Lies In Great Expectations

In the novel "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens there are many examples of lying for what the perpetrator believes to be a good cause, and times where the perpetrator lies for their own personal gain. If you lie and have good intentions for your lie, than it should not be viewed as malicious or bad by anyone, but if you are lying with an intent to harm than you are not in the right and you can be viewed as wrong.

After Pip returns from the satis house for the first time he lies to Mrs. Joe and Mr. Pumblechook about what it was like at Ms. Havisham's house by saying "We all had cake and wine on gold plates."(pg. 65). He does this because he dislikes how rude Mr. pumblechook and Mrs. Joe are to him, and does not want them to know that he find Estella attractive, or that

the same girl he became so infatuated with called him common, causing him to realize how common he really was.

This can be supported by the fact that he tell Joe "It's lies, Joe."(pg. 67), because he actually does like Joe and trusts him to not make fun of him like he expects the others to do. This lie is justifiable because Pip does not intend to harm anyone, only to protect his own dignity, which everyone wants to do. In this example the lie is condoned because of the lack of malicious intent, and by Pip telling the truth to Mr. Joe. However, in the beginning of the book when pip is first confronted by the convict Magwitch Pip is told something to hurry the process of gathering the materials Magwitch needs. What Magwitch tells Pip is not true. He tells pip that “There's a young man hid with me. That young man hears the words I speak. That young man has a secret way of getting at a boy, and at his heart, and at his liver. It is in wain for a boy to attempt to hide himself from that young man.”(pg. 6).This statement is not accepted as “justified” or “valid” because magwitch

obviously had the intent to frighten the young Pip and make him do anything to save his heart and liver from being eaten by the “young man”. Where pips lie was used to protect himself from the unfair ridicule of often rude people in his life, Magwitches lie is fabricated to play on the basic fears of young children and to further his personal gain no matter how much psychological damage is done to the young child he just met.
When you lie you have two choices, to lie for the progression of your own personal gain, or to lie to protect yourself or someone else. The former option is something that people do only when they care not for the people around them and only care for themselves. The latter is something people do when they care about the well being of someone else or when they are afraid that they themselves are in danger.