Women are powerful. Though society has not always recognized and respected women as they deserve, members of the female gender have strongly influenced the world ever since the beginning of time when Eve ate of the forbidden fruit. Today, women continue to increasingly achieve power and status. Likewise, in Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, women play an important role in influencing the protagonist, Pip, although both positively and negatively. Through their words and actions, women cause Pip to make significant lifestyle changes, either beneficial or adverse. He is continuously pushed to pursue different personae by Mrs. Joe, Miss Havisham, Estella, and Biddy, and he learns important lessons from each of them.
In the first few chapters, Pip is immediately introduced as having no living parents and, consequently, being the quasi-adopted orphan child of his sister and her husband, Joe Gargery. Pip’s sister, commonly referred to as “Mrs. Joe”, is said to have raised Pip “by hand”, which really means that she abused him. When there are guests in the house, he is mocked or chastised by his sister for the guests’ amusement. An exhausted, irritable woman, Mrs. Joe frequently employs a wooden stick known as “Tickler” to punish Pip, such as in this passage: “My sister, Mrs. Joe, throwing the door wide open, and finding an obstruction behind it, immediately divined the cause, and applied Tickler to its further investigation” (Dickens 7).
Mrs. Joe is cruel and selfish, and Pip fears her abusive anger. She fails at being the mother figure she ought to be, and this harsh upbringing makes Pip a shameful, fearful boy. He is quiet around others, and seeks approval and appreciation from the only friend he has, Joe. Furthermore, Mrs. Joe...
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...ubitably influenced by many females, for better or for worse. Mrs. Joe, Miss Havisham, and Estella each use and abuse Pip for their own pleasure or amusement, causing Pip to become dejected and ashamed. These negative emotions start a chain reaction when Pip hurts those nearest to him to please these women. Biddy, however, is kind to Pip. She is a positive influence; steady, always there for him. In the end, this leads Pip to do the right thing and return to his roots. The combination of these many influences is a large part of Pip’s character. The words and actions of these four women shape Pip. They change him from a kind, innocent boy to an arrogant, selfish fool to a responsible, caring gentleman. Without these women, Pip never would have become the gentleman that he was. His life is directly changed by them. Thus, in the life of Pip, women truly are powerful.
As a young child living in England’s marshes, Pip was a humble, kind, and gentle character. He lived an impoverished life with his sister, Mrs. Joe, and her husband, Joe Gargery, the neighborhood blacksmith. Pip was grateful for everything he had, including his few possessions and his family’s care. When he was offered the chance to play at The Satis House, the home of the wealthy Miss Havisham, Pip went in order to make his family happy.
Marge Peircy's "Barbie Doll" and Sharon Olds' "The Death of Marilyn Monroe" are two poems that deal with society's influence over women. However, the two women describe in the story are completely different on the outside, but the inside is much more similar. The female in "Barbie Doll" has no identity and no name, where as the female in "The Death of Marilyn Monore" is the icon Marilyn Monroe. Although these two women remarkably appear to be opposite, they have one thing in common - their own death- and society's opinions, stereotypes, and expectations murdered these two women.
In his early existence, extraordinary young Pip lives in impoverished house in Kent, England with his sister, Mrs. Gargery and her husband, Joe Gargery, a blacksmith. Here he is constantly beaten into submission by his caring sister. When these beating fail to correct Pip he is then subjected to the atrocious tar water. Then one evening while masquerading as a pleasant hostess, Mrs. Gargery learns of a splendid opportunity for Pip, the privilege to travel to a wealthy mistress’s house, Mrs. Havisham’s house.
Pip starts to view the world differently when he meets a wealthy woman named Miss Havisham and her adopted child Estella. Miss Havisham is a wealthy old woman who lives in a manor called Satis House near Pip’s village. Pip’s views change when Estella starts pointing out and criticizing Pip’s low social class and his unrefined manners. Estella calls Pip a “boy”, implying Estella views herself as above Pip. For example, when Miss Havisham requests for her to play w...
When Pip is on the road to becoming a gentleman, many thoughts of negativity towards others are established in him. Pip feels he has more power over people who are in a lower social class than him. When Joe, Pip's brother-in-law, comes over to London to visit Pip, Pip thinks, "I could hardly have imagined dear old Joe looking so unlike himself or so like some extraordinary bird" (100). Joe's appearance and poor manners disgust Pip, which displays how Pip is being domineering over a person t...
Joe was like a mother figure to him, sadly his biological parents passed away when he was young. She cared and look out for him. Mrs. Joe “brought [Pip] up by hand” by raising Pip that way, he became accustomed to the mistreatment (6). Mrs. Joe is the complete opposite of how a mother should be with their children. Mrs. Joe treated Pip harsh and manipulated him as if he had no value.
In her article, “If He Should Turn and Beat Her”, Hilary Schor describes Great Expectations through a feminist perspective. In her reading, Schor characterizes both Pip’s feminine upbringing, which leads to his victimization, and its effect on his perception of other women. Pip is raised by Pip’s sister and her husband, Joe. Contrary to the traditional societal roles of the time, Pip’s sister seems to act as the masculine, with a cold, callous attitude. Furthermore, she is abusive to both Pip and her husband. Joe, on the other hand, takes on a motherly attitude, offering advice to Pip and worrying about his wellbeing. Pip, perceiving that a man must be submissive to his wife, develops a flaccid personality, like one would equate with a feminine docility. Schor equates this with sexual oppression, as Pip develop his masculine side. Thus, Pip often associates himself with feminine language, and at times, the role of the heroine. Irigaray would compare this idea to the concept of male subjectivity. While it is a female character that possesses the masculine identity, her subjectivity as an abuser still creates a distortion between her own femininity and Joe and Pip’s masculinity. Pip’s sister holds the phallus in the family, one which is negative and therefore expressively tyrannical. Nevertheless, Pip does not realize his psychic castration, and seeks to escape the abuses he faces. Eventually, this desire leads him to Ms.
Pip’s problems stem from the injustice and harsh upbringing from Pip’s older sister, Mrs. Joe. Pip says, “My sister’s bringing up had made me sensitive…there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt, as injustice…I had known, from the time when I could speak, that my sister, in her capricious and violent coercion, was unjust to me” (63). She prev...
Pip encounters all of the influential people in his life during his childhood. The first and most obvious are his family. Mrs. Joe and Joe Gargery, Pip’s sister and brother-in-law, are the only family that Pip has ever known. Mrs. Joe Gargery is Joe’s wife and Pip’s only living relative. She is a very domineering woman who is always punishing Pip for something. Joe is like a father to Pip, who goes to Joe with all of his problems and worries. They are always truthful with each other and protect each other from Mrs. Joe when she is on the rampage. Despite the fact that Joe is an adult, he is also Pip’s only real friend during his childhood. Joe is the most loyal person in Pip’s life.
Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens is a fascinating tale of love and fortune. The main character, Pip, is a dynamic character who undergoes many changes through the course of the book. Throughout this analysis the character, Pip will be identified and his gradual change through the story will be surveyed.
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.
Gender Roles in Great Expectations To begin with, on March 8th, 2016, the 102nd annual “International Women’s Day” took place. Women have progressed so much throughout the last 102 years, but they still are not where they wish to be. The current goal women wish to obtain is 50/50 equality by 2030. This issue of asperity has been prominent since the beginning of time, even shown in Charles Dickens’s novel Great Expectations. Some may say that equality for men and women has come a long way, but there are still many noticeable differences.
Throughout Dickens’s Great Expectations, It is clear that most of the women are portrayed as being heartless, revengeful or violent. Thus this doesn’t give a impression of women, and shows that Dickens could have been gender bias, like most men were in the 19th and early 20th century. However this could have not been Dickens’s intension at all, as he also created very evil male characters such as Dolge Orlick.
Throughout Dickens’ novel Great Expectations, the character, personality, and social beliefs of Pip undergo complete transformations as he interacts with an ever-changing pool of characters presented in the book. Pip’s moral values remain more or less constant at the beginning and the end; however, it is evident that in the time between, the years of his maturation and coming of adulthood, he is fledgling to find his place in society. Although Pip is influenced by many characters throughout the novel, his two most influential role models are: Estella, the object of Miss Havisham’s revenge against men, and Magwitch, the benevolent convict. Exposing himself to such diverse characters Pip has to learn to discern right from wrong and chose role models who are worthy of the title.
In the first stage of Great Expectations, Pip begins as a contented boy, happy with his own way of life, but soon becomes humiliated by the ones he loves, and starts to morph into someone who is very status-conscious. At the start, Pip looks up to Joe, and even says, “Joe and I (were) fellow-sufferers…” showing that Pip regarded Joe as an equal (Dickens 7). At this stage in Pip’s life, he has not yet realized what social class is, and so he is perfectly happy being with Joe. Joe and Pip are good friends at this point, and Pip really appreciates him as a person. This all changes after Pip’s first visit with Estella, especially when he says, “Her contempt for me was so strong that it became infectious, and I caught it,” showing that he is beginning to take into account other people’s thoughts about himself (62). Although Estella looks down upon Pip for being ‘common’, there is irony in his statement, because Estella comes from an even lower class than him. Throughout the whole novel, Pip tries to impress her, thinking that she is well above him, when she is actually the daughter of a convict. Finally, Pip shows betrayal to Joe when he says, “I was truly ...