How Does Dickens Present Pip's Obsession With Their Social Status And Class?

Pip’s primary goal in Great Expectations is to win the heart over of the wealthy and beautiful Estella, and to acquire something else to achieve this goal: wealth. Being of a lower class and the playmate of Miss Havisham, as far as Estella is concerned, Pip is nothing to her in the beginning. Not to say this isn’t the case of Pip’s feelings for Estella, as in the very beginning of their interaction everything he feels is purely lust: lust for the stunning Estella, hankering for the wealth he wishes to acquire to impress her. At this point, he doesn’t know much about Estella at all; her exterior is beautiful, not just her appearance but also the opulent life she lives, however her heart is ice cold, as Miss Havisham states when she says, “I

During his visit to Miss Havisham’s house, Estella convinced him that he identified himself as a “common” person by exclaiming “With this boy! Why, he is a common laboring-boy!”(60). Estella clearly shows her discontent of the need to play with Pip because she feels superior over Pip. This also implies he feels that Estella has authority over him due to their differences in social status and negative emotions fusses within when he realizes that Estella looks down on him. He also continues this thought by thinking, “how common Estella would consider Joe, a mere blacksmith.”(72). It may seem like Estella enlightened and intensified this thought that Pip considers, but in reality Estella has very little to do with it. After all Pip penetrates himself into this undesirable thought, as he stands as his own worst enemy. He thinks deep into where he happens to be now, and compares himself to Estella, who happens to possess a higher social status than Pip. When someone besets and discredits my life status and me, I can either take it seriously and make changes accordingly and fulfill their ideals or choose otherwise. I can deuce that connotations and attitude does matters when someone responds to your life by giving you a hard time. Joe serves as a reminder to Pip that he should not behave the way he did and take notice of what Estella has said to him. He also

Pip’s loss of ignorance drives his dreams to become a gentleman in the hopes of one day marrying Estella. In addition, Pip becomes so self-conscious of his humble upbringings that he is embarrassed of the home that he lives in. He reflects, “It is a most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home..., and I would not have had Miss Havisham and Estella see it

Pip then goes on to address the reader directly and explains that “[t]hat was a memorable day to [him], for it made great changes in [him],” (Dickens 70). After meeting with Estella several times and becoming extremely fond of her, despite her bipolar attitudes towards him, Ms. Havisham suddenly decides to recompense Pip for his time and then tells him that he no longer has to come back to the Satis House. Everyday after this, Pip continuously thinks of Estella and of how he must become a gentleman in order to be at the same level as Estella and eventually marry her. Another character Biddy (whose relationship to Pip is somewhat complicated) begins acting as Pip’s teacher and Pip says “[w]hatever [he] acquired, [he] tried to impart to Joe,” because “[he] wanted to make Joe less ignorant and common.” Pip’s plans to become a well-mannered gentleman to be worthy of high-society and to be worthy of Estella’s affection are two goals or “great expectations” that Pip sets for himself that ultimately carry the plot of the novel along.

To begin with, Pip shows the danger of only pursuing class, as he realizes that money does not make him happy. To illustrate, Charles Dickens begins Pip’s awareness of social class in his novel, Great

This all begins when he is at Miss Havisham’s and her daughter Estella comments on his lifestyle. As soon as he sees her, Pip immediately adores Estella, he thinks she is so beautiful. When Miss havisham tells Estella to play cards with Pip, she responds in a way that is crushing to Pip; “With this boy! Why, he is a common labouring-boy!” (Dickens 61). They also comment on Pip’s hands and how they are so course from labouring. Pip never before thought of himself as common and he finds this very insulting. He knows he doesn't want to be classified like this again, especially by the one he admires. From then on, Pip desires to impress Estella. He doesn't live in the biggest house and he doesn't come from the wealthiest family and this upsets him. However, he doesn’t even see how good he has it living the life that he lives in the home that he lives in. This makes him ungrateful and unseeing to the things that once made him happy. Pip is ashamed of what he has: “ It is a most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home” (Dickens Ch 14). Pip is so blinded by how he wants to be higher class for Estella that he doesn't see how good he does have it because he is so focused on what more he wants. Because of the way he wants to be seen by Estella, he dreams much of being a gentleman but he

Estella violently dehumanizes Pip because she is of a higher class, and she wants to propel her own self-worth. When Estella first meets Pip, she points out the fact that “he calls the knaves jacks,” and that he has “coarse hands” and “thick boots” (Dickens 122). Estella wants to prove that she is superior to Pip, because she is of a higher class. But the only way to do this successfully is to dehumanize Pip, by pointing out things that take away his humanity, like his coarse hands and thick boots. Before he meets Estella, Pip does not share

Pip thinks he needs to change the man who raised him to get the approval of somebody he has met once, because of the way the higher society would judge Joe. Later in the novel Pip shows he is still overconfident when he is talking to

One of the biggest problems that Pip faced was when he met Estella. From Pip’s point of view, it is shown that Pip cannot look past the beauty of her to see her true character. Estella tells Pip “do you want me then…to deceive and entrap you?” (Dickens 332). From this, Pip realizes that Estella is a cold and dark person, but his heart aches because he cannot have her.

“‘Take nothing on looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule.’” (339) Do not make judgements based on appearances, because appearance is not all there is. Here Pip, the main protagonist of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, misses the important message that his guardian is trying to convey to him, and will only come to learn his lesson at the end of the story. Pip is the recipient of a great fortune from an anonymous benefactor and is left to wonder who this mysterious person is throughout the novel. He has an idea as to who his benefactor may be, but as he is sworn to secrecy, he cannot discuss the idea with his fellow acquaintances and is left to his own thoughts and assumptions. This later on leads him to create many ideas as to what his life will turn out to be, and only leads him to his own suffering. Pip’s suffering throughout the novel is a result of his self deception and falling victim to his love for a particular, cold-hearted lady, but ultimately learns through his suffering the value of one’s actions and character.

As a “common labouring boy,” Pip lacks the proper surroundings, in which to realize his numerous ambitions, from his “desire to be wiser” to capturing the love of Estella, who is the daughter of “an immensely rich and grim lady” (192) (89). With no access to quality education and rejected by his love interest because of his status, Pip first-handedly witnesses the divide in the society and the disparity that exists between classes. Consequently, his unpleasant memories of domestic abuse, together with experiencing unavoidable social barriers, renders his childhood a traumatic experience and his background a prison that he seeks to

Charles Dickens uses his own opinions to develop the larger-than-life characters in Great Expectations. The novel is written from the point of view of the protagonist, Pip. Pip guides the reader through his life, describing the different stages from childhood to manhood. Many judgments are made regarding the other characters, and Pip's views of them are constantly changing according to his place in the social hierarchy. For instance, Pip feels total admiration that, later, turns to total shame for the man who raised him, Joe Gargery. The primary theme in this novel questions whether being in a higher social and economic class helps a person to achieve true happiness. This idea is shown through Pip's innocence at the forge, visits

In the book Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, the protagonist, Pip, is a character that is surrounded by many people with different backgrounds. Pip has a series of different longings for his future. As the book commences, he reaches the goals he dreams about, but still is not content. His expectations are always changing to a higher career than the situation where he is at that point. The first position that Pip covets is being apprenticed by his brother-in-law, Joe.

So from the start Pip is in awe of Estella because of her beauty. It

As a boy, Dickens himself grew up with a father who didn’t make a lot of money and lived a lower class lifestyle. When we was only 12 he was forced to work in a factory so he could make the money he needed to bail his dad out of jail. Therefore in Great Expectations, he shows how he sympathizes with the lower class. The main way Dickens shows how he feels about the classes is through pip. One example of Dickens's expressing his feelings towards the class differences is through Pip’s realizations towards the end of the book. “...pondering, as I went along, on all 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.” (113). By Pip realizing that being accepted into the upper class depends on how he actually lives not just how he appears, Dickens shows his belief that class is determined by more than just surface qualities. Similarly, this shows how Dickens believes that the class status of a person doesn’t always show a person's true personality. To illustrate his view of class education differences Dickens uses Pip’s transition from a uneducated blacksmith to a gentleman. Dickens also shows how he feels about the class wealth difference through a difference between Miss Havisham, and Joe and Pip. Miss Havisham had plenty of money but didn’t live the happiest life. On the other hand, Pip and Joe were rather poor and didn’t have a lot of money, but always found a way to pay off debts and live a decently enjoyable life (36). This proves how Dickens thinks that, while the classes might be determined by things like money, wealth isn’t a necessity to having a good life. While some