Chapter 2 introduces the rest of the Gargery household and life in the Gargery household to the reader. Instead of the man, Joe being the person in charge of the household, it is the woman, Mrs Joe Gargery. We see that Joe, like Pip is uneducated because of the way he speaks. The quotes, “but still your elth’s your elth” and “oncommon Bolt as that” show the reader Joe’s lack education. We see that Joe says “elth” instead of health and “oncommon” instead of uncommon, this is quite sad because he does not know any better. Mrs Joe has brought Pip up “by hand”, which means she beats him with a whip if he does something wrong, as discipline, hence he has such good manners. Mrs Joe is not like other older sisters; instead of loving Pip she wishes he was rather dead. She says, “If it warn’t for me you’d have been to the churchyard long ago, and stayed there”. This quote tells us that Mrs Joe took care of Pip after their parents died, but now she wishes she hadn’t done so. We also learn that Mrs Joe does not only discipline Pip but Joe as well. Joe and Pip are good friends; as a result Joe does not act like an adult all the time, and has no power over Mrs Joe. At dinner Pip is concerned about stealing the food for the convict, and is thinking up different methods to take the food from his plate and hide it. In the end he is successful, however Joe is worried about him, because he is concerned that Pip has eaten his food too quickly, “It’ll stick somewhere. You can’t have chawed it, Pip.” This shows Joes concern for Pip. Early next morning Pip goes downstairs and takes a more food and a file from Joe’s workshop before going back into the marshes to meet the Magwitch the convict.
Pip and Joe are best friends. We learn this when Pip enters the house after visiting the grave yard when Joe informs Pip that Mrs Joe has been out a lot of times looking for Pip since he has been out for so long. He says that she has got “tickler” with her, “Tickler was a wax-ended piece of cane, worn smooth by collision with my tickled frame.” From this quote we learn that “tickler” has beaten Pip so much that it has started to wear smooth. This quote also involves humour because to be beaten that many times in such a way is quite extraordinary, we also infer that the quote shows Mrs Joe’s hatred of Pip because she beats him so much because she hates him. Dickens uses this humour to show how ridiculous the situation is. The quote also shows that Pip and Joe’s friendship is very strong and that they care for each other, they look out for each other. Joe provides the moral guidance and love in Pip’s life because there is no-one else that does this, this makes their relationship stronger. The relationship between Pip and Joe at the start of the story is very strong, however it will change throughout Pip’s Journey as he tries to change himself for Estella.
We see that the beginning of the story has already started the traditions of a stereotypical ‘Bildungsroman’. We meet an orphan, Pip, wondering about his past, his parents, wanting to know what they were like. When he is confronted by the convict, Magwitch, and is told to get the food and a file we see that this is the start of Pip’s Journey. Pip has already started to change because he has stolen a file from his best friend, Joe. The relationship between Joe and Pip is very strong and for Pip to steal from him is an unexpected event, however we could argue that he has no choice since Magwitch made him believe that if he did not get the food and the file then a young man would kill Pip.
In Chapter 3 Pip taking the food and the file he took from Joe and Mrs Joe back to the convict. This is the first stage of Pip’s Journey and change because he is doing something dishonest he has not done before and he has mixed thoughts about doing so. Whilst Pip is going back to the churchyard and the marshes he feels scared and frightened. He feels as if the whole world is turning against him, because he imagines the cows in the farm calling “thief” and saying, “stop him”. Pip himself feels a “guilty mind”, this shows that even though Pip knows that he should not be doing this, stealing the food and a file and taking it to the convict, he has no choice because he thinks that his life is in the hands of the (imaginary?), “young man” that will kill him if he doesn’t bring the food and a file as instructed. Pip knows how convicts/criminals are treated and where they are in the social hierarchy, and fears that if he gets caught with the stolen food then he would be considered a convict and will be sent to the “Hulks” and will be an outcast from society. All this could be inferred from the quoted, “it seemed to my oppressed conscience like a phantom devoting me to the Hulks.” and “This was very disagreeable to a guilty mind.” This part of the story shows the reader a new side of Pip’s character. Pip is now facing his fear of the convict, he is not worried that about the fact that he has stolen and is only concerned for his life. Pip is now changing, he is no longer the innocent little boy we see at the start of the story, he is now more daring and not as conscious of what he is doing.
Dickens uses setting to convey Pip’s feelings. He does so by setting a harsh and trecherous landscape to show Pip’s unease. Dickens makes the setting is dark, cold and misty and makes us infer by using Pip’s thoughts that this is how Pip’s mind must also be. Pip is unsure of what he is doing and as the setting is misty it shows the reader that it, the setting it unsure itself. The setting is described as fearful and this makes Pip feel scared, “I saw the damp lying on the bare hedges and spare grass, like a coarser sort of spiders’ webs; hanging itself from twig to twig and blade to blade.” This quote shows the landscape as damp and wet from early morning fog and rain, it creates the sense of unease in Pip’s mind because it looks like something out of a horror movie.
In Chapter 8 Pip visits Ms Havisham’s House, Satis House to play. Whilst there he meets a girl roughly the same age as him, called Estella. Estella is very proud of who she is and is also very rude towards Pip. Pip thinks Estella is beautiful even though she calls him “course” and “boy”. From these quotes, we infer that Estella feels superior to Pip because of where he is in the social hierarchy compared to where she is in the social hierarchy. Ms Havisham is an old lady stuck in the time frame of her wedding day. She was left at the alter by her fiancé, and cannot get over the misery that she faced on that day, she is still in the same cloths, all her clocks have stopped on that time, it is as if life has just stopped at that particular time.
Whilst Pip is at Satis House he becomes aware of the social hierarchy and class divisions in society. Ms Havisham and Estella are higher up in the social hierarchy than Pip and the rest of the Gargery household. Ms Havisham and Estella are from the Upper class and the Gargerys are from the Working class. Estella brings up the point about the social hierarchy and class a number of times, and when she does so she always puts Pip down and makes him think less of himself and his class, “With this boy! Why, he is a common labouring-boy!” This quote shows us that Estella thinks less of lower classes than her own and that she does not want to have anything to do or mix with anyone from a lower class. When Ms Havisham and Estella introduce the class difference into the story the reader learns that in Victorian Society people could only mix with other people from their own class and not others.
When Pip finds our or realises that he is of a lower class to Ms Havisham and Estella. Pip loves (?) Estella, and is devastated that she is from a different class to him, which means that they are not allowed (?) to be together. When Pip realises that Estella would not consider them to be together because of their class difference, he wants to change his class and the only way to do this is to become a gentleman. Becoming a gentleman is not easy for someone who is not one already; you could only become a gentleman by inheriting it from your parents or by having “great expectations”. Gentlemen traditionally have a lot of money, live in London and have a good job. Despite the impossibility that Pip could actually achieve the status of a Gentleman, he still sets himself the goal of becoming a gentleman and to change from his humble background, so that he could achieve his ultimate goal of being good enough for his love, Estella. There are not many ways in which to change your class and the few that there are as near to impossible as could be, however as fate should decide Pip will get his way, one way or another. Pip feels ashamed of his class and family.
The first-person narration of Pip increases our understanding of him because we get to know Pip as a person through his thoughts. The reader reads the story through the eyes of Pip and this influences the reader to empathise more for Pip than any other central character. As a result the reader feels more sympathy for Pip and knows him better than all other characters. We, the readers see into the mind of Pip and in this way are able to feel and think what he thinks and feels whilst reading.
Pip’s relationship with Joe changes after his visit to “Satis House” and his day with Ms Havisham and Estella because after meeting them he thinks that they are better than him and Pip, so he no longer looks up to Joe and now looks up to Ms Havisham and Estella. Joe represents Pips lower class upbringing and because of this Pip feels ashamed of it and Joe. Pip wants to change himself to become a gentleman, and if he does so then Joe will no longer be able to part of Pip’s life since Joe will still be of the “working class” and not have been promoted to a gentleman. Pip and Joe’s relationship has already started to become weaker even before Pip’s visit to “Satis House”, because of the incident with the convict where Pip had to steal the file from Joe, he felt that he could not tell Joe about the file because Pip thought that Joe would consider Pip as a convict or criminal and then they will not be friends anymore. However because Pip did not tell Joe about the file it drew them further apart because now Pip had a secret from Joe and Joe did not have a secret from Pip. Their relationship became even weaker after Pip’s visit to “Satis House” because Pip now felt that Joe to simple of a man for Pip and he was not high enough in the social hierarchy to be seen with Pip.
Chapter 10 and Chapter 14 describe Pip’s dissatisfaction with life and his desire to improve himself. Dickens highlights the . All gentlemen have good education and the education received by Pip could only be described as farcical. All the pupils would mess about and not pay attention in class, “The pupils ate apples and put straws up one another’s backs.” This quote shows that the lessons were so poor that they were almost comical. When Biddy comes in, she passes out copies of the Bible out to everyone. All the pupils would read out aloud together, as if it was a choir, “Biddy gave out the number of the page and then we all read aloud what we could – or what we couldn’t – in a frightful chorus”. This quote shows the lessons being comical because you either know what you are reading or you don’t and nobody else knows weather you are reading or not. Mr Wopsle’s great-aunt is the teacher, and her role in the lessons is the most outrageous or comical, after the lesson starts she goes to sleep and when she awakes the lesson is over. To show that she is the one in charge she would bully one of the boys, “When this horrible din had lasted a certain time, it mechanically awoke Mr Wopsle’s great-aunt, who staggered at a boy fortuitously, and pulled his ears”. After this everyone knew the lesson was over and left thinking they have made academic advancement but really they had not even started. As a result of a lack of education Pip approaches Biddy and asks her for private tutoring, she kindly accepts. This shows that Pip is dissatisfied with his education because he understands that the lessons with Mr Wopsle’s great-aunt are only a joke and nothing else, and for him to advance and become a gentleman he must get a proper education. In chapter 14 Pip expresses his dissatisfaction with his life as a whole. The insults from Estella continue to haunt him everyday, “course” and “boy”. This shows that he has given in to Estella and is not willing to fight for who he his, he is not proud of who he is, and this is why Estella can make fun of him.
The older Pip who is narrating now regrets his previous dissatisfaction with his life because he now knows what misery that dissatisfaction has brought him. He is more mature and knows what he is doing. In chapter 14 the older Pip reveals what a mistake he was making and if he could change what he had done he would have. The older Pip describes his actions as a mistake, “It is a most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home.” This quote shows Pip’s awareness of his misery and dissatisfaction with whom he is. Pip’s dissatisfaction is what is enabling Estella to be rude toward Pip and make fun of him. If Pip were not dissatisfied with his life he would have been able to stop Estella from putting him down.
The fact that older Pip is looking back on his life follows the traditions of a stereotypical ‘Bildungsroman’. It shows the first-person narration and it’s ability to communicate with the reader. Older Pip is aware of some of his mistakes and is now telling the reader why he made them. He is more mature and is able to analyse his actions. All of this just adds to the endless list of traditions all ‘Bildungsromans’ follow.
In chapter 7 and Chapter 10 Dickens reveals the state of Victorian Education. As described before education or school for Pip and the other pupils was a joke. Nobody knew what he or she was doing or what anyone else was doing. After the lessons were over everyone left thinking they have achieved something but really their lesson had not even started. The teacher fell asleep just as the lesson started and woke up just before it finished. The lessons did not take place in a proper school but in the teacher’s front room.
Dickens’ attitude towards Victorian Education suggests that the education he got was also very poor. What he has written in his book only reflects the education he got. This links Dickens and Pip, they both had a poor education and wanted to better their education to achieve a goal. Dickens writes his own experiences in “Great Expectations” so that everyone could understand that even with rubbish education a person could still go on and achieve.
Pip at the start of the novel is a young boy who is an orphan. The incident with the confrontation with the convict Magwitch sparked a change in Pip’s life. His relationship with Joe, his best friend started to change and it never changed back once he realises his humble beginnings and becomes dissatisfied with it. The introduction of Ms Havisham and Estella made Pip want to change himself for Estella, he wanted to become a gentleman so that he could be classed in the same class as Estella. Pip now faces a choice weather to become a gentleman and win over Estella’s heart and loose Joe’s friendship or to keep Joe’s friendship and loose Estella. The Older Pip, the narrator of the story is looking back on his life explaining his mistakes and his actions. He is disappointed about the way he acted all those years ago. Victorian Education was a joke. None of the pupils learned anything, and went to school for a laugh. The education system in the story reflects the education Dickens received as a child. ‘Great Expectations’ is a stereotypical ‘Bildungsroman’ because it follows the traditions that all stereotypical ‘Bildungsromans’ follow. Many links could be made between the major and minor factors in “Great Expectations” and all other stereotypical ‘Bildungsromans’.
At the start of the novel Pip is an innocent little orphan boy. He lives with his sister and brother-in-law, Joe. Pip and Joe are best friends but through out the course of the novel their relationship changes. Mrs Joe, Pip’s older sister has brought Pip up “by hand”, which means that she has disciplined him using a whip, “Tickler”. As a result Pip is very well mannered as we learn from his confrontation with the convict, Magwitch.
The start of the novel follows the traditions of a stereotypical ‘Bildungsroman’ because we meet an orphan who is confused about his past and his identity. His main goal is to become a gentleman so that he could be classed in the same class as a particular girl that he fancies. To achieve this goal he must make sacrifices. The major sacrifice Pip must make is his friendship with Joe. Later he realises that class does not equate with happiness.
