What Shapes Pip’s Character in Great Expectations?

What influences shape young Pip’s Character in Great Expectations

In the book ‘Great Expectations’, Dickens describes many different

aspects of Pip’s young life, which may have influenced him into

becoming what he was at the end of the first part of the book. We see

that he is influenced by his strange and remarkable relationships with

his sister, Mrs Joe Gargery and his relationship with Miss Havisham

and his meeting with the convict. The experiences of Dickens may have

been why he choose to describe influences like these, because he

would’ve seen these sorts of things which would have influenced

children in Victorian times, like a child becoming an apprentice, just

like Pip; and after all, all children find their influences from

people around them and their parents.

In the book Dickens is constantly describing scenes where his sister

Mrs Joe Gargery is bullying Pip, “ Tickler was a wax-ended piece of

cane, worn smooth by collision with my tickled framed.” I therefore

believe that this is one of the main influences for Pip becoming what

he is in later life. I believe that this relationship affected him

because it made him more paranoid to what he was doing, just encase he

got the cane. A good example of this is where he is about to go and

steal some pork pie for the convict and he begins to hear all these

voices even though no one is around. “ Stop thief; Get up, Mrs Joe.”

This clearly shows that his relationship with Mrs Joe has influenced

him because it has made him afraid and paranoid whenever he is doing

something wrong. His relationship with Mrs Joe Gargery also made him

more courteous towards his elders, because otherwise he feared some

kind of punishment. “ I should like to know- if you wouldn’...

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...ieve that when he got this job he then saw how truly grimy

and common it was and therefore made him see what Estella was talking

about when she bullied him and also made him strive to become better

educated and in turn get a better job in London, which turn made him

become a greater person in the capital. So in this way I believe that

the fact he was an orphan and how he got a steady job with Joe may

have influenced him in the future.

Overall I believe that many things influenced Pip in his younger life,

be it his sister, his numerous relationships with strange people

including the convict or even his very loving and caring relationship

with Joe. But overall I believe that these things did change Pip’s

life for the better in my opinion and in turn made him go to London

with Mr Jaggers and made him the rounded person we see at the end of

the first book.