Pip arrives home after his horrifying meeting with the convict to his extremely strict guardian; Mrs Joe Gargery. Mrs Joe, Pip’s sister, has a reputation with the neighbours to have brought Pip up “by hand” which meant that she would beat him with “Tickler”, which Pip describes as a “wax-ended piece of cane, worn smooth by collision with my tickled frame”. This however, was not uncommon in these times because the Victorians attitude towards children was that they were to be seen and not heard. For example, in wealthy families children would rarely see their parents as they were either sent to a boarding school at a very young age or their life was mainly spent with a nanny and they would eat separately to their parents. An example of this in “Great Expectations” is when Pip and the family are sitting around the table eating Christmas Dinner and Mr. Pumblechook says to Pip;
“be grateful, boy, to them which brought you up by hand”, “Why is it that the young are never grateful?”.
This means to say that Pip should actually be grateful for being beaten by his sister which communicates how attitudes have changed since then. Another example of this is when the adults begin to discuss children whilst at the dinner table and Mr Wopsle says;
“What is detestable in a pig, is more detestable in a boy”.
They even go on to say that Pip should be grateful that he was not born a “Squeaker”, although his sister then says, “He was, if ever a child was”.
These examples express how harshly children were treated in the Victorian Age and how different adults’ attitudes are nowadays.
Mr. Joe however, who is Mrs. Joe’s husband, is an exceptional adult in the novel because he is very kind and caring towards Pip as he attempts to balance his wife’s brutal behaviour with affection and friendship. This is because most other adults in the book exploit him in some way, for example, he is physically hurt by his sister, he has fear from the convict and he is mentally hurt and manipulated by Miss Havisham. Joe’s character shows him to have more of a connection with Pip because he is a simple and uneducated man who has a childlike attitude towards life. Pip even says,
“Joe and I being fellow-sufferers, and having confidences as such, Joe imparted a confidence to me…”,
which proves that he has trust in Joe as they both suffer from Mrs. Joe’s actions. An illustration of Joe’s kindness is when they are around the dinner table and Pip’s relatives are being very hurtful and offensive towards him. However, as a gesture to show that he is there for Pip, Joe puts gravy on his dinner to try and comfort him and although this is only very small it means a lot to Pip. He says,
“…he always aided and comforted me when he could, in some way of his own, and he always did so at dinner-time by giving me gravy…”.
To prove this, Pip repeats the phrase “Joe gave me some more gravy” twice during the Christmas meal on a single line whilst Pip’s relatives and sister are being spiteful towards him. For example Mr. Wopsle says, “The gluttony of Swine is put before us, as an example to the young.” But Joe’s actions indicate that he is trying to sympathise with Pip and near to the end of the dinner Pip says, “Joe offered me more gravy, which I was afraid to take” because Mr. Pumblechook is being so severe with him and Pip is rather intimidated by them.
Pip is also treated very badly when he meets Miss Havisham on a visit to “play” at Satis House. On his arrival he is introduced to Estella who he describes as “very pretty and seemed very proud”. Estella is very rude to Pip; she does not call him by the name of Pip but instead calls him “boy”. She also has a very scornful attitude towards him that makes him feel very inferior. An example of this is when Miss Havisham wants Estella and Pip to play cards together and Estella says, “With this boy! Why, he is a common labouring-boy!” whilst Pip is in the same room. Miss Havisham however, is not rude to Pip and treats him with respect although she is planning to use Estella to break Pip’s heart and she does this by manipulating his feelings. This is because she wants revenge for what has happened to her and so she uses Pip as a punishment to all men. She is very spiteful and heartless and she has no remorse for her actions. This is because she was left on the day of her wedding many years ago, which she has never been able to overcome and still feels humiliated and heartbroken years afterwards. In the Victorian times this was known as a terrible thing to be jilted however, being unmarried gave Miss Havisham more power and control over her own money than she would otherwise have if she were married.
Visiting Satis House in some respects opened a new “world” for Pip because he begins to notice how “common” he is. He now begins to feel very inferior because of the contemptuous manner that Estella treats him in and along with her spiteful comments such as “...what coarse hands he has! And what thick boots!” and “You are to wait here, you boy” he is made to feel even worse.
When Pip is left alone for a short while in the courtyard he thinks about what Estella has said to him especially his “coarse hands” and “common boots” and says,
“They had never troubled me before, but they troubled me now, as vulgar appendages”
This indicates how Pip now feels about himself and shows that he now has a much lower view of himself than he did before he came.
He is also made to feel common and inferior when he is given food by Estella in such a manner that she does not even look at him whilst doing so. This makes Pip feel “humiliated, hurt, spurned, offended, angry, sorry…” and he begins to cry which “delights” Estella.
The comment that Pip makes about Estella’s attitude is;
“Her contempt was so strong that it became infectious and I caught it”.
This signifies that he is beginning to believe Estella and think that he really is lower class. He even says that he wishes Joe had brought him up more “genteelly” so that he “should have been so too”.
The card game that Pip and Estella play, “Beggar my Neighbour”, is ironic because it symbolises how Pip is going to “beggar” Estella in the same way that he is going to love her knowing she will not love him in return. He has his heart broken and is destroyed by her. This affects the way his life turns out because Estella gives Pip the ambition to want to become better than continuing the blacksmith trade that will be passed down to him by Joe.
All of the events in Pip’s childhood have strong impacts on his later life because although he believes it to be Miss Havisham who is the secret benefactor that provides him with the luxuries of being a gentleman living in London, it is in fact the convict. It is because of the convict that Pip no longer has to worry about money, however, the expensive and pampered lifestyle leads Pip into becoming a snob and very unpleasant. An example of this is when Joe comes to visit him in London and Pip is very embarrassed by him in front of his roommate Herbert. Pip even says before the visit,
“If I could have kept him away by paying money, I certainly would have paid money”.
This expresses how ignorant he is becoming because even after everything that Joe did for him as a child, he still does not want him to visit and meet his well-off friends.
Although Pip acts like this Joe takes care of him when Pip becomes ill and when he wakes to find that he is back at home again with Joe he realises how he had changed and feels very ashamed of himself. Joe’s actions show how unselfish he is which is the opposite to Miss Havisham and indicates that he is a genuine, true friend to Pip which Pip appreciates.
Miss Havisham has a strong impact on Pip’s adult life too because she leads him to believe that she is the one who is providing him with an income for his new life in London. Her attitude towards Pip is based on her hatred of men as a result of being jilted on her wedding day. Pip even calls her “the fairy godmother who has changed me” as he assumes that all his good fortune is as a result of Miss Havisham’s generosity. It is only when it is too late however, that Miss Havisham realises what she has done to Pip and how cruel she has been to him. She regrets taking out her anger of men towards Pip and using Estella to break his heart.
In conclusion, there are many characters within the novel who have an impact on Pip’s journey to adulthood and the story illustrates how both good and bad influences and experiences affected the person that Pip became.