Who Or What Do You Think Has The Most Influence on Pip's Development And For What Reasons?

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Who Or What Do             You   Think Has The Most Influence on   Pips Development And For What Reasons?

         By Priya Patel

Great Expectations                By Charles Dickens

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-York Notes

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Who Or What Do You Think Has The Most Influence On Pips Development And For What Reasons?  

Through the characters Dickens has created in “Great Expectations” he paints a picture to show us the way in which people’s actions are influenced wholly by those they come into contact with throughout their lives. In “Great Expectations”, which follows the dreams and aspirations of a young, innocent boy through to reaching manhood, Philip Pirrip, more commonly known as Pip, is influenced by many characters. In this essay, I am going to try to pinpoint the most influential character or significant issue that directly affects Pip.

When we initially meet Pip, he is a semi-illiterate boy with “just enough learning to be able to spell,” from a very lower class background, trying to build images of his parents and siblings, all of which have passed away, excluding one. This is Mrs. Joe Gargery, his elder sister, married to Mr. Joe Gargery, the local blacksmith. She is over 20 years his senior and is a mother figure for Pip. Mrs. Joe is seen as superior to both Pip and Joe.

I think Mrs. Joe influences Pip from a very early stage in his life by bringing him up to be an honest and pure child. Pip, having been raised by this strict disciplinarian, supposed that both he and Joe Gargery were “both brought up by hand” and corrected by use of Tickler, Mrs Joe’s frequently used whip. Pip learnt very early on that he was an inferior member of the family and was taught to be very grateful for even this as, without his sister; he would have ended up with either poor health or dead.

Biddy takes on a major role in influencing Pip after Mrs Joe has an unfortunate accident. In order to nurse Mrs Joe and to make sure Pip and Joe manage well, she moves into the forge. She not only works as a housekeeper in the forge, but also acts as Pip’s confidant and is the one person other than Joe and Herbert that he trusts during the whole of his life. He tells his problems to Biddy who gives him advice and tries to help and guide him through. Pip entrusts Biddy with his innermost feelings and thoughts, including his passion for Estella, the young girl he is belittled by in his childhood and soon “reposes complete confidence in no one but Biddy.” They talk fairly frequently and Pip begins to think that all she says is correct.

Prior to gaining knowledge of his expectations, Pip reveals to Biddy his secret wish of becoming a gentleman, thereby acquiring equal social status to Estella. Her first instinct is to reject the idea because she deems it to be for the wrong reasons, but when Pip elaborates on the subject, she tries to talk him out of the notion stating “You know best, Pip; but don’t you think you are happier as you are? 

When Pip learns that his “great expectations” may be fulfilled, due to a generous benefactor, he recounts the whole concept to Biddy and once he has elucidated, she tells him that she thinks he is making a mistake. Pip, surprised and upset by this, suggests it is because she is jealous of him. “Now Biddy, I am very sorry to see this in you. You are envious, Biddy, and grudging. You are dissatisfied on account of my rise in fortune, and you can’t help showing it.”

Before he sets out to be a gentleman, Pip wonders what it might be like to be in love with Biddy instead of Estella. She is the absolute contrast to Estella and is portrayed as “never insulting, or capricious, or Biddy to-day and somebody else to-morrow,” and furthermore, she would have derived only pain and no pleasure, from giving him pain.” This causes Pip to question his passion for Estella “How could it be that I did not like her much the better of the two?”

After Pip has fulfilled his expectations, he thinks of going back to Kent and taking Biddy as his wife. He is fully aware that he does not love her with the same ardour as he does Estella, but still respects and loves her enough to marry her. These plans are destroyed when Pip does go back to Kent though, as he walks in on Joe and Biddy’s wedding day.

Pip is influenced by Biddy, in my opinion, because she teaches him the true values of things. In certain aspects of his life she shows him how she thinks he should act. For example when Pip leaves Kent to go to London, she expresses her views on the matter, clearly making him think about what he is going to do.

Another more controversial person in Pip’s life is Miss Havisham. Pip’s first impression of her is as a most frightening and strange woman, “an immensely rich and grim lady,

Miss Havisham has a large impact on Pip’s views of society and the class system by making him aware of the differences between his background and that of the upper-classes. Introducing Pip to Estella, her adopted daughter, she encourages her to be rude and insulting towards him, telling her ‘you can break his heart.’ She has a strong hatred for all men and uses Pip as a mere ‘implement’ to wreak revenge on the male gender. Pip becomes more self-aware and self-critical in Miss Havisham’s presence, and starts to feel dissatisfied with his social status. He sees his background as “coarse,” “common” and unacceptable.

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Wanting to make a visit to Estella after he has started his apprenticeship with Joe, Pip takes himself to Satis house. Miss Havisham informs him that Estella is abroad on a “Grande Tour”; and tells Pip of all her admirers and of how she is even more beautiful now than she was before. Pip is obviously devastated by this news but accepts it as inevitable. Miss Havisham’s response to his loss is “malignant enjoyment.

Pip becomes less sensitive under the manipulation of Miss Havisham and more scrutinizing and critical. His interest in becoming a gentleman to fit in with ...

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