It looks like being a gentleman is much more about grace, pity, self-control and compassion than having nice boots and soft hands. Let's take a look at one last speech—maybe the most important thing that Pip says in the whole novel. It's his farewell speech to Estella, when he learns that she's marrying Drummle:. You are part of my existence, part of myself.
You have been in every line I have ever read, since I first came here, the rough common boy whose poor heart you wounded even then. But, in this separation I associate you only with the good, and I will faithfully hold you to that always, for you must have done me far more good than harm, let me feel now what sharp distress I may. O God bless you, God forgive you! Pip may not quite have finished his whole growing up, but he's getting close: he "forgives" Estella, and he says that she's done him "far more good than harm.
He's said more than once that he wishes he'd never met Miss Havisham or gone to Satis House, but now he seems to have changed his mind. Is Pip better off at the end of the novel? One way of thinking about this is through Joe. Now, Joe's a good guy. He's kind, cheerful, dutiful, hard-working, and loving. But—and we just have to say this—we're not sure he's really an adult in the sense that Dickens means it.
Pip even thinks of him as a child at the beginning of the novel. Sure, he has some hard times, what with his wife dying and his adopted son rejecting him. But through it all, Joe himself never changes, never experiences that we know about a crisis of self-identity that leaves him sadder and wiser. Not Pip. He goes from a contented little laboring boy to a discontented adolescent to a resigned and hard-working man.
At the end, he tells Estella, "I work pretty hard for a sufficient living, and therefore—yes, I do well" We hate to break it to you, Shmoopers, but for most of us, that's what growing up means: realizing that our great expectations aren't going to come true, and that, instead of becoming rock stars or presidents, we'll spend most of our lives working hard for a sufficient living—just like Pip.
Parents Home Homeschool College Resources. Study Guide. Pip in Great Expectations. Charles Dickens. Although he does not always show it, Pip at heart is both generous and caring. He helps Magwitch, feels sorry for Miss Havisham and worries about Joe. Later he helps Herbert to set up in business. He was awfully cold to be sure. I half expected to see him drop down before my face and die of deadly cold. His eyes looked so awfully hungry too that when I handed him the file and he laid it down on the grass, it occurred to me he would have tried to eat it, if he had not seen my bundle.
One of Pip's first actions in the novel is to help someone else when he supplies the desperate convict Magwitch with a file and some food. He thinks about what it's like for the convict and how cold and hungry he is rather than about himself. Pip has romantic ideas about himself and his future and is often found daydreaming about events.
As a child he has quite a vivid imagination but this can lead him astray. On the one hand, Pip has a deep desire to improve himself and attain any possible advancement, whether educational, moral, or social. His longing to marry Estella and join the upper classes stems from the same idealistic desire as his longing to learn to read and his fear of being punished for bad behavior: once he understands ideas like poverty, ignorance, and immorality, Pip does not want to be poor, ignorant, or immoral.
Pip the narrator judges his own past actions extremely harshly, rarely giving himself credit for good deeds but angrily castigating himself for bad ones. When Pip becomes a gentleman, for example, he immediately begins to act as he thinks a gentleman is supposed to act, which leads him to treat Joe and Biddy snobbishly and coldly. It is on account of the great expectations that Pip undergoes through psychological changes in his adventurous life. He becomes snobbish and keeps himself aloof from his erstwhile poor relations and leads an idle and foolish life.
When the inheritance slips out of his hands he comes to realize that life is far more enjoyable when it is lived and maintained with honest work, Miss Havisham and Magwitch play very important roles in his life. Miss Havisham was a rich and eccentric lady. Miss Havisham had a broken heart and was weary of life. She told Pip that she wanted diversion; therefore she wanted Pip to play there. Miss Havisham had adopted Estella and has made her a proud girl.
She encouraged Estella to show love towards men and then reject them. This way Miss Havisham took revenge from men of fashions and felt sadistic pleasure. She was herself betrayed by her lover. That is how she designed this scheme to betray men. Pip was entrapped likewise. Pip was attracted by the beauty of Estella.
He tried to make himself refined in order to win over Estella. Jaggers came and promised great expectations to him. It was planned that he should go to London and get good education. He became a little unbalanced and swollen-headed.
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