As a contrast to the motif of the criminal, the recurring symbol and influence of the gentleman in the first volume cannot be disregarded as irrelevant in shaping Pip’s journey through the novel. The term ‘gentleman’ in this instance has lexical ambiguity, in that the motif of ‘gentleman’ refers not only to a real character in the novel who is a gentleman, such as Jaggers, but it also refers to the social position and status of the gentleman. Together they form a complete motif but can be assessed individually in terms of how they are both a motivation to Pip in his development of great expectations.
Once Pip meets Miss. Havisham and Estella in chapter eight, Pip begins to aspire to becoming a gentleman. This can be attributed partially to the fact that Estella, whom Pip thinks a lot of, alludes to Pip’s class by mocking his appearance and teasing him mercilessly when she says, “He calls the knaves, Jacks, this boy!”, and, “And what coarse hands he has. And what thick boots!”. Until this point, Pip had been naïve about his own class and wealth, and this is made clear by him saying, “They had never troubled me before”, but when Estella points them out and mocks Pip, he becomes for the first time, very self-conscious of his background and lack of class or wealth. This is the first time in the novel that we see Pip’s character change, and it is clear that in comparison to the grandeur of Satis House, and the beauty of Estella, Pip feels himself inadequate, and it is the first occasion that there is a hint of a new resentment towards his father figure, Joe, because he has not taught him properly, “I wished Joe had been rather more genteelly brought up, and then I should have been so too”. This primary visit to Satis House forces Pip to develop a new class consciousness and is the catalyst in the development of Pip’s new attitudes towards his home life and position in society, as well as towards his future. It is from this point that the motifs of self-improvement and class consciousness are clearly established. Dickens uses the end of chapter nine to clearly define the events of the chapter as a pivotal moment in the novel, and in Pip’s life, as he finishes the chapter with Pip saying, “That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But, it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you, who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day”. In this, it is evident that Pip himself is making clear allusions to class, by making distinctions between iron and gold or thorns and flowers. This represents the fact that he is now beginning to see there to be two sides to everything and he is aware of the divisions between the classes. Dickens uses imagery to aid this, and by choosing poor, cheap images such as iron or thorns to represent Pip’s place in society at the time, he can contrast them to wealthy and beautiful images such as gold or flowers which represent wealth and the upper classes. This symbolises the fact that Pip is aware of the differences between him and Satis House, and more importantly, him and Estella and this is the point in the novel where Pip begins to realise that he needs to make changes, such as becoming a gentleman, in order to impress Estella, and to win her heart.
The motif of the gentleman is also present in later chapters, with the introduction of other characters, such as Jaggers and Matthew Pocket. Pip is heavily influenced by these men, and is in awe of their position as gentlemen of society. He is still conscious of himself but relishes the opportunity to leave behind his working class home and family at the forge, and to move to London to begin his “education as a gentleman”. The status and position of the gentleman in society has always been alluded to as something to admire and respect, a view which is no doubt an accurate representation of society at the time the novel was written, but further a belief that has surrounded Pip from early on in the story, a belief that can perhaps be accredited to Mrs. Joe, who is clearly impressed by wealth and wants to impress those she feels are above her. This is unambiguous even early on in the book, when in chapter four, the description of Pumblechook is, “a well-to-do corn chandler in the nearest town, and who drove his own chaise-cart”. This perhaps indicates that the materialistic nature of Pip which begins to emerge more obviously towards the end of the first volume is not something born totally after his early experiences at Satis House, and that the influence of the upper classes merely builds upon an early-established view that being a gentleman is something every man should aspire to be. It is obvious that the motif of the conflict Pip faces between the gentleman and the criminal has been well established in the first volume of Great Expectations, but that once Pip meets Miss. Havisham and experiences the grandeur of the upper class way of life, as well as the embarrassment of his own lowly background, Pip develops ambitions to become a gentleman, and his focus shifts – he is no longer wanting to remove himself from crime or the frightening convict, but wants to remove himself from his own background and home, and when Pip says, “My dream was out; my wild fancy was surpassed by the sober reality: Miss Havisham was going to make my fortune on a grand scale”, it shows Pip’s enthusiastic abandonment of his old life in order to commence his new existence as a gentleman.
A further central motif of the novel is also vividly established within the first volume, and built upon throughout the rest of the novel. The comparison of characters to inert objects is a key motif and links to the literal and figurative aspects of the plot and Pip’s journey, as well as to the description of characters. Primarily it is clear that Dickens employs a lot of imagery and figurative language to aid his description of situations and characters, and shows his humour by comparing different characters to often pejorative inanimate objects. In chapter two, Pip compares Mrs. Joe’s face to one which had been “washed with a nutmeg grater”. This is arguably a light-hearted use of imagery to refer to a character towards whom Pip has little affection. Later in chapter thirteen, Pip’s similaic description of Joe, “looking so like some extraordinary bird: standing speechless with his tuft of feathers ruffled, as though he wanted a worm”, also displays Dickens’ use of slightly humorous figurative language. However, some interpretations of this use of imagery in a derogatory way towards other characters consider this to represent the fact that Pip focuses on the things on the surface and is very critical of appearances, something he perhaps developed as he began to leave behind his life at the forge.
The motif of the literal against the figurative is not only used for the description of characters or situations, but is also central to the plot of the novel itself. As such, it can be argued that the ‘literal’, refers to Pip’s original and humble life, and alludes to his poor, working class background. It is thus argued that the ‘figurative’ refers to the ‘great expectations’ Pip begins to build up after his experiences at Satis House. The influence of Estella causes him to begin to believe in a different existence to the one he has, and at that early point in the volume, becomes an imaginary, or figurative, existence for Pip, because it is unclear whether or not it could ever be real. For Pip, this debatably descends in to a battle within himself, as he has new found ambitions to make the transition from his very literal existence in to his fantasy – a fantasy that will see Pip become a gentleman and ultimately win Estella. This alludes to wealth, and particularly class, and there are two extremes and oppositions shown. On one extreme, there is the very humble and literal life Pip has, and this contrasts greatly to the very extravagant and well-to-do, imaginary and figurative life Pip wants, and believes he deserves. These allusions to class and wealth exist centrally around this key motif because they are ultimately the tools and foundations of any existence in Pip’s mind at the time, and are the factors that his life, literal or figurative, depends predominantly upon.
A further central motif which is also founded in the first volume is that of ‘doubles’, which could be interpreted as visible sign of the importance Dickens placed on a very intricate narrative structure involving a great deal of dramatic symmetry and balance. Dickens clearly deliberately wove an array of different motifs throughout the novel to create continuity and to remind the reader, as well as the characters in the novel, that almost every part of the novel can be linked to another aspect of the story. This sentiment is very apparent with the inclusion of the motif of doubles, where throughout, almost every significant element of the novel is paralleled or ‘doubled’ elsewhere within the story. The most obvious example is the fact that there are two convicts in the story, both introduced in chapter 2 of the first volume, when Pip says, “so I went forward softly and touched him on the shoulder. He instantly jumped up, and it was not the same man, but another man!”. Further, there are two young women who Pip has undoubted respect and affection for, in Estella and his mentor, Biddy. Also, perhaps most significantly is the mirroring of relationships which link Pip and Estella with the convict, Magwitch, and Miss. Havisham. Both adults are raising the children to suit their own purposes. The convict had always wanted to own a gentleman and so is Pip’s secret benefactor to this aim, and Miss Havisham is moulding Estella to cruelly break men’s hearts to seek revenge for her own heartbreak, and this is evident when Miss Havisham is heard whispering to Estella, in chapter twelve, “Break their hearts my pride and hope, break their hearts and have no mercy!”. Despite the fact that this motif does not cause any great event in the novel, it is merely another effective and carefully employed tool to link or create contrast between various elements of Pip’s life, at different points on his journey through the novel, and to help create a much more complete and purposeful narrative.
One of the last significant central motifs of the novel, that of the conflict between life and death, is lucidly ascertained in the first volume of Great Expectations and is aided largely by Dickens’ use of imagery. This motif is well represented by the characters of Estella and Miss. Havisham, who are arguably examples of the binary opposition between life and death. Dickens description, through Pip, of Satis House, uses a lot of imagery and intense description to convey a setting which is quite gothic in nature, and this is clearly a feature of the novel which conforms to the literary conventions of the gothic genre popular during the nineteenth century. Satis House, the residence of Miss. Havisham and Estella, is described as, “of old brick, and dismal, and had a great many iron bars to it”, and that, “the passages were all dark”. However, it is the description inside the house and of the characters which allude more to the motif of life and death. Miss. Havisham unequivocally alludes to death, as she is described as having “no brightness left”. Dickens uses harsh imagery to describe Miss Havisham, and Pip’s reaction to this, when he says, “Once, I had been taken to see some ghastly waxwork at the Fair, representing I know not what impossible personage lying in state. Once I had been taken to one of our old marsh churches to see a skeleton in the ashes of a rich dress that had been dug out of a vault under the church pavement. Now, waxwork and skeleton seemed to have dark eyes that moved and looked at me”. This description of Miss. Havisham is very harsh and uses powerful imagery which conveys a strong representation of death. The fact that Pip notices, “that her watch had stopped at twenty minutes to nine, and that a clock in the room had stopped at twenty minutes to nine”, and the depressingly dark and decaying setting, creates a strong allusion to death, a feeling conveyed at each of Pip’s visits to Satis House throughout the first volume.
In contrast to Miss Havisham and the allusions to death and decay, Estella is described as a “somewhat scornful young lady”, but also as a young and incredibly beautiful symbol of life and youth amongst the contents, and other resident, of Satis House. Dickens choice of the name Estella can also be linked to this theme, as the name derives from ‘Stella’, the Latin translation of ‘star’. The name is appropriate as in many ways Estella embodies many of the qualities of a star, in that she is beautiful and bright, and in numerous ways, unobtainable. This can be supported by Pip’s references to Estella as something very beautiful and something he desired to impress greatly, and his expressions of, “I think she is very pretty”, and “I kissed her cheek as she turned it to me. I think I would have gone through a great deal to kiss her cheek”. Estella is a very beautiful young girl almost trapped in a house, and with a mentor which both embody death and decay, and she is the life of the house. Further to this, she not only alludes to life, but she is also a beacon of hope within the house, and especially to Miss. Havisham who is manipulating Estella’s beauty to extract her own personal revenge on men, something which Miss. Havisham herself has never been able to do. It is not only to Miss Havisham that Estella represents life and hope, she also alludes to these things to Pip too, as she symbolises to Pip the life that he strives for, as he wants to become a gentleman in order to impress or win Estella. Miss Havisham and Satis House are clearly a binary opposition to the life and youth that Estella characterises, but together they create an effective contrast and a motif that helps to unify some of the prevalent themes of the novel. This motif, expressing the contrast between life and death, is intensely and vividly launched in the first volume of Great Expectations because of how important Pip’s first experiences or observations of these elements are, in building up the contrast in order to create a plausible motif.
In conclusion, it is clear that the allusions to class, wealth, guilt, crime and death that are extant throughout the first novel, in particular the first volume, are essential to the effectiveness and purpose of the central motifs that Dickens interweaves throughout the opening nineteen chapters and will continue to reference and build upon unto the end of the novel. Many of the motifs, such as the criminal versus the gentleman, or life and death, clearly need to be vividly established within the first volume, simultaneous to the introduction of the characters and situations that these motifs involve. In order to effectively interweave these motifs within the plot of Great Expectations, Dickens utilises literary devices such as figurative language and similes, to fully exploit the events and character qualities and to ensure that the motifs were included subtly and effectively, so that they had been firmly and vividly established within the first volume of the novel to be continued as the rest of Pip’s journey of great expectations unfolds.