some may say that social climbing is good, but as will be proven, pursuing social class for the wrong reason can result in disastrous consequences. The motivation to obtain higher social status leaves those who pursue it dissatisfied with reality and with a wider void in their lives as shown by Pip, Estella, and Magwitch.

Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations explore the harshness of the male character particularly the male character when exposed to money and prestige. Pip begins as a young and impressionable boy with amiable qualities, he does not allow the convict maverick to starve and does whatever his sister instructs of him, although he dotes on Estella but never mistreats or openly shows this

In his novel Great Expectations, Charles Dickens uses Pip’s selfish goals and his egocentric mindset to criticize the values of the Victorian upper class. The reader first sees Pip’s newfound snobbishness after only his first meeting with Miss Havisham. He wants to make Joe “less ignorant and common” so that Joe will be “worthier of (his) society” and more importantly, “less open to Estella’s reproach”(109). Pip exemplifies his arrogance by looking down on Joe because Pip feels that he is better than Joe.

Throughout Great Expectations, Pip encounters varying definitions of acceptable morals and behaviors. Early in the novel, Pip travels to a wealthy woman’s house to play cards. However, the visit only exposes Pip’s insecurities about his life in the country. Pip considers his life, lamenting “on all that I had seen, and deeply revolving that I was a common labouring-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” (Dickens 65). Pip dreams of becoming more than a blacksmith, and these

     In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens criticizes the motivation of the lower classes to rise to the level of wealth and education held by the upper classes by showing the extent to which Pip is exploited by Magwitch to meet these goals. To meet the expectations of the gentleman, Pip must leave his family and any possibility of earning his living in order to satisfy the educational and societal demands of this standard. Magwitch, a social deviant, hopes to prove his viability by using his unfortunate circumstances to produce a gentleman entirely by his own effort. Magwitch exhibits Pip to the world as a gentleman who is not hardened by labor, but he does so by his

In Charles Dicken’s Great Expectations, Pip Pirrip, the narrator and protagonist of the story, allows his new wealth to affect his judgement of other characters by feeling superior towards those who have less than him and being jealous of those with a greater fortune. First of all, Pip, upon seeing his brother-in-law Joe for dinner at his apartment, is embarrassed by Joe’s bad manners and causes him to leave the house because of his unkindly attitude. Pip’s poor treatment towards Joe shows that he does not accept his former status of the lower class, and his current position in the aristocratic life has caused him to turn his back on those he loves. The new wealth he has accumulated causes the view of his once fatherly figure to be disarrayed.

“Poor as a church mouse” vs. “born with a silver spoon in your mouth” are contrasting themes in this book of hardships and life trials. In Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, the main character Pip interacts with characters of various social groups. These groups directly or indirectly, help Pip understand his own opportunities and purpose in life. From these interactions, it becomes clear that social class influences how people interact and view one another as well as their opportunities in life.

Corruption is a major role in modern life as well as in Charles Dickens’ novel, Great Expectations. Pip, the main character in his novel, experiences this corruption first hand. Through imagery, asyndeton, and the judgement from Pip, Dickens expresses to the reader that London mirrors a big change in Pip.