They both struggle with their social standing. Dickens died happy in the middle class and Pip died happy in the middle class. The novel's perennial appeal lies in its penetrating depictions of character, rich panoramas of social milieu, and implicit crusades against social evils. Growing up in a poor, working class family, Dickens knew about the harsh realities that spawned from the social class system present.
His writing reflects these experiences and attempts to expose this harsh system and other big problems prominent in Victorian society. Pip is a character that experiences some of these realities in Great Expectations. Pip initially lets his social status define him and must then go through. Great Expectations can be correlated to Dickens own personal life where Pip works unhappily in a forge while struggling to better his education. This is something Dickens did himself at the age of 12 , and again at 15 when he was forced to work to support his family, putting his education on hold.
As a young boy, Dickens dreamed of being a gentleman just as Pip did. The great success Dickens accomplished in his later life may have been a source of guilt, as he started off with nothing to his name.
Growing up in a small village with a ruthless and violent sister who shows him little love causes him to be sensitive. In essence, the narrator not only begins to yearn for love and acceptance, but he also develops a high desire of becoming a gentleman in order to obtain genuine happiness. 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.
After receiving his mysterious fortune, his idealistic wishes seem to have been justified, and he gives himself over to a gentlemanly life of idleness. He also rejects Magwitch's money, a decision which Herbert agrees with. Magwitch earned his money with hard work and determined effort; it has no criminal taint. Neither Pip nor Herbert has any objections to his living on the unearned money of vengeful, crazy Miss Havisham.
Why is living off Miss Havisham acceptable and living off Magwitch unacceptable? Is snobbery the answer? If Miss Havisham's being a lady and Magwitch's being an ex-convict make the difference, then both Herbert and Pip share the same social values, i.
When he learns that Magwitch is risking hanging, he complains, "Nothing was needed but this; the wretched man, after loading me with his wretched gold and silver chains for years, had risked his life to come to me" page Didn't Pip eagerly accept those chains when told of his great expectations and unhesitatingly agree to ask no questions?
Pip, speaking as the adult narrator looking back, seems reluctant to accept full responsibility for some of his behavior. In reflecting on how his experiences at Satis House affected him, he asks,. The definitive rejection of all responsibility is the Eastern tale of the slab of marble, in which he is a victim of an inevitable train of events or fate see pages Pip acknowledges that he fulfilled his obligations as an apprentice blacksmith because of Joe's integrity and commitment, just as later he takes his studies seriously because of Matthew Pocket's integrity and commitment as a teacher.
Why, when his dream of being transformed into a gentleman is about to come true, does Pip pass the loneliest night of his life? When Pip leaves for London, he cries as he looks at the signpost, which is an obvious symbol for Pip's future and which is used repeatedly. It is easy to dismiss the passage which follows as only sentimental, but is it? For Dickens and his age, tears had a moral value; crying could arouse feelings of love and the sense of connection to and responsibility for others.
How do you think this passage should be read? Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.
I was better after I had cried than before—more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle. If I had cried before, I should have had Joe with me then page After the London breakfast, Pip reflects that his tears at his treatment of Joe "had soon dried—God forgive me! As Thao washes dishes in the background his grandmother and uncle talk about him in the foreground. The grandmother rejects the notion that Thao could be that simply because he does whatever Sue orders him to do, which is usually her chores that men typically do not do.
This camera angle and staging of the characters illustrates how Thao is an outcast from his own family. Fear is the worst feeling to have, but fear also creates suspense because some people are not themselves when they are afraid.
In the story "Refresh,Refresh" by Benjamin Percy two boys turn into a new person when their fathers leave for the army.
The boys became very violent someone completely different from who they were before their dad left for the army, "before he could even speak, I brought my fist to his diaphragm, knocking the breath from, his body. The boys in "Refresh, Refresh" were so afraid of what Dave was about to say that they acted out of fear and started to beat Dave up. Hey may have set out and made a good fortune out of his life but he did it in all the wrong ways.
But Gatsby was also driven by noble emotion and love. Joe withstands a lot of abuse from the people close to him. His wife, Mrs.
Joe is often rude and violent towards both Joe and her brother Pip. In the novel, Great Expectations, the author, Charles Dickens, introduces us to Pip, whose selfish aspiration for materialistic success and high power only lead him to later relive the life he was trying so hard to escape.
Joe, and her kindly husband Joe Gargery, a blacksmith, becomes very ashamed of his background after a sudden chain of events which drives him to a different social class. Pip's motive to change begins when he meets a beautiful girl named Estella who is in the upper class. As the novel progresses, Pip attempts to achieve the greater things for himself.
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