The Man Behind It All. Magwitch in "Great Expectations".

by nada1135 (student)

International Baccalaureate World Literature

Miranda Roskens

ENG2D7

5/9/11

The Man Behind It All

Great Expectations is a classic novel written in the 1800’s by a man named Charles Dickens, and it is the story of a young boy and is unfortunate expectations. The story is narrated by an older version of Pip, the protagonist. He recounts the days of his past, revealing how a simple infatuation with a young lady lead to false hopes and ambitions which alter with his persona and leave him with much guilt. One can therefore easily presume that Estella was the root of Pip’s remorse. However there is another character, a man by the name of Abel Magwitch, that has a much greater impact on the direction that Pip’s life had taken. In the first chapter, Magwitch is merely “a fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg” (4). Yet as the story progressed we see the true significance Dickens anticipated for this character. In Charles Dicken’s Great Expectations, Magwitch is made responsible for all the guilt in Pip’s life, yet ironically is also reason behind his redemption as seen by his change in character, and the changes in his relationships.

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The story of Pip’s great expectations, and everything he goes through, starts when he meets Magwitch one evening in the marshes. Dickens wittingly arranges the plot in this order to establish that the encounter with this man is the root of Pip’s journey. When he meets Magwitch, a convict, Pip is threatened to go against what is expected of him, and steal a pork pie and a file to keep him safe from the convicts. This gave Pip a tremendous amount of guilt, even thinking “I felt fearfully sensible for the great convenience that the Hulks were handy for me. I was clearly on my way there.” (15) The worst reason for guilt that this threat had created however was that it kept Pip from telling Joe the whole truth. “I morbidly represented to myself that if Joe knew it, I never see him at the fireside feeling his fair whichker, without thinking that he was meditating on it.” (41) This is only the first time in the Pip’s story where Magwitch caused Pip to feel guilty on his reactions with Joe.

Shortly after this, Pip is arranged to play with Estella, a young girl who was brought up as a tool to revenge against all men. Estella had a significantly large affect on Pip. She gave him something to look forward to, yet also made him question the person he should be. Because of her beauty, Pip falls in love with Estella and finds that her words stick to his mind. She continuously criticizes him, saying things such as “what coarse hands he has. And what thick boots!” (60) She made him become ashamed of his uneducated family and social class, and made him believe that he could not live up to her expectations, that he was simply a “common boy” (81) . When news comes to him that someone is giving him the opportunity to become a gentleman however, it creates hope for him, and the unforeseen fortune that comes to him gives him an unpleasant arrogance. “You are envious, Biddy, and grudging. You are dissatisfied on account of my rise in fortune, and you can’t help showing it.”(149) He undervalues Joe and Biddy’s importance in his life. Pip realizes further on in the novel that Magwitch is Estella’s father, and that he was also Pip’s secret benefactor. These unanticipated connections further prove that Magwitch was the cause of Pip’s faults. Pip damaged his relationship with the people who truly cared about him, because of the false hope that Magwitch had created for him, and only to please the girl that could care less for him, who was also coincidentally created from Magwitch.

Although Magwitch had caused Pip much guilt, it was not in his intentions. One can see that towards the later sections of the novel that Dickens allowed Magwitch to atone for his accountability by making him the reason for which Pip redeems himself. Pip’s redemption starts when he starts accepting Magwitch, ignoring his appearance, manners, and social status, characteristics that had once gave him reason to dislike him. “For now my repugnance to him had all melted away, […]I only saw a man who had meant to be my benefactor, and who had felt affectionately, gratefully, and generously towards me with great constancy through a series of years. I only saw in him a much better man than I had been to Joe” (450) He learns from Magwitch that loyalty and human affection are more important than social standing and ambition. This realization serves as an eye-opener for Pip, and makes him even more remorseful of how he had treated Biddy and Pip. He realizes ___ When Pip is telling Joe Biddy about his hopes for their son, he says, “Don’t ever tell him, Joe, that I was thankless; don’t tell him, Biddy, that I was ungenerous and unjust.”(479) Pip’s appreciation when he says “I will never rest until I have worked for the money with which you have kept me out of prison, and sent it to you.” (479) is mirrored by Magwitch’s appreciation for Pip when he becomes his secret benefactor. Now all that Pip hopes for is forgiveness, as seen when he says “I pray tell me both, that you forgive me.” (484) Pip has been able to redeem himself.