In chapter two we learn that Pip lives with his sister Mrs. Joe Gargery whom he is intimidated by, ‘my all powerful sister’ and also lives with her husband Mr. Joe Gargery, whom he has a close and informal relationship with. As Pip does not view Joe as an adult to be feared, they are like very close friends… ‘I always treated him as a larger species of child, and as no more than my equal.’ In this chapter we also learn that Pip is quite inquisitive and ‘what a questioneer he is’ shows that he is curious although Mrs. Joe disapproves of this quality and discourages his learning as she is not very fond of him asking question. What we learn about Pips home life is that Mrs. Joe assumes the position of head of the household, whilst Joe is her subordinate. This is evident in her treatment of her husband and his fear of her. What we also discover is that Pip is being treated unfairly, which is portrayed when Pip is being beaten with the ‘tickler’ by his sister. We also discover that Pip was very gullible when he was a child, ‘I was in mortal terror of a young man who wanted my heart and liver.’ We also learn about Pips extreme guilt about stealing food from Mrs. Joe and lying to Joe. This shows that he sees his identity as rooted in his behaviour, ‘I felt fearfully sensible of the great convenience that the hulks were handy for me.’ He knows that he is doing bad things and can’t feel like a good and worthy person.
From Chapter three we can see that Pip is feeling guilty, this shows that he know what he is doing and knows that it’s wrong. We also discover that that Pip’s emotions are conveyed by the settings created by Dickens. We can tell from the settings that Pip is feeling gloomy as the ‘clammy’ atmosphere mirrors Pip’s emotions. The damp wetness of the day is further emphasised with the use of a metaphor, ‘as if some goblin had been crying there all night.’ This again shows Pips imagination and also compares Pip’s emotions to the weather of Pip’s unhappiness and distress due to his actions. We are also presented with the fact that Pip is feeling very guilty and his conscience is like ‘a phantom devoting me to the hulks’. We also see that he is feeling paranoid, ‘One black ox, with a white cravat on – who even had to my awakened conscience something of a clerical air…moved his blunt head round in such accusatory manner…I blubbered out to him, “ I couldn’t help it, sir!”’
The class difference between Pip and Estella and Miss Havisham is revealed in chapter eight. Estella makes Pip feel patronized as she calls him ‘boy’. This makes him look degraded as Estella is about the same age as Pip but treats him as a dog this establishes class. We are also shown the difference, ‘“…at sour boy...”, “it looks like it, Miss.”’ This shows the respect of the lower class people to the upper class people, which is expected during the Victorian times. The word ‘queen’ used to describe Estella shows how high her status is, as she is an upper class lady she puts Pip down and elevate herself. Pip’s first picture of Miss Havisham shows that she is rich as her garments are made from ‘silk’ materials which is the normal dress code for rich people during Dickens time. This tells us that in Victorian society, upper class people think that they are much better than any other type of people, that they are too ‘proud’ like Estella. This shows that in the Victorian society there was no equality.
We also learn that Pips identity does not matter to Estella in chapter eight, to Estella Pip is just another guy for her to ‘break his heart’. Estella’s insults - that Pip is ‘common’ and has ‘coarse’ hands, hits young Pip particularly hard and helps him to develop into realising what his status is and illustrates that Pip starts to become embarrassed of his identity. When Pip does realise he’s working class he starts to feel that it’s partly Joe’s fault because if Joe had been raised up more like a gentleman, then Pip would have been like one too, he also says ‘…ask Joe why he had taught me to call those picture cards, Jacks, which ought to be called Knaves.’ This shows that he was having bitter feelings towards Joe and was also embarrassed of him. We also learn that Pip was also upset with himself for being a working class child, “I kicked the wall,’ this shows that he was taking his anger out on himself. From the first person narration by Pip, we can understand more deeply of how Young Pip was really feeling that time. It helps us to look further in Pips life to understand how he was brought up and acknowledge the reasons why Pip was crying as he’s so sensitive, this made us sympathetic towards Pip as he was being put down just because of his class.
In chapter eight, Pip awareness of his class and where he is in the hierarchy sharpens and causes Pip to resent Joe. After he meets Mrs Havisham Pips and Joes relationship slowly starts falling apart. Pip stops confiding in Joe, ‘I am glad to know that I never breathed a murmur to Joe.’ This portrays how his relationship with Joe had changed as before he would be happy to tell Joe everything. We also learn that Pip becomes embarrassed of Joes job… ‘I would not have had Miss Havisham and Estella see it on any account.’ Before Pip was looking forward in becoming Joes apprentice but now he doesn’t want to be apprenticed to Joe as he’s ashamed.
We can discover Pip’s dissatisfaction with his life and his desire to change himself in chapter ten and fourteen. When Pip asks Biddy to help educate him in chapter ten to make himself ‘uncommon’ shows his dissatisfaction of his life and that he is doing all this for Estella, and has a desire to improve but we can see that although he gets an education we can see that he has not become a better gentleman he has become worse. He is dissatisfied with Joe’s job as he finds it ‘common’ for Miss Havisham and Estella. Pip feels that he has no romance or interest in his life as if ‘a thick curtain had fallen on all its interest and romance, to shut me out of anything save dull endurance any more.’ We also see from Pips dissatisfaction that he is ‘ashamed of home.’ This shows his embarrassment of his family and home, we see how he changes and how his relationship with Joe changes. Before he used to think that his house was home because of Joe, but since he met Miss Havisham and Estella he starts becoming dissatisfied with his identity of a working class person and has a desire to improve his identity to an upper class person. But as we go on in Chapter fourteen we see how older Pip regrets his dissatisfaction of his life because he realises how Joe had done so much for him…’all the merit of what I proceed to add was Joe’s.’ When he looks back as an adult he recognizes that what he done as a child was wrong and regrets how he acted when he was a child. He realises that Joe is the real gentleman from inside and that Joe helped Pip turn into a better person but it was Pip who made him self slowly change who he was just because of his wish to impress Estella.
This chapter has many similarities to the idea of the Bildungsroman because like Pip, the protagonist in a Bildungsroman meets with an event that must jar them at an early stage away from the home and family and in this book it is Estella that causes a rift between Pip and his family as he keeps this secret to himself. The process of maturity is long, arduous and gradual, consisting of repeated clashes between the protagonist’s need and desire like Pip’s desire to improve to impress Estella, and the view and judgement enforced by an unbending social order in a Bildungsroman like in Great Expectation the judgements placed on Pip about his class changes Pips views of life which creates dissatisfaction. From Chapters seven and ten what we can learn about Victorian Education is that poor people such as working and lower class people don’t have a proper education as they can not afford it. We can see that students are not taught much although they are taught the necessary materials such as reading and writing. They were taught the alphabet although it was not very important what lower class people had learnt as teachers did not pay much attention like Mr Wopsle’s Great Aunt who used to ‘sleep from six to seven every evening.’
From what we learn from these chapter is that Pip is lucky because during Victorian times very few poor children had a chance for an education and the fact that Pip does have chance to learn to read and write does help establish the identity of young Pip. What this suggest about Dickens attitude towards education was that he was against the fact that some poor children had no education and wanted to help the children who were poor, and thinks that Rich and Poor should get the same education, maybe that’s why Dickens portrayed Biddy to be as clever as Estella or maybe even more.
Overall what we learn from this book about how Dickens establishes young Pip’s identity at the start of the novel is that at the very beginning of the book we discover that Pip is a young, miserable orphan who is treated unfairly by his sister whom he lives, although his sisters husband Joe makes his house feel like home as Joes and Pips relationship is like the relationship between two best friends. We see Pip as a polite and respectful boy and we see that he doesn’t care about his class or about what other people see him as, just about who is inside and this creates sympathy from the readers for him. Dickens portrays Pip as sweet, innocent child but as the story goes on we see how Pip develops and matures into a boy who changes and become aware of class when he meets Estella and tries to deny his identity as a lower class and family background so he tries to develop into a gentleman by getting a proper education to impress Estella but as older Pip narrates we see that he realises what a snob he was. Pip’s identity develops in more detail and depth as he slowly reveals the events in Pips life to establish his identity.
This story also begins to reveal its similarities to a Bildungsroman. As this story is based on the life of an orphan who comes upon an event in his life which creates distance from his family at an early stage. This helps him into his quest to become a gentleman which is similar to a Bildungsroman although not exactly as a Bildungsroman is written by the main protagonist himself whereas this story is not as it is a non-fiction story written by Charles Dickens.
By Sarah Naim
