Great Expectations Pip's Self Esteem

In the modern day world Pip would be diagnosed with low self esteem. Pip is suffering throughout the book from low self esteem. As stated on getesteem.com “Fear and anxiety are the conerstones of low self esteem” (Symptoms of Low Self-Esteem). Pips problem is proven as soon as chapter five here “ My convict looked round him for the first time, and saw me … I looked at him eagerly when he looked when he looked at me, and slightly moved my hands and shook my head. I had been waiting for him to see me, that I might try to assure him of my innocence” (Dickens 30). As shown in text Pip is suffering from low self esteem, he seeks acceptance from everyone including this random convict who is threatening him. Pips illness only progresses to get worse

why, you have always told me all day long. When you told me your own story, you have always told me all day long. When you told me your own story, you told me plainly that you began adoring her the first time you saw her, when you were very young indeed” (Dickens 194). Nothing exactly is as bad as loving someone your whole life when you’re doomed never to be together, even his friend notices it damages him and only makes him plunge further into the pit of his own self esteem. Later in the book, you can see Estella hurting Pip. Here, nhs.uk tells where most cases of low self esteem begin “Low self-esteem often begins in childhood. Teachers, friends, siblings, parents, and even the media give us lots of messages – both positive and negative. But for some reason, the message that you are not good enough sticks” (Raising low self-esteem). Now we see Estella’s true colors “I have not bestowed my tenderness anywhere. I have never had any such thing” (Dickens 187). Pip has done nothing but love Estella then she turns around and says that she has never loved anything at all. So, as you can see once it gets down to it the facts and reasons to why Pip has low self esteem are blunt and right in front of us,

People of his time would have said to buck up, or it's just a phase. As stated on mhahc.com “But of course he was not always in such control of himself. He had strange fits of depression from time to time” (Mental Health America of Hendricks County “People with Mental Illness Enrich Our Lives”). The man had no control over his life until his older years, imagine having no control over what you do depressing right? Some may say that Charles Dickens’ life wasn’t that hard. But, Biography.com and I disagree “Following his father’s imprisonment, Charles Dickens was forced to leave school to work at a boot-blacking factory alongside the River Thames. At the rundown, rodent-ridden factory, Dickens earned six shillings a week labeling pots of “blacking,” (Charles Dickens Biography). At the age of twelve your father is imprisoned because he couldn’t pay the bills, immediately after you must quit school and get a job basically working for nothing. Dickens’ life never really fixed itself it got better but never fully recovered. AS shown here “During the 1850s, Dickens suffered two devastating losses: the deaths of his daughter and father. He also separated from his wife during that decade, with Dickens slandering Kate publicly” (Charles DIckens Biography). His daughter and father dies then a few years later he gets a divorce that could drive anyone to depression. So, if anyone things that Charles