Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is the autobiography of a young Pip, by his adult self. It tells the story of the development of Pip, as a character; from his humble beginnings as a poor orphan to his eventual return to his childhood home as an adult after his self-realisation. Thus, this novel centers on the education or development of the protagonist, Pip, and it follows closely the things that Pip learns and then has to unlearn. Pip, through this education and development eventually learns how to find happiness and the meaning of friendship and love and becomes a better person.
As this novel is an autobiography, this story is told from the adult Pips perspective and thus its realistic aspects can or may be called into question as the narrator is actually the protagonist in the novel. The non-realist aspects in this novel may be attributed to the adult Pips imagination of himself as a child. This essay will be examining the blend of these realist elements together with some of the non-realist elements that in one way or another affect the construction of the identity of some of the more important characters in this novel.
At the beginning of the novel, Pip, an orphan, who is adopted by his sisters husband, Joe Gragery, is seen at the graveyard, staring at the gravestone of his parents. There he meets a stranger, an escaped prisoner named Magwitch, who terrifies him with threats on his life. The gothic setting for this meeting; the dark evening and the distant savage lair and the depiction of Magwitch as a fairy-tale monster, set the stage for Pips meeting with Magwitch. Magwitchs conversation with Pip also adds on to this unreal setting as he makes Pip promise to bring a file and some food and water for him through the use of an imaginary young man that was supposedly more evil than him and would stop at nothing to kill Pip if he did not do as he was told. Any criminal would fear getting caught and thus would not let a boy go at the risk of him telling the authorities about the criminal. The following day, Pip gets up early in the morning and takes what he is told to bring to the escaped prisoner. Along the way, the voices of the cattle calling Pip a thief and asking him to stop add on to the non-realist atmosphere of this scene. However, Pips fear is very real as he was not able to sleep the day before for fear that the young man would come sooner to kill him. Furthermore, the voices of the cattle calling Pip, a thief may be his inner conscience not agreeing with his actions.
Many years later, Pip becomes a fine gentleman and Magwitch, the criminal who had escaped many years earlier and was caught, comes to see Pip and tells him about the benefactor that had helped Pip become a gentleman. Pip realises this and is ashamed that he now owes a criminal his status. This full circle is not realistic as Magwitch was not rich and thus could not afford to be Pips benefactor. Furthermore, he was still a criminal and was not allowed in London. However, Pips change of heart for the criminal is very realistic as he shows gratitude for Magwitchs generosity by deciding to leave with him, away from London. Pip thus learns to recognise Magwitch as a good and noble man. He helps and takes care of Magwitch even after Magwitch is caught by the authorities. Towards the end, the knowledge that Estella, the love of Pips life, was Magwitchs daughter proves a suitable ending to Magwitchs life as he dies knowing that his daughter was alive. However, this entire episode changes Pips perspective of the priorities he has in life and thus his realisation that his behaviour as a gentleman was in fact very snobbish and his life so far had been a wasteful one.
When Pip was a young boy, he was summoned to Miss Havishams house to play with her adopted daughter, Estella. The gothic house is very unreal in every way. As Estella brings Pip into the house for the very first time, he notices that the windows had all been boarded and no light came into the house. The interior was badly kept and Miss Havishams room was especially frozen in time. Miss Havishams bridal dress was faded and yellow and Pip compared it to her being withered like the dress. Pip also compares Miss Havisham to a wax work and skeleton with eyes that moved and looked at him. Later in the novel, Pip gets to see her dining hall where her wedding ball was supposed to be held. The rotting atmosphere; the old cake, the cob-webbed cutleries, the dusty and dirty curtains, he realises Miss Havisham was still sore about being jilted on her wedding day. However, since the day Pip stepped into Miss Havishams house, it seemed like a fantasy world to him. It allowed him to live the fairy-tale he had always wanted; a princess, like Estella, beauty, wealth and power. Thus these fairy-tale properties became his quest in later life at the expense of his adoptive father, Joe, his conscience and good behaviour.
The non-realist element of the decadent house with Miss Havisham as a person trapped in her past gives the reader some insight to her plight; being jilted by Compeyson on their wedding day. Thus this gives her the reason to adopt Estella and use her as a weapon to get her revenge against men. However, when she realises Pips love for Estella, she regrets her actions as she had caused Pips heart to be broken in the same manner as her own. Estella on the other hand was adopted by Miss Havisham to be used as a weapon as mentioned earlier and she takes on this role very well. Her behaviour towards Pip when he first enters the house and the cruelty towards Pip, although sometimes not voluntary, was due to Miss Havishams upbringing of her. As she was not taught love, she could not in turn love Pip and thus treats him as a friend. Her emotions are trapped within herself until she marries Drummle and suffers abuse at his hands. That enables her to experience normal life and she quickly learns. This shows her real development as a person.
As Pip grew up, he is blessed with a benefactor who wants Pip to become a gentleman as he was considered as a man with great expectations. However, after Pip became a gentleman in London, his attitude towards life and the people around him changed. He shunned his servant who he thought of as a person of lower social class. However, it is contradictory that he too grew up in that same social class as his servant. His unrealistic description of the servant boy as a monster who lived off him tells us how he may have felt when he was younger and how he shunned his past, and did not want anything to do with it. This could be clearly seen in his response to the letter sent by Biddy about Joe Gragerys visit. Pip felt that if he could have kept him away by paying money, he would have. (Pg 216, Great Expectations) When Joe came to visit Pip, Joe was described by Pip as someone who was not suitable to be in his presence and Pip was thus ashamed of him. His comical description of Joe in his oversized boots, stamping his feet on the stairs and his obnoxious behaviour towards Joe clearly shows Pips transformation from a gentle man; kind, honourable, loyal and fair, to a gentleman of the city; a person of a high social class, snobbish and proud. However, after learning the values of the inner good from Magwitchs actions as his benefactor and Joes care when he was sick, he realised his mistake in truly understanding the meaning of gentlemanly behaviour.
There may be many other realist and non-realist elements in the novel but these few elements greatly affect the construction of the identity of the few major characters in the novel; Pip, Miss Havisham and Estella. Overall it can be concluded that being the protagonist of the novel, Pip goes on a learning journey which goes wrong in many ways. He treats himself above the society he lived in and becomes totally estranged to the commoners like Joe and Biddy. However, his experience with Magwitch brought out his inner good and Joes commitment towards him brought him to a self-realisation of the greater good of society. Miss Havishams and Estellas treatment towards him too greatly affect his development but their repentance and acceptance towards the end greatly justifies their actions towards the end of the novel.
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