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Explore the character of Pip in Great Expections

            Pip's home situation is quite tough from the point of view of a modern day person as his sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery, was very strict and physical if he did not do exactly what he was told. But one hundred and fifty years ago in Dickens" time that would have been perfectly normal and no child could really expect any better. Pip's brother in law Joe Gargery also had to put up with his sister's rough attitude and strictness so Pip and Joe came to form a sort of alliance over time and soon became very good friends. So Pip feels he has a reasonable life and never questions it. He is grateful for the fact that his sister has brought him up "by hand" herself as his parents are dead. When at his family grave he encounters a violent convict (Magwitch) Pip feels very frightened as the convict threatens to cut his throat and tells him that he has another far more violent convict with him and that no boy is safe from him. Naturally Pip takes the food and file from his home and his honesty is proven by the immense guilt he feels after taking the food and file.
             When Uncle Pumblechook arranges for Pip to go to Miss. Havisham's house Pip does not realise what a devastating effect it will have on him and how his attitude to life will change. He is let in at the big iron gates at the sizeable and expensive house by a very pretty girl of around his age. Her name is Estella and even though they are roughly the same age she looks down upon him as if she was much older and wiser. She is well dressed and Pip is immediately attracted to her even though she is so un-necessarily icy. From the start Estella sets out to humiliate Pip. When Pip meets Miss. Havisham he is startled by the way she dresses, in wedding clothes and how all the clocks have stopped at exactly the same time. He feels very timid in this unusual environment and when he overhears Miss. Havisham telling Estella she can "break his heart" he is yet more uncomfortable.


Essays Related to Explore the character of Pip in Great Expections

1. Perceptions of Motherhood in Great Expectations

Hemming (2011) explores the notion of Mrs Joe not conforming to the expected role of the Victorian mother, symbolizing a plausible reason for Pip's suffering and guilt in Great Expectations. Farrell (1997) points out that Pip's dead mother is the first female character introduced in Great Expectations, and is described by Pip as "freckled and sickly" (Farrell, 1997). ... Great Expectations uses first person narrative to give a personal perspective of Pip maturing into adulthood. ... Throughout Great Expectations, Joe is the moral centre, the only one that Pip looks up t...

  • Word Count: 1179
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Great expectations

Great Expectations. ... "Great Expectations" is a coming of age story that revolves around the life of one man Pip. ... He uses characters such as Mrs Joe Gargery and Magwitch to define people's common views about crime and punishment and how it is explored through the character Magwitch. ... Crime and Punishment is an important theme in Great Expectations and Dicken's uses the character of Magwitch to highlight his concerns with the criminal Justice system. ... "I half expected to see him drop down before my face and die of deadly cold." ...

  • Word Count: 3591
  • Approx Pages: 14
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Great Expectations

The revised ending of Great Expectations is Pips Cinderella' story. ... Great Expectations is a coming of age story. ... Joe, Miss Havisham, and Abel Magwitch are three major characters in Dickens' novel that have influenced and developed the role of Pip. ... Unfortunately, the best examples of society aren't always the best examples of humanity and the deeper Pip explores his own social standing the more miserable he becomes. ... Magwitch is hardly the refined gentleman Pip had expected of his benefactor, but Pip matures into the realization that status is worthless witho...

  • Word Count: 2210
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Realism in the fiction in the novel

Moreover, the Romantics valued the emotional, the intuitive, and the feelings of the innocent child and the genius, the Realists however explore the ethical choices made by common middle class individuals and the effects and consequences these ethical choices have on the lives of their middle class heroes. ... Thus, the typical character is a kind of derivative of social forces. ... We do not find this typification of characters in non-realist works. ... The reader was expected to divine the hero's inner life from his actions, for it was not so much personal as universal traits that were...

  • Word Count: 3498
  • Approx Pages: 14
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Graduate

5. Marriage In Victorian Times

In this paper I shall explore these different rituals within the different social classes represented. ... In Great Expectations, our first look at marriage is that of Mr. and Mrs. ... Joe is a very masculine and cruel character. ... Women were also expected to keep the marriage together regardless of the situation. ... However, Pip loves Estella despite the cruel way she treats him. ...

  • Word Count: 1116
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Love And Marriage In Victorian Times

In this paper I shall explore these different rituals within the different social classes represented. ... In Great Expectations, our first look at marriage is that of Mr. and Mrs. ... Joe is a very masculine and cruel character. ... Women were also expected to keep the marriage together regardless of the situation. ... However, Pip loves Estella despite the cruel way she treats him. ...

  • Word Count: 1116
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Growth of Novels In The Victorian Age

That year, the global predominance of British industry had emerged incontestably at the original "world's fair" in London, the "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations," which Prince Albert helped organize. ... As an emblem of Britain's greatness, Queen Victoria gave her subjects the public identity and purpose that privately they "and she, in her diaries "recognized as an unfulfilled ideal. ... Explorers and missionaries such as Burton, Speke, Stanley, and Livingston took enormous risks to map uncharted territory or spread Christianity "in darkest Africa....

  • Word Count: 6746
  • Approx Pages: 27

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