Discuss the characters of Mrs Joe and Miss Havisham in Great expectations and explain what ways they are products of social forces.

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Discuss the characters of Mrs Joe and    Miss Havisham in Great expectations and explain what ways they are products of social forces.  

TOM MARTIN 11W

‘Great expectations’ by Charles Dickens centres on its protagonist Pip. It follows him from his childhood where he is a poor orphan living with his sister and brother in-law to his growth into a young man trying to become a gentleman. Several events shape Pips life, his meeting of the convict Magwitch, and his meeting Miss Havisham and Estella. During the novel Pip tries to cast aside his poor background and those associated with it in order to win Estella, however his strong conscience and sense of good finally prevails and he returns to his poorer beginnings. It is a good example of the Bildungsroman novel, which was a popular genre during the Victorian time, as it depicts Pip’s growth and personal development and the reader sees Pip grow to manhood. Dicken’s uses Pip to narrate the story. This gives the reader a greater insight to Pip’s character as everything we read is from his point of view. There are really two characters of Pip throughout the novel, the older Pip narrating the novel and the younger Pip who is the character in the story. It is through Pip’s narrative that shapes the readers’ thoughts and perceptions about the events and other characters in the novel. Two of the most influential characters in the novel are the characters Mrs Joe and Miss Havisham and in this essay I will be discussing both and explaining the ways in which they are products of the society they belonged to.

Mrs Joe Gargery was Pips sister and was 20 years older than pip himself. She was married to the local blacksmith, Mr Joe Gargery.

Pip was brought up by his sister Mrs Joe as their parents died, she was a very hard working-class woman who intimidated both Pip and her husband. Her physical description is as follows:

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‘She was tall and bony, and almost wore a course apron, fastened over her figure behind with two loops, and having a square impregnable bib in front, that was stuck full of pins and needles.’

From this description I can already tell that she is a harsh woman who shields herself and she is hard working and never stops, she is also quite a prickly person from the needles. Also I can tell this because she keeps her apron on a lot of the time which is full of pins and needles preventing anyone from physically getting near her ...

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