Pip, with his parents unable to protect him, is physically abused by his sister. Luckily her husband Joe is a good man, and is able to protect Pip from his sister’s uncontrollable wrath.
Joe is also kind enough to allow Pip to attend an apprenticeship with him, as to become a blacksmith (although this only occurs later in the story, when Pip is in his early teens). But despite Joe’s generosity of wisdom and knowledge, you gain the sense that Pip believes he is too good to be a blacksmith. Pip also gives the same impression in other parts of the story – showing a snobby attitude, and evidently believing that he is above everyone else. This way of showing Pip in a negative way is very peculiar, since he is the main character, and as the story progresses, the reader is actually encouraged to dislike Pip, due to his selfish actions and shallow personality, although towards the end of the story, Pip deserts his shallow personality and eventually becomes a genuinely good person. Dickens uses Pip's deterioration from an innocent boy into an arrogant gentleman and his redemption as a good-natured person to illustrate the idea that unrealistic hopes and expectations can lead to undesirable traits.
Despite Pip’s unpleasant traits, it is massively believed that Charles Dickens actually based Pip’s character around himself as a child and young adult. In 1824, his Father was imprisoned for dept, so the 12 year old Dickens was sent to work at Warren’s blacking factory for five months, applying labels to bottles, as to help clear his family’s dept. But it is regarded that he felt he was much better than his peers, found the work degrading and humiliating, and believed that he was above the grubby lifestyle of manual labour and embarrassingly low wages. After this, he worked as an office boy for a solicitor in 1827, and then was a freelance reporter in 1829, to then become a parliamentary reporter in 1831. Despite the increasing status of his jobs, he still believed that he could do better, and was not fully satisfied with his position in society until he was an accomplished author and writer.
But this snobby outlook was only present in his childhood and early adulthood, so by the time Dickens wrote Great Expectations in 1861, he would have been 49, and old enough to regret his previous childish behaviour, and so he portrayed the regrets of his past qualities in Pip’s character.
One of the most important and common tools that authors use to illustrate the themes of their work, is a character that undergoes several major changes throughout the story. In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens introduces the reader to many intriguing and memorable characters, including the eccentric but recluse Miss Havisham, the shrewd and vigilant lawyer, Mr. Jaggers, and the benevolent convict, Abel Magwitch. However, Great Expectations is the story of Pip and his initial dreams and resulting disappointments. The significant changes in Pip's character are very important to one of the novel's many themes.
The whole theme of the book is based upon how Pip’s expectations change and grow. Even on the first chapter, there is still plenty of evidence of this. For instance, when Pip studies the tombstones of his family, we know how Pip was most likely not even expected to survive his infancy, – for all five of his brothers died at birth, or (as Pip describes), “gave up trying to get a living exceedingly early in that universal struggle”. Unfortunately, in early 19th century, the infant mortality rate was incredibly high (only 50% of children survived).
Also, when Pip encounters Magwitch in the churchyard, his expectations change very rapidly – at first Pip expects nothing more than to return back home in time for his supper, but within seconds of meeting the terrifying convict, he couldn’t even expect to survive the next few minutes. Even after the threatening demeanour of Magwitch is reduced, Pip is encountered with the expectation of losing his internal organs to the “vicious young man hiding in the bushes”, but luckily for Pip, Magwitch allows him to live, whilst presenting him with the expectation of fetching food and a file in time for the next morning.
But aside from the many smaller and less related expectations that Pip is given, there are his long term expectations, like his future occupation/s and his life’s aspirations. For Pip, the greatest scenario he can dream of, and his highest (although literally on the verge of impossible) expectations, would be to become extremely rich, and to be at the top of the British class system, with a respectable and an extravagantly high paying job. Obviously, no one would expect Pip to even surpass the status of being a blacksmith, because in reality, that would most likely be Pip’s one and only, life-long profession.
