In a Bildungsroman a protagonist falls in love and in Great Expectations Pip falls in love with Estella. Pip goes to Satis House to play. When Pip gets to Estella’s house, he sees it like it is a prison but marvels at their wealth. Estella is very rude to him and treats him as very low class. She calls him a “common labouring boy” and instead of calling him by his name, she calls him “boy”. A couple of years pass Estella has gone to London. Pip is now Joes apprentice legally for approximately four years until a lawyer comes to give Joe money to allow Pip to become a gentleman Joe refuses the compensation but lets Pip do what he desires. He is offended when Jaggers offers him money. This is where Pip finds out that he has Great Expectations.
When Pip goes to get educated, he meets Biddy. It isn’t a full education he is getting but Biddy tries to help him as much as she can. Pip takes full advantage of his education and tries as hard as he can. Pip and Biddy get to know each other more and more, Biddy starts to like Pip, but Pip doesn’t know this until he explains to her why he wants to become a gentleman and he tells her about Estella when they were having a walk in the Marshes, she gives him very good advice. Pip sees that to become a gentleman he would need to get an education, but even with Biddy helping him, he still has a very rare chance of because of the class he’s from. There are other things he needs to know in order to become a gentleman in fact, Pip’s situation is hopeless as the class he is in is not desirable and he cant change it. Education is an important feature of a Bildungsroman, but cant help Pip with Estella
Jaggers is a lawyer, he knows that Pip wants to become a gentleman so he helps him, but he is being paid by an anonymous person to help him. Jaggers informs Pip that he is going to London to be educated and that he is to become a gentleman. Pip thinks that Miss Havisham has sent him and has given Jaggers the Money because Jaggers gives Pip 20 guineas for new clothes. The Convict was the person who sent Jaggers but Pip doesn’t know. Jaggers is like an intellectual bully, he’s the type of person who would only do enough work for the money he’s given. He wont help for free he’s very greedy. In chapter 18, Jaggers tells Pip that he has Great Expectations “I have got to make is, that he has great expectations”. The books name is mentioned and we now start to see Pip going onwards to becoming a gentleman. Joe and Biddy are sad that Pip is leaving but they still are happy for him, they don’t show that they are sad but Pip can see they don’t want him to leave. Pip still doesn’t know whom his benefactor is and is delighted when he finds out that he has great expectations. It shows, that it is possible to expect something you would have never thought of expecting.
Pip grows up and then sometimes he looks back and thinks of things that he wishes he could change. He tells us about them but then he also gives us his inner thoughts by saying things like I wish I had done this instead of that. In Pip’s youth he is very polite, shy and caring but when Jaggers comes to his house to tell him that he has become a gentleman he changes dramatically. In the book there is a time when Pip and Joe go around to Miss Havisham’s house and he is very embarrassed of Joe of the way he speaks and acts. Pip thinks he’s better than everyone else and he becomes rude and loses his respect for others. When he was young he had respect for other people “There Sir”. I timidly explained” he uses sir for respect. When he’s a man he becomes to full of himself. “Well Joe is a dear, good fellow-in fact, I think he is the dearest fellow that ever lived – but he is rather backwards in something’s. For instance Biddy, in his early learning and his Manners”. Pip thinks that Joe isn’t good enough for Pip.
Pip still has to learn many things to become a gentleman. Herbert Pocket and Matthew Pocket help him in London to become a gentleman. They each teach him the etiquettes of being a gentleman, they tutor him. He still hasn’t met Estella in this new form and looks forward to show her that he is up to her standards. What Pip still has to do is to become a gentleman and learn everything there is to know about being a gentleman. He also shouldn’t look down on people of a lower class and to treat everyone with respect especially Joe.
Shoaib Zafar 10R
