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
Pip expresses that he "...loved Joe perhaps for no better reason than because the dear fellow let me love him" implying that Pip may have a problem expressing the way he feels about those in his life (Dickens 41). This lack of expression remains present in Pip’s character throughout the novel, especially with frustration for the way he feels about Estella. Pip earning his expectations put a strain on the already limited relationship that he had with Joe, once Pip began to realize that Joe’s occupation was meager and unfit for someone with Pip’s means.
From the beginning of Dickens’ novel Pip has low self-esteem. This is conveyed by the section in which Joe yells at him for taking her for granted: ‘I’ve never had this apron of mine off, since you were born. It’s bad enough to be a blacksmith’s wife (and him a Gargery) without being your mother’. He feels guilty for his very existence due to his sister, who constantly reminds him how she raised him out of generosity and how much better her life would be if he were in a work house. Other relatives and friends reinforce his feelings by telling him how grateful he should be. Miss Havisham and Estella teach him to be ashamed of his ‘coarse and common’ life. Their influence, coupled with his low self-worth and his sister's messages about wealth
In the end, Pip was able to shake of his juvenile desire and act responsibly. The growth Pip experienced as he broke free of the chains of Satis House and Estella is immense and life changing. Pip finally realizes the appalling behaviors he has shown to those that gave him nothing but love. As a pensive pip states, “…The inaptitude had never been in [Joe] at all, but it had been in me” (516). When Pip loses his status and wealth, he realized that they were just material things, and never as important as he thought they were. Pip’s fight with passion and responsibility is finally won by
Just as we sometimes turn away from God, Pip turns away from Joe. When Pip meets Estella and the "glittering alternative to life at the forge that she and Satis House represent, he can't ever again enjoy the idea of working with Joe at the forge."4 When he acquires his fortune, Pip totally pushes Joe out of his life. Because Great Expectations is written in first person (and Pip is a very honest storyteller), we can observe that "while Pip the narrator recognizes Joe's goodness..."5 and great love for him, "...Pip the character goes on
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.
Although it seemed Pip was the only one being afflicted by cruelty, he wasn't. On the contrary he had gave some of it in return to Joe, a person who didn't deserve to be treated in that manner, especially after always being there for Pip. Pip developed a new type of egotism resulting form the frequent visits to Ms. Havisham's residence. He felt that he was now higher in social class and had stated that "he was much grater than Joe" ironically. this false accusation bothered Joe and caused him to behave differently with Pip by calling
When Pip reads this, he is not looking forward to Joe’s coming. After Pip changes from his money, he sees Joe as someone below him because Joe does not have the same amount of money as Pip and he is a Blacksmith while Pip is a gentleman. Pip says “If I could have kept him away by paying money, I certainly would have paid money.” Pip would have paid money, to the person who raised him, to keep him away from him because he is not a gentlemen like he is.
How society viewed you at the time the novel was set, was very important as typically everyone in a village would know each other in some way and she did not want the reputation she had built up to be ruined. While Pip is asking questions, she tells him how she “didn't bring you up by hand to badger people's lives out. It would be blame to me, and not praise, if I had”. You can argue that she is more concerned about this reputation and how people perceive her than she is about Pip’s happiness. This raises the question of whether Mrs Joe really does love Pip or whether she loves how Pip can provide her with a good reputation. Pip does not turn out like her or act in such a cruel way but you could say that due to being treated in this way growing up, it had made him want to avoid treating others in the same way as he knows first-hand what it is like. However, it can also be argued that Pip, much like Mrs Joe, is concerned with how others perceive him. He wants to appear to be higher in class and also as though he treats others
Though Pip did not have a good relationship with his sister, Mrs. Joe, he had a very positive relationship with her husband, Joe; he was the one person who was constantly kind to Pip. He was very close to Joe and cared very deeply for him, affectionately explaining to him as “...a mild, good-natured, sweet-tempered, easy-going, foolish, dear fellow-- a sort of Hercules in strength, and also in weakness” (Dickens 6). He also shows interest in becoming his apprentice, excited at the prospect of it. Once he gains wealth, though, his feelings change very suddenly, and he becomes ashamed to Joe for being illiterate and of low class. When he finds out that Joe is coming to London, his thoughts are, “Let me confess exactly with what feelings I looked forward to Joe’s coming.
Charles Dickens shows Pip’s generosity as a young boy, and how Pip changes to a snobbish young gentleman throughout Great Expectations. Pip as a young boy could be identified as generous because of his life in poverty. Young Pip was not greedy or selfish, instead he was benevolent. For his convict, he “ … dared not to eat [his] slice. [He] felt that [he] must reserve for [his] dreadful acquaintance, and his ally the still more dreadful young man.”(2) However, after getting money and moving into a city, he took advantage of this money and turned into a snobbish gentleman. His snobby attitude was mostly towards the people he loved, such as Joe: “If I could have kept him away by paying money, I certainly would have paid money.”(27) After Pip
Very Early in the book, Pip was thinking to himself about how he stole food to feed the Convict on the marsh, and he thinks how "... if Joe knew it, [he] never afterwards could see [Joe] glance, [...] at yesterday's meat or pudding [...], without thinking that [Joe] was debating whether [he] had been in the pantry." (40) , and much later in the book, when Pip was in London, after acknowledging his connection to Joe he still feels "...considerable disturbance, some mortification, and a keen sense of incongruity," and if he "...could have kept him away by paying money, [he] certainly would have paid money." (209) Dickens shows that no matter if Pip has low or high social class, he will still act the same. This means that, even if social class played some part in how Pip has acted throughout the book, the root issue is Pip's inherent immaturity and lack empathy.
Additionally, this belief that characters of a higher social stature are better leads Pip to wish to wish “Joe had been rather more genteelly brought up, and then I [Pip] should have been so to”
Charles Dickens shows in the beginning Pip’s arrogance and distaste towards his family. By the end of the story we learn of how his love and compassion for others has miraculously changed for the good. This novel was about Pip’s desire and need to have a higher social class and be wealthy. How Pip would do anything to get to his higher class. It also in a way can relate to the world today, how people will do anything to get what they want. Especially for money, we need money to eat, we need money to get clothes. Sometimes we are so consumed with getting money to survive we forget about our actions towards others, and how in a second everything can change. This is exactly what happened to Pip he wanted something so badly he got it and in a
However, Pip does change do he him falling in love with Estella. This is due to the fact, that both of them aren’t in the same social class and stature. So, Pip starts having “Great Expectations” for himself in the sense he wants to become a part of higher society so he can win Estella and end up with her in. Due to this, he becomes more resentful the life he has and in a sense, betrays the people that truly care for him in his pursuit of trying to become a gentleman. The first sign of this is seen when he was going to get the fortune to move to London. He started acting snobbish and got the mentality that he is good for the place is currently in and too good for those around him. This got further worse in the novel, where to the point where he starts seeing those he loved as lower and embarrassed by them being around him. For example, when Joe came over to check on him he felt that way to the person that is his father figure and idol. In the pursuit of the high life, he was becoming lower than the people he got embarrassed by. He when he goes back to visit Joe and his country friends he has that feeling of embarrassment as if he was better person since he
In the beginning of the book, we meet Pip and are introduced to his perspective of life. Pip lives with his older sister, Mrs. Joe, and her husband, Joe Gargery. They could be described as belonging to the lower end of the social class. “...Mrs. Joe Gargery, who married a blacksmith”(Dickens 1). Later on, as Pip evolves, he is hurt when he gets called “common” by Estella. This changes Pip’s perspective of himself and leads him to wanting to be known as “uncommon.” When Pip later becomes wealthy, he changes into someone he is not. He begins to strongly mistreat others, based on the contrast of social class between the different characters.