Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Theme of social class in Great Expectations
Social class difference in great expectations
Character analysis in the great expectations
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Theme of social class in Great Expectations
Great Expectations
People can change in the blink of an eye. You can look away for one second and once you look back they are gone. In the book ‘Great Expectations’ written by Charles Dickens, Pip changes a lot throughout. He changes from a poor little boy to a grown gentleman very quickly. “I took the opportunity of being alone in the courtyard to look at my coarse hands and my common boots,” was said by Pip when he was in Miss Havisham's garden (76-77). He realized that Miss Havisham's things were very nice and he was dressed very sloppy and he didn’t like how he was so he wanted to change.
Pip is originally from the lowest class you can be in, but as time went on he grew to be a wonderful gentleman. Pip is a very kind gentleman with a huge heart. When Pip was a little boy, he helped a convict even though he had done
…show more content…
something horrible.
When Pip was younger he wasn’t treated very well, but once he was brought to Miss Havisham, he was loved dearly. When he grew up he was brought by Mr. Jaggers to England so he could become a gentleman, and he was treated so greatly there. When Pip lived in England and was a gentleman, his ‘great expectations’ were met because he was the highest class and he was treated like royalty. Pip had said “I wished Joe had been brought up, and then I should have been so too,” because Pip wanted to be a higher class, and he wanted to be so proper like Estella and Miss Havisham (77). He knew he wasn’t as proper and he was a mess most of the time. He wished that he had been taught to be a gentleman. Pip’s social class affected Magwitch because once Magwitch was out of trouble he wanted to pay Pip back. Magwitch worked a lot so he could pay Pip, but Magwitch never had enough money to take care
of himself. Pip had a very big heart and he was kind to everyone, but not everyone was kind to him. Pip was in love with Estella, but all Estella wanted to do was break his heart because that is how she was raised. Since Pip never stopped loving her, she later got a ‘heart’ and she was able to love. Pip changed a lot during the book, his personality and his social class. When Pip was younger he was in the lowest class and was treated very horribly, but he was always nice to everyone. When Pip was older he became a gentleman, so then people respected him way more than when he was in the lower class. During the Victorian Era, I believe that Dickens was trying to tell the readers that when you are in a higher class, you are treated much better. Some people in the highest class are rude and snotty, but they are still treated with more respect than the lowest class. Someone in the lowest class can be the nicest person in the world, but they can still be frowned upon. Pip was very nice as a child when he was in the lowest class, but was still frowned upon until he got into the upper class. Pip became more snotty when he became wealthy but he was respected more than when he was when he was poor. When Pip was younger, he wanted to become a gentleman so that he would be respected more. He knew even when he was younger, that when you were in a higher class, you were respected more. “And when the verdict come, warn’t it Compeyson as was recommended to mercy on account of good character and bad company, and giving up all the information he could agen me, and warn’t it me as got never a word but Guilty?” was said by Magwitch while talking to Pip and Herbert (440-441). Compeyson was a gentleman so everyone believed that he was very kind, but he was the one who always caused the trouble. Magwitch and Compeyson would both go to court, but Compeyson would always be let free because he was said to be very kind since he was a gentleman and had bad people around him. Even though Magwitch and Compeyson were both criminals, Magwitch would get more of a punishment because he wasn’t rich. In my life, I know I sometimes judge the ‘critters’ in my school. Some of them act very strange, but they can be the nicest people. People judge others based on the clothes they wear and the cars they drive, when in reality that doesn’t matter. It matters how nice or mean a person is. When a person isn’t as rich as others, they don’t wear fancy clothes because they can’t afford it. When they don’t wear these clothes people judge them and they don’t even overlook that to see how good of a person they are. All these people want is for them to be rich and popular with them, and they don’t even care about the personality of the person. In my school, I could try to be nicer and reach out to the kids who don’t have as much and I could tell my friends to do the same. Just because they aren’t rich, doesn’t mean they have a bad attitude too. People can change very quickly and you might not even notice. They can go from the nicest person to the snottiest person in a day, just because of their social class. When someone becomes wealthier, they feel like they are the best person in the world, and that whatever they do doesn’t affect others. When a wealthy person acts snotty and very rude, it brings the people down who aren’t as wealthy but have to work for it.
Even the two were important in Pip’s life, he didn’t necessarily glean a great deal of influence from them. He still retained a lot of his own personality traits, which in the case of Jaggers was a good thing. He helped Magwitch because he likely felt obligated to do so, considering that Magwitch had left him the money. Even in hatching a complex escape route, the plan was still foiled and Pip of course ends up losing all of his fortune in the end. But while Magwitch considered himself a father figure to Pip, perhaps the reason that Magwitch and Jaggers (both less than decent people in many areas of their lives) did not influence who Pip would become as a person is because Pip did not necessarily idolize them.
Pip's Excpectations in Jane Austen's Great Expectations In the novel 'Great Expectations', the central character Pip has many
In Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, the author shows how Pip's perspective of Magwitch's changes throughout the last stage of the novel. The first time that we see Pip's perspective changing, is when Orlick holds Pip captive in the old sluice house. When Pip realizes that Orlick is planning to kill him, he starts to consider the consequences of his death. Instead of thinking about how he will never see his beloved Estella again, or how he will also never eat a fancy diner again; he thinks about Magwitch and how he will blame Pip for deserting him when he is caught and brought to jail. This really shows how Pip's perspective of Magwitch has changed because when Magwitch first came to stay with Pip, he
In the end of the novel, Great Expectations, Pip redefines himself as a dependable honorable character. For example, when Pip is hovering over Provis' deathbed he says, "Dear Magwitch, I must tell you, now at last, You had a child once whom you loved and lost, she lived and found powerful friends.
At the start of the novel, Pip is very low educated and unaware of his social class , or even that he belongs to a social class. Because he does not know of any "better" lifestyle, Pip is content with what he has and who he knows. As life goes on, he meets new people from both higher and lower social classes and his content turns to greed and shame, as he immediately longs to be better educated. He is suddenly ashamed of his family and origins. Pip learns as he grows older, however, that having mone...
In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens criticizes the motivation of the lower classes to rise to the level of wealth and education held by the upper classes by showing the extent to which Pip is exploited by Magwitch to meet these goals. To meet the expectations of the gentleman, Pip must leave his family and any possibility of earning his living in order to satisfy the educational and societal demands of this standard. Magwitch, a social deviant, hopes to prove his viability by using his unfortunate circumstances to produce a gentleman entirely by his own effort. Magwitch exhibits Pip to the world as a gentleman who is not hardened by labor, but he does so by his own physical labor. Charles Dickens uses references to the exploitation that took place in the fairs of the nineteenth century to criticize Pip's gentlemanly aspirations by showing how Magwitch's creation of a gentleman through his physical labor resembles the often dishonest efforts of a fair Exhibitor to display his oddities.
As Pip grows throughout the novel, he develops and matures from a young boy that doesn’t know what to do to a young man who has a great outlook on life. In the first stage of Pip's life he is young and does not understand what it means to be a gentleman and how it can affect his life. During the first stage of Pips life, he only wants 3 things. He wants education, wealth, and social advancement. These three wishes are mostly so he can impress Estella, who is the symbol of this first stage. Pip does not want to be just a blacksmith like Joe. He wants to be intelligent and considered a person of high importance. At the end of this stage he moves to London and begins to have a different outlook on his future.
Pip, in Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, is an idealist. Whenever he envisions something greater than what he already has, he passionately desires to obtain the improvement and better himself. In the Victorian Era, as an underprivileged orphan though, dreams are often easier dreamt than accomplished. Pip however, has an instinctive ambitious drive. His unstoppable willpower, plus the benefit of a benefactor, elevates him from the bottom, to the top of the social, educational, and moral food chain in the Victorian Era.
At the start of the novel, Pip is a poor uneducated orphan boy unaware of social classes, or even the existence of such things. As a result, he is content with what he has and who he knows. Moving on in life, he comes across new people from all spectrums of social classes, and his content turns to shame and greed, as he longs to be “better”. All of a sudden Pip becomes ashamed of both his family and his social class. As Pip begins to understand the true meaning of life, his childish attitude does however change. “Pip learns as he grows older, however, that having money and power and being of a higher social class is not necessarily better than having true friends that care about him - even if they are of a lower social class” (Bloom, “Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations” 236). As the aforementioned quote suggests, in the final stages of the story Pip’s mindset changes for the better and Pip is able to give up having the “money and the power” and focuses ...
As Pip grows throughout the novel, he develops and matures from a naive, young boy to a moral gentleman by the three main stages that take place throughout his life.
There are so many important characters in this book that it would take me longer to describe the characters and there importance than it would to summarize the book. So I will keep it to a minimum with just a few crucial people. First there is Pip he is the main character in this book. When he was very young his parents died and know he is raised by his sister and her husband Joe Pip is a very innocent and caring person who wants to have a greater fate than the one presently owned. But is burdened by the fact that he lives in poverty. Next there is Mrs. Joe who raised Pip but is very mean to him and controlling of everyone in her house. Then Joe he is the person that gives Pip help. They play games and explain a lot of things to Pip he is about the only nice person in Pips life. Mrs. Havasham she lets Pip come over to her house and is very wealthy and the people around him think that she will raise him to be a gentleman. But hates men and never changes out of her wedding dress. She also has a daughter named Estella that was adopted and is very beautiful. But is being raised to hate men as well and is using her looks to break there hearts. Magwitch escapes from prison at the beginning of Great Expectations and terrorizes Pip in the cemetery. But out of Kindness Pip still bring the man what he asks for. Pip's kindness, however, makes a deep impression on him, and he subsequently devotes himself to making a fortune and using it to elevate Pip into a higher social class. Herbert pocket who is a good friend of Pip's and gives him advice throughout the book.
(p. 209). He creates this metaphor that he is a common blacksmith and Pip is a goldsmith. This difference in social class brought about their separation. Other characters that were also judged by their social class were Magwitch and Compeyson. They were both on trial for the same crime, but Compeyson got off easier than Magwitch because of his higher social class.
The main character, Pip, is a gentle character. His traits include humbleness, kindness, and lovingness. These traits are most likely the cause of his childhood poverty. In the beginning of the story, Pip is a mild mannered little boy who goes on with his own humble life. That, though, will change as he meets Magwich, a thief and future benefactor. Pip’s kindness goes out to help the convict, Magwich when he gives food and clothing to him. Magwich tells Pip that he’ll never forget his kindness and will remember Pip always and forever. This is the beginning of Pip’s dynamic change. Throughout the novel, Great Expectations, the character, Pip gradually changes from a kind and humble character to a character that is bitter, then snobbish and finally evolves into the kind and loving character which he was at the beginning of the story.
In the novel, Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens the principal character, Pip, undergoes a tremendous change in character. I would like to explore with you the major incidents in Pip’s childhood that contribute to his change from an innocent child to someone consumed by false values and snobbery.
As a bildungsroman, Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations presents the growth and development of Philip Pirrip, better known as Pip. Pip is both the main character in the story and the narrator, telling his tale many years after the events take place. Pip goes from being a young boy living in poverty in the marsh country of Kent, to being a gentleman of high status in London. Pip’s growth and maturation in Great Expectations lead him to realize that social status is in no way related to one’s real character.