Pip wants to grow up to be a gentleman. Do you think he succeeds?

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Richard Wingfield Eng. Lit. Great Expectations

Pip wants to grow up to be a gentleman. Do you think he succeeds?

Great Expectations was written by Charles Dickens and first published in 1861, just eleven years after the Great Exhibition in London where the best of England and her empire was shown off to the rest of the world. At this time Britain was undoubtedly the greatest and most powerful nation in the world. This is reflected at the start of Book two in the line: "We Britons had at this time particularly settles that it was treasonable to doubt our having and being the best of everything." And when Dickens wrote this novel, it was to warn against the arrogance of wealth and power that Britain and it's people had. This message is emphasised through characters like Pip and Pumblechook.

Before we can argue for or against the question, we need to decide what a gentleman is. There are two options to this in my opinion; in Victorian times people believed a gentleman was a man with wealth and lots of land, good clothes and power. This is the type of person Pip wishes to be. The more serious meaning is a good and kind man. Gentleman literally means a 'gentle man' a man who is generous and noble. For the essence of this essay I take gentleman to it's true meaning, a good and honest man, but because this is set in the nineteenth century, I shall also include aspects which refer to wealth and property.

The main character Pip, short for Philip Pirrip has a name meaning 'seed' and it is through the book that this 'seed' tries to grow into a gentleman, thought the perfect environment is difficult to find. The bleak marshes of his home and the dusty grimy London he lives in are far from perfect and Pip has to learn this the hard way.

Pip wants to grow into a typical Victorian gentleman, though at the start of the book he is as far from a gentleman as it is possible to be. In the nineteenth century to be a gentleman you needed to have a title, wealth and property, as well as good connections. Pip has none of these. You also needed to dress smartly and although eventually Pip buys a suit, it is only on the outside that he looks the part, inside he is still wrong. The element you need that he does have, however, is kindness. In Book one we see him do a number of agreeable acts, to a convict and Miss Havisham.

The story starts in the local graveyard, where Pip sees his parent's graves. Here he meets a convict who orders him to get food and a file for him, which Pip does - this is his first act of kindness that is recorded though the convict shakes him upside down to empty his pockets for food. In a few years it will be the convict who fills Pip's pockets. We meet up with the convict again later and will play an even larger part in the future, though Pip doesn't know this yet and sees him as a scary and frightening, though kind man.

At the start of the novel we also see Joe and Mrs Joe, Pip's sister and her husband. Though these two are married they are very different and will help and hinder Pip in his ambitions respectively. Mrs Joe is cold and nasty and brings Pip up 'by hand'. He says he is a 'connubial missile' for her to attack. Joe on the other hand is very kind to Pip, he loves him and cares for him and tries to shield him, though this is difficult as Ms Joe is a very strong character.

Mrs Joe is very bad company for Pip to keep, as are many other people in the town. We see this once the story has settled and it is Christmas. Mrs Joe invites a number of people round for Christmas dinner; Uncle Pumblechook and Wopsle being the two most important. Pumblechook is one of Joe's friends and between him, Wopsle and Mrs Joe they make Pip feel bad. They say he is trouble and go at him a lot. Joe however, tries to make Pip feel better by giving Pip lots of gravy. Him and Pip are very close friends and it is Joe's kind influence that help Pip's acts of kindness.

Just as Mrs Joe notices that a very large pie she has has gone missing (because Pip gave it, along with the file to the convict) soldiers come to the door with handcuffs. Pip is frightened because he thinks they are for him as he gave food away. This shows how weak and vulnerable Pip is at the start, he's been hurt a lot in his life and is very scared. However they just want them to be mended as they are catching the convict Pip helped. Wopsle, Joe and him go down to the marshes with the soldiers to see them being caught and there we see them again - Magwitch, the one Pip helped and Compeyson, another convict who betrayed Magwitch. To get Pip out of trouble, Magwitch admits to stealing the pie and file, and Joe, ever forgiving says that he wouldn't want him to starve. Pip's simple act of kindness and the convict's deception to save Pip from punishment create a bond between the two characters on which the whole novel rests.

The story now skips a few years but in this first section we have seen a very good side to Pip, he has helped a convict (though mainly through fear) and has a good friendship with Joe. Despite other factors being harsh on him, he seems a very good and kind person. This is his main aspect of which a gentleman can grow from - kindness.

His second act of kindness occurs after his first visit to Satis House. Previously Pumblechook had suggested that Pip go there and meet Miss Havisham. His visits here are some of the most important parts of the novel. When he goes there he meets someone called Estella; a very beautiful girl who Pip instantly adores, carrying the candlestick. Throughout the novel, Estella will become Pip's guiding light. Estella itself means star and Pip will work to get Estella's love and he thinks becoming a gentleman will help. However when Pip plays cards with Estella, she mocks him about his clothes, his accent and his manner. These are all important elements for gentlemen. At one point he says: 'I knew I was common, and I wished I was not common' and this is the beginning of Pip's snobbery and ingratitude. Although he is used by Miss Havisham, he keeps returning on alternate days to see her.

Miss Havisham is a very strange and poignant character. She wears an old wedding dress and the whole house is in ruins, on a table near her is a rotting wedding cake and all the clocks in the house have stopped. Miss Havisham herself is like a ghost, pale and skeleton-like flowing in white and the whole house seems to have been deserted for years.

The second act is when he returns from Satis House for the first time and is questioned about her by Pumblechook. Instead of telling the truth about her and her strange ways which would make her a laughing stock, he tells lies about her so that people don't mock her.

Although it is at Satis House that Pip firsts wants to become a gentleman, it is also where Pip starts to become snobbish and begins to grow ashamed of his working-class surroundings and manner. He says: 'I continued at heart to hate my trade and be ashamed of home. He has no gratitude towards Joe at all, who has looked after and been kind to him. It is Miss Havisham who pays for him to train as a blacksmith with Joe, though he feels that kind of work is beneath him.
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It is also at Satis House that we first meet the Pockets - the family of Miss Havisham who are greedy and snobbish trying to pocket money from Miss Havisham as their name suggests. They come and visit her on her birthday every year, hoping it'll be her death-day (the day she dies) so they can get her money. Another character we see is a man who smells of soap, though this is all said of him at the moment, he is very important in book two. He also meets a pale young gentleman, who challenges Pip to ...

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