In a way, much of the story comes across with Joe acting more like a child with Pip than a father. “I always treated him as a larger species of child, and as no more than my equal.” Because of Pip’s lack of proper parents when he was young and Joe’s lack of love from Mrs Joe Gargery, the two of them form a strong bond with each other as both of them share the same treatment by Mrs Joe Gargery. “Joe and I being fellow sufferers and having confidences as such, Joe imparted a confidence to me…” As a result of this bond Joe’s personality is then somehow absorbed by Pip as Pip portrays a typical childlike quality in which he is easily influenced by those around him.
Joe’s influence to Pip can come across as a positive outlook on Pip as Pip learns to respect others and their wishes as well as himself, but also not to retaliate and lower himself to someone else’s level if they provoke him. “She says many hard things of you, yet you say nothing of her. What do you think of her? I don’t like to say, I stammered.” In this quote, Pip refuses to tell Miss Havisham what he thought of Estella, because he did not want to create any more tension than there already was. This then backs up my point as its illustrating Pip’s control over his emotions due to Joe’s influence over Pip’s social behaviour.
On the other hand, Joe’s influence can also be established as a form of hindrance to Pip’s development. Joe’s lack of education has brought upon Pip the reality of growing up to follow in Joe’s footsteps and become a blacksmith. “I wished Joe had been rather more genteelly brought up, and then I should have been too.” This just proves that Pip’s negative questioning about his presence in life seems to be down to the influencing of Joe’s personality and even love.
Another Positive influence that Joe has on Pip is that his sense of childish attitude towards Mrs Joe Gargery helped Pip to not be as afraid of her as he knows that Joe will always be on his side and feel the same way. “She’s been on the Ram-page, this last spell, about five minutes, Pip. She’s a-coming! Get behind the door, old chap, and have the jack-towel betwixt you.” This is one of the many situations where we see Joe defending Pip and understanding what he’s going through as Joe himself is being treated the same way as well.
In conclusion I believe that on the whole Joe’s intentions towards Pip are all genuinely optimistic. However whether it is actually doing Pip any good is another matter. It seems that when thinking about the future of Pip and what he wants to succeed, it appears that Joe might be holding him back due to his simplicity of just wanting to ‘get by’. In a way it would seem that Mrs Joe Gargery being mean to Pip will drive Pip to wanting to prove to her that he can succeed with his dreams in life.
