Pip's Manipulation

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

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

As Pip is growing into a young man, home is more of a place than an emotion. Pip never really feels completely welcome in the place where he is brought up. Mrs. Joe’s constant and repeating reminder of how Pip is more of a burden to her is made known as she says "I didn’t bring you up by hand to bagger peoples lives out. It would be a blame on to me, and not praise, if I had.", than a reward to her is evidence to Pip that to her he is somewhat worthless. (12) Pip doesn’t know of any other home besides the one with Mrs. Joe. Every person image of home has its differences, and the one Pip has at the moment isn’t a real pleasant one. Which in the long run could be a factor contributing to why Pip did not really know what home felt like to begin with. In the beginning of the novel, Pips definition of home is very unwelcoming and dark considering who he is surrounded by. Pip explains how Mrs. Joe is abusive to him "My sister made a dive at me and fished me up by the hair saying nothing more than awful words" and how her appearance isn’t

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

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

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.

Namely, he is raised by his abusive sister, Mrs. Joe, who is seemingly the antithesis of the mother archetype. It is mentioned that, despite Pip being a “morally timid and very sensitive” child, Mrs. Joe used “capricious and violent coercion” on him, as well as physically abusing him, often with a “wax-ended piece of cane” that she calls Tickler (110) (13). Suffering domestic abuse has a profound impact on Pip as it drives him to believe that he was “born in opposition to the dictates of reason, religion, and morality” (38). His early existential guilt, together with persistent “injured feelings,” contributes to dissatisfaction with his current circumstances (110). His unpleasant time at home is not aided by his common class status.

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

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

Pip is oblivious to the control others have over him. Pip’s state of ignorance can be attributed to his newly found sense of independence. Pip disregards his actions as submissive, citing independence as the justifiable cause for his actions. For instance, when Pip and Jaggers returned from Pip’s

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.

The relationship between Pip and Mrs.Joe Gargery is not like a typical brother-sister bond. Mrs.Joe is very hateful towards Pip, she doesn’t appreciate him, Pip is a burden to her; an extra mouth to feed. On page 9, “If it warn’t for me you’d have been to the churchyard long ago and stayed there.” Mrs.Joe continues to say “I’d never do it again! I know that I’ve never had this apron of mine off since you were born. It’s bad enough to be a blacksmith’s wife without being your mother too.” Mrs. Joe makes very snide comments to Pip, such as on page 25, “ If you bring the boy back with his head blown to his bits by a musket, don’t expect me to put it together again.” Pip is scared of Mrs.Joe because of her “hard and heavy hand.” On page 8, Joe tells Pip about how Mrs.Joe went out with her tickler, “Tickler was a stick, worn smooth from hitting my tickled body.” Mrs.Joe was very brutal towards Pip and using the tickler frightened him. Mrs. Joe makes very snide comments to Pip, such as on page 25, “ If you bring the boy back with his head blown to his bits by a musket, don’t expect me to put it together again.

Joe had a huge impact on Pip growing up. Out of nowhere he is handed the opportunity to study abroad. In a matter of time, Pip has changed dramatically. His values of family had been completely washed away. “Pip, dear old chap, life is made of ever so many partings welded together, as I may say, and one man’s a blacksmith, and one’s a whitesmith, and one’s a goldsmith, and one’s a Coppersmith. Diwisions among such must come, and must be met as they come.” ( Great Expectations, pg 223). Joe says these words to Pip after their unsuccessful meeting in London. After Pip’s sudden change of becoming a wealthy gentleman, he is ashamed and embarrassed by Joe when he paid him a visit. Joe takes notice of this and feels as if he does not belong. The metaphor explains how there are different types of people in this society. the blacksmiths, like Joe and what Pip used to be, are common people while the goldsmith, Pip now, are the wealthy and high powered people in society. Because Pip has new status, he feels he should not be seen with the common blacksmith even if it is the one person that cared for him throughout his life. His mind has been corrupted by the new

When reading the novel Great expectations, one often comes to the conclusion that Pip's sense of social inferiority is the source of his self-antipathy and that this feeling of inadequacy is first conceived when introduced to Estella. However, these thoughts are not formed when he first encounters her and the Satis House, nor are they intensified by her scorn and ridicule. Instead, her contempt gives him a way of coping with the sense of worthlessness he has carried throughout his childhood. Pip’s perception of what is required of him when receiving his inheritance simply obscures the significances of his initial experiences that resulted in him having these emotions.

In the beginning of Great Expectations, after Pip starts to visit the Satis House, he shows negative psychological growth as a character because Pip’s