There is great unity in the novel and is partially about guilt and shame. These ideas are reinforced in many ways. Pip is made to feel guilty as a child from his sister. Mrs Joe Gargery says, “Who brought you up by hand…and why did I do it, I should like to know…I’d never do it again” and says himself “I was always treated as if I had insisted on being born.” This makes us have pity for him and feel quite sorry of his situation. He also has a great cause for his guilt in dealing with Magwitch. Pip feels shame at his low or poor upbringing. We see evidence of this when he says, “They troubled me now as vulgar appendages” and “It is a most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home.” We gradually see Pip contrast the elegant Estella, she calls him a “common labouring boy” and says that his boots are “thick” and his hands are “coarse”, with the disgusting criminal Magwitch. Pip’s shame at his origin fuels his desire to become a “gentleman” and the novel is so much about what makes one.
Dickens convincingly describes the overbearing sense with which guilt can play on a young boy’s mind. Pip is repeatedly told by his sister and Uncle Pumblechook that he lacks any gratitude (for those who “brought him up by hand”) and that the young are “naterally wicious”. This makes him feel inadequate and unable to do what people want him to do. This would make him feel shame also that he cannot be grateful for what people have done for him. He senses injustice or unfairness of these views, yet is denied opportunity to discuss it, as is Joe, who sees that defending Pip leads to his own bad treatment. When Magwitch forces Pip to steal from the Forge, Pip believes he is guilty of a serious crime, “This was very disagreeable to a guilty mind” almost talking to himself, deliberating how serious his “crime” was, although is unable to confide in Joe. He wrongly fears that he will lose Joe’s affection. Magwitch’s so called “confession” to the theft that Pip committed, and Uncle Pumblechook’s ludicrous “explanation” of it further deepens Pip’s troubles. In Chapter 3, he sees “accusers” in the mist, being the “clerical ox” and “phantom” finger -post. In the next chapter, he sees how accusing remarks about the general wickedness of youth are almost directed at him, even though he is aware that as yet, Uncle Pumblechook has no reason to accuse him of failure, he still knows he has committed a crime which at any time he could be discovered for. “I was in an agony of apprehension” and “I fully expected to find a Constable in the kitchen waiting to take me up.” This proves that he is so ashamed and antagonised of his behaviour.
Pip’s visit to Satis or Enough House leads to his awareness of himself as “coarse” and “common”; he is embarrassed of the limitations imposed on him because of his social class. The stranger with the file in the Jolly Bargeman and his fight with the “pale young gentleman”-Herbert Pocket-only added to Pip’s thoughts of error. Even the way he describes Herbert when looking back on the event as “pale” which makes him seem sick almost and like Pip sees it as a mistake to prey on an ill boy. Pip’s long visit to Miss Havisham gives Orlick the motive and opportunity to attack Mrs. Joe. At first, Pip thinks himself guilty and is still troubled by having provided the weapon “however undesignedly” and thinks about telling Joe, but doesn’t. This shows his misunderstanding that his relationship with Joe will be jeopardised if he does so.
Pip becomes wrongly ashamed of his home and occupation and desperate to rise socially, however know this to be impossible. The discovery of his “great expectations” and the unusual secrecy of his benefactor lead Pip into an error of which neither Miss Havisham nor Mr Jaggers cares to enlighten him. He becomes proud and considers ways to make Joe a suitable companion, although hiding him from his London “friends”. He is uncomfortable in behaving this way, but not enough to alter his conduct. As narrator, the older, wiser Pip is filled with shame for his betrayal of Joe.
Pip is proud to take the inherited money as he thinks Miss Havisham is his benefactor. By hard work in an honest occupation, Magwitch had earned the wealth to make “a gentleman of his boy”. Pip in fact got exactly what he wished for. When Pip meets Magwitch, his snobbish distaste for the convict (Magwitch does not blame him) is only slightly restrained by recognition of what the man has risked for him. He does feel it his duty to help Magwitch and resigns himself to being his companion. It is only when Magwitch lies dying in the prison in the prison infirmary that Pip comes to know him and love him. He remarks "...my repugnance to him had all melted away and in the hunted, wounded, shackled creature who held my hand in his, I only saw a man who had meant to be my benefactor, and who had felt affection, gratefully, and generously towards me with great constancy through a series of years.” This shows us that his hate had gone away and he had grown to really love Magwitch. The earlier shame of association with a criminal gives way to a tolerant and sympathetic view. The understanding of the common humanity of the beloved Estella and Magwitch has helped Pip to this view, but his addressing him as “Dear Magwitch” is sincere and he brings him comfort as he dies.
Pip as a child has an exaggerated sense of guilt nevertheless he has enough awareness to doubt Mrs Joe’s, Hubble’s and Uncle Pumblechook’s view of the young. He trusts Joe’s judgement but too soon mistakes Joe’s lack of learning for lack of wisdom. His association with Magwitch wrongly troubles him and his horror of the man, is exaggerated by his love of Estella. When he goes to London, any guilt that Pip has at his sins is lost in snobbish sense of shame at the degraded social status of the convict and the thought of connection would strike Estella. In the last chapter Estella views her paternity without disgust, and with the death of Magwitch and Joe’s reappearance in the novel, the snobbery gives way to an open confident display of love and gratitude. In describing Biddy’s hand in the last chapter, he says that it had a “very pretty eloquence in it.” In saying this, we know that selfishness has gone, for compliment and kindness to take it’s place. He also says to Biddy and Joe, “in charity and love with all mankind, receive my humble thanks for all you have done for me.” This shows the gratitude he has redeemed from his childhood condition.
Without any great variation in Pip’s own narrative style, vast ranges of characters are introduced. This is largely achieved by letting them speak for themselves rather than putting them in a text of Pip’s personal overview or summary of events. Pip is able to convey the viewpoint of both his younger self from the simple child of the opening to the young man of the middle section and the more mature narrator. Noticeably, Pip does not change his name to its original state of Phillip Pirrip throughout the book, which is interesting. I would have thought that as growing up, he would have a grown up name, yet his name remains as Pip, therefore showing his original status was kept inside all of the time whilst he was growing through snobbery. Dickens allows Pip to speak with a distinctive voice, “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” and “…the saddened softened light of the once proud eyes; what I had never felt before, was the friendly touch of the once insensible hand.” This shows the vivid story telling and the fluent and varied description used. Honesty is now shown and we get to know Pip as a real person with real feelings.
The next character I am going to analyse is Miss Havisham. I firstly would like to mention that I think Charles Dickens uses “Miss” as a constant emphasis of frustration at not being married, not being Mrs. This creates the image straight away that a woman of this age is lonely and has no one there to end her life, but her treasured adopted daughter, Estella.
When Pip first meets Miss Havisham, we hear the greatest description to be written throughout this meeting between them. Pip’s description of this “withered” woman relates her very much to death. He says she is a “skeleton in the ashes of a rich dress…dug out of a vault under the church pavement.” Constantly comparing her to a skeleton with this metaphor makes us notice exactly the way that Pip views her. Her appearance gives a whole impression of what her mood is going to be whenever we see her-somewhat dead and forgotten, similar to a corpse. The repetition of “skeleton” and “church” and the use of “sunken” and “shrunk” make us almost fear her when related to death and then pity her when we see her degraded figure in the wedding dress that was never used. In addition, the terms that relate to religion make us think more about her wedding, which is meant to be a lasting impression throughout our experiences of her character. We do start to feel truly sorry for Miss Havisham when she is sitting in a “ragged chair” and she catches fire. I think that describing the chair as ragged is also making a near relation to Miss Havisham as being like the chair, as a ragged or worn out woman.
Before we see her in a “whirl of fire” and “shrieking” when she is alight from her fire, we do not have so much compassion for her as she almost feels sorry for herself. When Pip first meets Miss Havisham, one of the first comments she makes is “What do I touch?” Pip answers when he sees her holding her left side “Your heart.” She then snaps back “Broken” and then it says in text, she “slowly took them away as if they were heavy” referring to her hands. This makes Miss Havisham seem melodramatic and sorry for herself, the way she slowly moves them away, virtually accentuating the heaviness. It is a strain or effort to do a simple action. This makes her seem dramatic and a little eccentric.
When Pip first looks at Miss Havisham’s appearance, he mentions a contrast of white and yellow. Dickens writes through Pip’s eyes, “all of white…Her shoes were white…She had a long white veil…her hair was white” and then “faded and yellow” “no brightness left” and “ghostly waxwork”. The constant repetition of white and the contrast of death and past life make us see the hope she had before her life was “ruined” and now that she has faded. This also highlights the strain of the wedding on her and her surroundings. The name of her house “Satis” is the Greek for enough, which is supposed to mean that anyone who bought the house would have all happiness in it and not need any other pleasures in life “could want nothing else”. I do not think this meaning is adequate for Miss Havisham’s purpose, and it is more likely for it to mean that she has had enough of life, enough of people and enough of the entire male sex.
Pip feels so uncomfortable during his visit to Miss Havisham’s house. I think that this is because he is in a place that is unusual to be in, seeing the decay like state that the house and Miss Havisham are in. He says that he is an “unfortunate boy” and that he was “avoiding her eyes”; as she makes Pip feel uneasy and scared to look at her even, as she orders him to do things. “I have a sick fancy that I want to see some play” is what she tells Pip to do which makes us fell as if she is quite unusual, eccentric and out of the ordinary. Moreover, I almost feel pity again for her, as it is quite strange that someone has not seen that much adventure for many years, she needs to get someone else to do it for her. The essence of having no eye contact also makes her seem like she has no strong relationships with anyone, or any strong emotions.
The last character I will evaluate is Mr Wemmick, Mr Jaggers’ clerk. His face is expressionless, which we learn when Pip first meets him, “A dry man…with a square wooden face, whose expression seemed to have been imperfectly chipped out” and in describing his expressions “His mouth was such a post-box mouth that he had a mechanical appearance of smiling…not smiling at all.” This proves that at work, Mr Wemmick is very stern and takes his job very seriously. The appearance of a post-box and chiselled out of wood makes us see him as a inflexible man with no emotion, except for respect for his workplace and job. At home in Walworth, being an entirely different person, kind and caring, delighting his “aged parent” with the drawbridge, and even in calling him aged or old, we see his respect for people. This comparison of respect shows the total difference in Wemmick’s personality, making him seem like he has a split or twin personality. Mr. Jaggers respects his privacy and knows nothing of his Walworth home, showing that Wemmick likes to keep his work and home life separate. Wemmick says when Pip asks if Mr. Jaggers admires his house, “Never heard of it. Never seen the Aged. Never heard of him. No; the office is one thing, and private life is another…I don’t wish it professionally spoken about.” This suggests that Wemmick would not like Jaggers to know about his home or it would ruin their “professional” relationship. Furthermore, I think that Wemmick believes his work is based on fact and legality, whereas home life is more based upon your own wishes and not necessarily order. He generally uses emotion based upon the heart in Walworth, whereas in work, he uses emotion of an authority or a passion to satisfy work.
Wemmick has a lot of respect for Pip, always asking him things or if he is well. When Wemmick talks about his fortifications, he asks, “I don’t know if that’s your opinion” “You wouldn’t mind” and “It wouldn’t put you out.” This shows Wemmick is very polite although feels that Pip is superior to him and there is a distance because Pip is a client, no matter what he does in his free time.
Pip is very eager to please Wemmick, obliging to his queries quickly and efficiently. When Wemmick asks him to meet the Aged, Pip says, “I expressed the readiness I felt”. He is trying to please Wemmick by doing what he wants him to do. Additionally, I think Pip really wants to respect Wemmick, as he says, “I felt my good faith involved in the observance of his request.” Pip here is trying to obey his wishes. I think that when Pip says that Wemmick’s house is “ingenious”, he is respecting him again, is impressed, yet is just glad to meet people who have love for each other like Wemmick and the Aged.
We can see that Mr. Wemmick is proud of his possessions and achievements, as he firstly says about his house when Pip looks at it, “My own doing…Looks pretty don’t it?” This shows he has pride in what he has done and is looking at or admiring his accomplishments. What is more, in Pip’s opinion, he says, “ It was very pleasant to see the pride…smiling as he did so, with a relish and not merely mechanically…” referring back the office reference. This shows that Pip even notices Wemmick’s pride at this point. The time is taken to show Pip his home; therefore, the appreciation is put across.
From the points I have made, you can see that Charles Dickens truly does create outstanding characters that are both memorable and striking. Through observation as a basis of characterization and the eccentricity and idiosyncrasies of particular individuals, especially through curious habits or physical appearance descriptions, moral and social qualities are shown, and we grow to love every one of the characters in “Great Expectations”. From Magwitch to Miss Havisham and Joe to Pip, humour and satire are used through kind laughter and cruel jokes and Charles Dickens gradually unfolds the details of the characters, so their identity remains a secret and you have to read on.
