Pip is the person on whom the whole novel revolves; the novel starts and ends with Pip. The dictionary’s definition of a pip is ‘ a small hard seed of an apple, pear or orange’. This is relevant to Pip in a way because he is a person who should develop or grow from a ‘small bundle of shivers.’ However, his circumstances at the beginning of the novel give us the impression that this will not allow him to develop.
During Pip’s early childhood, he is unjustly suppressed and bullied by his sister, and to a lesser degree, by Pumblechook at the Christmas dinner and the rest of the village.
“You would have been disposed of for many shillings…and Dunstable the butcher would have come up to you as you lay in your straw,”
“You come along and be dosed.”
Pip is regularly fed tar water for any simple wrongdoing by his sister who also chastises him regularly with the ironically named ‘Tickler’. Although Pip has the friendship of his brother-in law Joe, this is not enough to stop him developing into a timid, undernourished yet sensitive child.
Pip next has pressure put upon him when he goes to Satis House and has his first encounter with Estella and Miss Havisham. Pip’s overwhelming love for Estella and his change in attitude and behaviour towards others hide the real values of life. He becomes ungrateful to Joe and from time to time, his conscience tells him he has behaved badly but finds it difficult to change. It is quite easy to criticise Pip for his change of feeling towards his life long friend Joe, but we must understand that he has been deeply affected by the bullying which he had suffered in his early years at the hands of his dominating sister, as well as his need to improve his life-style.
Pip is also rather gullible, we can see this in his encounter with the convict – he really believes that the convict namely Magwitch will tear his liver out; this is because of the atmosphere of death in the graveyard. Also the way that Magwitch speaks in his rough and raspy voice.
When Pip meets Estella, he is taken in by her charms. For the first time he becomes aware of the social differences and background between them. This makes him feel dissatisfied with his life, he feels ashamed of his home, of his ‘coarse hands’ and ‘thick boots’ and the first realisation that life could be better enters his mind. Unfortunately Pip becomes rather distant from his peers and when he finds out he is to come into fortune (his ‘Great Expectations’), he is quick to drop his childhood friends and family in case they embarrass him. Although sometimes he feels guilty about this, he still acts this way.
Moving to London and meeting Herbert Pocket again inspires Pip to be more like him, a young gentleman.
However, Pip leaves behind one of the only true gentlemen in the novel Joe Gargery is a blacksmith who is married to Pip’s sister.
“A giant of a man, with fair hair curly hair and mild blue eyes.”
Joe is an honest, kind and simple man who becomes a father figure to Pip. Throughout the novel he is one of, the few characters who does not really change. Joe shows the dignity and strength of a gentleman as he is still loyal to Pip, despite Pip’s neglect of Joe. He is able to accept his wife’s harsh personality without showing his true feelings and he finds it difficult to stand up to her strong will. Although partly educated, he is always willing to learn, and is very proud at Pip’s good fortune, and is happy to stay in the background whilst Pip is in London receiving his training to ‘become a gentleman’.
Miss Havisham is a bitter old woman whose heart and mind are as decaying as the house in which she lives. When Pip first meets Miss Havisham ‘…the strangest lady I have ever seen…’ she is wearing ancient yellowed bridal clothes and he notices that everything in the room is gloomy, faded and old. All the clocks and her watch have stopped at eight forty am. ‘I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress…’
By setting the scene in this way, Dickens introduces mystery and vagueness about Miss Havisham’s past, which helps to create the idea that she might be Pip’s benefactor. Dickens describes her as a relic from the past, absorbed by her misfortunes and determined to emotionally destroy any man. She deliberately uses young, beautiful Estella (her adopted daughter) as bait, and enjoys watching Estella tease and torment Pip. She knows that Estella will never return Pips’ love.
As the story progresses, Pip discovers the reasons for Miss Havisham’s behaviour, Compeyson, (the second convict) had jilted her years before after running off with some of her money. It is after Miss Havisham’s death in the house fire that Compeyson is also killed and Magwitch is captured on the Thames.
One of the themes in the novel is the ability to forgive, even for Miss Havisham. She comes to regret deeply her cruel actions and is able to show at the end of the novel that she is capable of having some feelings. She begs Pip to forgive her, kneeling at his feet, takes advice and leaves money to her nephew Herbert, she becomes distraught with guilt over her treatment of Estella as she has made Estella incapable of ever feeling true love.
‘What have I done…. I meant to save her (Estella) from misery like my own.’ … ‘I stole her heart … and put ice in its place’.
When Pip first meets Abel Magwitch we discover that he is a convict on the run – the setting of the graveyard adds an air of menace and darkness. Pip is terrified by him.
‘A terrible voice…’ a fearful man dressed all in grey with a iron attached to his leg. ‘a man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars; who limped, and shivered, and glared and growled; and whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me by the chin.’ This shows one of Dickens’ techniques, how he builds a character layer by layer to describe them. Dickens also uses both Magwitch and Compeyson to illustrate what the legal system of that time was like – especially for the poor and uneducated. The poor could not afford to pay fines or bribe the court so they got harsh punishments, compared to the rich. The system was unfair and corrupt.
Despite the rough, desperate and coarse character seen to be Magwitch at the beginning of the story, as the narrative progresses we see that Magwitch has good qualities too. He used all his wealth to pay for Pip to become a gentleman and even risked his own life to visit him in England.
We also discover a strange connection between Magwitch and Miss Havisham – that she has adopted his daughter by Molly, Mr Jagger’s maid and on his deathbed discovers from Pip that she is alive, beautiful and loved by Pip. This gives him great comfort. Whereas Miss Havisham’ s reason has been twisted by her early experiences, Magwitch is still able to respond and give kindnesses, and is able to see that his own miserable life has given benefit to others.
Most of the major characters in ‘Great Expectations’ are of dynamic creation – their personalities undergo transformation as the plot unfolds.
Only one of the two endings really fit the story. The ending for some characters are suitable for the way they were throughout the novel.
Miss Havisham burned to death when her wedding dress caught light. The way she dies also makes you feel sorry for her, but it also makes you think that she does deserve a damaging death for the way she destroyed people mentally during her life. Magwitch on the other hand dies happy knowing that he has helped Pip to become a gentleman. On Magwitch’s death bed Pip tells him that he is madly in love with Estella, the daughter he thought was dead. These are examples of two of the characters that died in a manner suiting to how they had lived.
It seems to me that all of the characters in ‘Great Expectations’ that received injustices, were all compensated in some way. For example Joe finds happiness with Biddy, and Magwitch dies a content man. This also happens the other way round to the unpleasant characters such as Miss Havisham.
I think the original ending Dickens planned really fits the novel better because Pip and Estella had such different personalities that long lasting happiness between then is probably impossible. The characters and moods that Charles Dickens created over a hundred years ago, remain as fascinating and interesting as when ’Great Expectations’ was first written.