Great Expectations: Injustices And Poor Conditions Committed On Women

Great Expectations: Injustices and Poor Conditions Committed On Women and

Children

Great Expectations, authored by Victorian novelist Charles Dickens, is considered one of his finest works of literature. It was indicative of

Dickens's strong feelings for injustices and poor conditions committed on women and children of that time. Through the main character, Pip, Dickens's demonstrated the compassion he felt for children. Most readers, like myself, are able to associate Pip's experiences with their own. Pip endeavored upon many things that I can see myself doing.

From the beginning of the novel Pip had felt an impending feeling of guilt. It is a common theme in Great Expectations and is one that I have felt numerous times before. In one instance, my friends and I were at a party playing with a water balloon launcher shooting balloons down the street. My neighbors had just put in a new set of porch windows that were quite expensive. With a slight aiming misalignment we broke a window and had to confess to my neighbor and give her our apologies. Pip, however, had the guilt weighed on his conscience forever-he did not have the courage to tell Mrs. Joe that he had taken a pork pie that was for Christmas dinner. Mrs. Joe only made it harder for Pip when she asked, "And were the deuce ha' you been?" (page 20). Pip had to make a moral judgment about whether or not to tell the truth about what he did and is challenged with many more of these decisions throughout the book.

Pip was later introduced to Estella, Ms. Havisham's adopted daughter, whom was taught to pursue retribution on all of the male population for her "mother".

Pip became easily infatuated with Estella's good looks, money, and attitude.

Estella considered Pip to be common and pointed out the ways when she said, "He calls the knaves, jacks, this boy! And what coarse hands he has! And what thick boots!" (page 55). Pip once again has the feeling of guilt, this time for just being a common laborer and the humility of his background. I have felt intimidated just as Pip was. It is extremely uncomfortable to be around someone who arrogantly shows that they are of a "higher class" than you. In my own experience some adults speak condescendingly to teenagers and it causes me to feel like less of a person just like Pip did.

Pip has also felt extreme amounts of stress throughout the novel. Everyone is always encouraging him to satisfy his "great expectations". I have been pressured in a comparable way in early schooling when I was accepted to the