Great Expectations - The Maturing of Pip PDF

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The Maturing of Pip...

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Qureshi 1 Faizan Qureshi 24020463 Tamkin Hussain ENGL 1000: Introduction to English Literature 10 November 2020 Maturing of Pip’s “Great Expectations” Pip is central to Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations and stands out as one of its main characters. In his work, Dickens makes sure that he makes Pip both the protagonist and the narrator; thus, it is crucial to understand Pip’s character. The story is about Pip’s journey as he navigates his way through higher consciousness. Throughout the course of his journey, Pip goes through a series of ordeals that force him to mature. Pip’s character’s development and growth are dependent on Pip learning to distinguish between truth and falsehood, generosity and trickery, beauty and virtue, darkness and light. The idea of ‘expectations’ made way into Pip’s brain upon his arrival in the Satis house. The brewery buildings and the wooden gates made Pip desire worldly things. The desire for advancement began to overshadow his essential goodness. His encounter with Estella and Miss Havisham made him develop a sense of inferiority due to his class. Pip felt common as he was an orphan and his guardian Joe was a mere blacksmith who had no education. She taunted Pip for calling knaves “Jacks”, for wearing thick boots, and for having rough hands. Estella demolished his self-esteem and made Pip feel ashamed about things. Pip had never thought of “being ashamed” (62) of his “hands before” (62) but he “began to consider them a very different pair” (62). From then on, Pip is ashamed of his origin and past. Therefore the method through which the idea of “expectations” gets into his mind makes Pip desire “unrealistic expectations” Wealth became an illusion of Pip’s expectations. Pip’s “expectations” came to reality when Mr. Jaggers told Pip that he would inherit a “handsome property” (142), and he will be “brought up as a gentleman – in a word, as a young fellow of great expectations” (142). He became so encaptured and caught up in his new Great Expectations that he was deaf and blind to the unhappiness that Joe and Biddy felt about losing him. Pip did not wear his new clothes on in town as he did not want the village to “make such a business of it - such a coarse and common business” (149), and he “couldn’t bear it” (149). Pip was disdainful to Biddy in his desire to improve Joe and did not treat Joe with the same respect as he used to do in the past. When Biddy pointed out to Pip that gentleman has no authority to treat people condescendingly, he said, with “a virtuous and superior tone” (152), that he “did not expect to see this,” calling her “envious . . . and grudging . . . dissatisfied on account of (his) rise in fortune” (152). He even told Biddy that

Qureshi 2 her remark showed “a bad side of human nature” (152), showing that she feels jealous; however, this extent of his delusions was apparent. At the same time, Pip had also felt ashamed for his ill-treatment towards Joe and Biddy. He said, “it is very sorrowful and strange that this first night of my fortunes should be the loneliest I had ever known” (150) Although Joe had treated Pip kindly, Pip continued to treat Joe with a sense of inferiority in London. Pip confessed with what feelings he looked forward to Joe’s arrival: “Not with pleasure, though I was bound to him by so many ties; no; with considerable disturbance, some mortification, and a keen sense of incongruity. If I could have kept him away by paying money, I certainly would have paid money. My greatest reassurance was, that he was coming to Barnard’s Inn, not to Hammersmith, and consequently would not fall in Bentley Drummle’s way”. (240) His bringing up as a gentleman in London made him forget the true meaning of friendship. He was concerned more about others’ prospects, especially Bentley Drummle, seeing him with the common blacksmith. The fortune caused Pip to spend munificently. Pip had started using money as a way to improve his social status among people. He started spending without restraint as a member of the “Finches of the Grove.” (273). Pip made numerous attempts to fit in with the snobbish rich boys like the Finches; Pip hired a servant “the Avenger,” (275) only because the other Finches have servants. However, all these negative traits come to an end when his “expectations” came to cease. Both he and Herbert “went on from bad to worse, in the way of increasing our debts, looking into our affairs, leaving margins, and the like exemplary transactions” (287). Pip suffered further through the hands of Estella when she decided to marry Drummle. Pips could “not endure the thought of her (Estella) stooping to that (Drummle)” (310). Moreover, he was mortified when he learned that wretched Magwitch, not the wealthy Miss Havisham, was his secret benefactor. “The abhorrence in which I held the man, the dread I had of him, the repugnance with which I shrank from him, could not have been exceeded if he had been some terrible beast” (876) This “suffering” allowed Pip to distinguish between truth and falsehood. Pip began to see himself in Magwitch. It was only when Pip saw himself in another person; he felt empathy for his surroundings. It made him realize that people and their actions are what matter, not social standing. As Pip grew closer to Magwitch, he eventually did not care about acting like a gentleman or spending prodigiously. He spent all his resources on getting Magwitch to safety. Even when Jaggers was certain that Magwitch would be found guilty, Pip remained loyal. Pip even dismissed many opportunities to make himself the heir to Magwitch’s fortune, a gesture showing how Pip cared more about getting Magwitch to safety than securing the “portable

Qureshi 3 property.” (372) Pip’s behavior immediately before Magwitch’s death is a sign of his newfound love for the convict. Pip ultimately accepted Magwitch as his “second father.” He said: “For now my repugnance to him had all melted away, and in the hunted wounded shackled creature who held my hand in his, I only saw a man who had . . . felt affectionately, gratefully, and generously toward me with great constancy through a series of years.” (468) He was able to develop a sense of admiration for Magwitch while losing Estella to Drummle. It forced him to realize that his behavior as a gentleman had caused him to hurt the people he cared about the most. Pip’s suffering made him realize that ‘Great Expectations’ are not as valuable as he had believed in the past. Suffering allowed Pip to learn human affection. After all the pain that Ms Havisham had given to Pip, he was still able to act kindly towards her. He even bended over the fire and went up in a column of flame to save her “I was astonished to see that both my hands were burnt; for, I had no knowledge of it through the sense of feeling” (405). Even though Estella had broken Pip’s heart, he still felt obliged to solve the mystery of Estella’s origins. Pip’s feeling of desire for Estella has transformed into human affection. As he gained wisdom and maturity through personal growth, he came not only to realize how good Joe was to him as a stepfather but as a friend as well. Upon returning home, he remarked, “I went towards them slowly, for my limbs were weak, but with an increasing sense of relief as I drew nearer to them, and a sense of leaving arrogance and untruthfulness further and further behind” (486). His unblemished excitement to return to Joe and Biddy demonstrated his emotional growth; previously, he anguished over acknowledging such low relations, whereas now his true happiness shined through his personality (-). Pip moved from his fantasies to a more mature adult, capable of not only seeing the goodness of his family but appreciating them in their own right. Suffering thus allowed Pip to learn the definition of a true gentleman. Expectations had only taught him to forget the true meaning of friendship. It is suffering that matures his expectations and teaches him loyalty, human affection, and love.

Work Cited Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations, 1st edition Chapman and Hall, London, 1861

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