How Does Dickens Present Pip In Chapter 1

Improved Essays
Chapters 9 & 10: Pip, upon returning home from Satis House, lies to Joe, his sister, and his uncle about the events at Satis House. After mulling over his guiltiness for a while, he confesses to Joe in the smithy the lie, and tells the true tale of his trip to Satis House. Joe is surprised that Pip would lied, but nevertheless offers him some advice: to stay away from the upper class. Pip keeps Joe’s advice at heart, but can only think about how ordinary Estella would perceive Joe, and dreams of the grandeur of Satis House. Pip, now armed with the goal of achieving a higher social status, vamps up his education by getting private lessons from one of his friends. After school one day, Pip goes to the pub to bring Joe home. Arriving at the pub, Pip notices a stranger sitting at the bar stirring his drink with a file he gave to the convict; this stranger gives Pip two pounds and reignites Pip’s worry that his involvement with the convict might be revealed. Chapters 11-13: Pip returns to Miss Havisham’s, where a group of unenergetic relatives visit Havisham. After another round of cards with Estella, Pip goes to the garden, where a young man challenges Pip to a fight. Pip knocks him down, and Estella allows him to kiss her on the cheek. Pip worries that Havisham will chastise him for fighting, but she does not acknowledge the incident in Pip’s next visit. He continues to visit regularly for the next several months, pushing Miss Havisham’s wheelchair, enjoying his time with Estella, and hoping that Miss Havisham means to raise him from his low social standing and make him a true gentleman. Blind to the world around him, he does not realize Havisham uses Estella to terrorize him, whispering “Break their hearts!” in her ear. Pip grows apart from his family, discussing personal matters with his tutor/ friend Biddy instead of Joe and often feels ashamed that Joe is “common” in the eyes of Estella. On a normal visit to Satis House, Havisham offers to help with the papers that would officially make Pip Joe’s apprentice, and Pip finally realizes that she never meant to make him a gentleman. Joe visits Satis House to complete Pip’s apprenticeship papers; in part due to his rough speech and crude appearance seem horribly out of place in the lofty mansion, Estella laughs at him and Pip. Miss Havisham gives Pip a gift of twenty-five pounds, and Pip and Joe confirm the apprenticeship at Town Hall. At dinner that night, Pip seems disappointed by this turn in his life. Chapters 14-16: While working for Joe, Pip slowly but surely morphs from boy into man, and begins to hate working for a commoner, and longs to join the elite. One day, Pip asks Joe if he can visit Satis House; when Joe gives …show more content…
Pip then meets Jaggers’ clerk Wemmick, who seems to be a cynical individual. Wemmick introduces Pip to Herbert Pocket, Pip’s tutor’s son, with whom Pip will spend the night. Herbert and Pip immediately begin appreciating one another; Herbert is cheerful and open, and Pip feels that his open-minded nature is a contrast to his own awkwardness. While Pip’s fortune has been set for him, Herbert is an impoverished gentleman who hopes to become a shipping merchant. They realize that they have met before: Herbert is the young man Pip bested in a fight at the garden in Satis House. Pip and Herbert agree to live together, with Herbert helping Pip on his road to gentlemanliness. Herbert also explains the story behind Miss Havisham: it is one involving a lower class man who stole her heart and smashed it, which may explain why she seemed so opposed to Pip earlier in the novel. Pip visits the distasteful world of the Royal Exchange before going to Matthew Pocket’s house for tutoring and dinner. Matthew is absent-minded but kind, his wife is ambitious but not born into a high social class, and their children are being raised by a nurse. Pip has two fellow students: a baronnet-to-be named Bentley Drummle and a young man named Startop. Over the next chapters, Pip grows closer to his fellow students and his

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Pip feels he had gotten what he need from Miss Havisham all the answer to Estella and the money for Herbert. But the book shows that Pip has a heart even if Miss Havisham did and made Estella not have a heart. Pip went back in the house to save Miss Havisham from the fire. Finally, I personally feel that this incident reinforced the novel’s theme that bad behavior can be redeemed by remorse and sympathy. Also no matter how cruel someone can be to a person, they will still be nice to you.…

    • 463 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Pip’s embarrassment and stubbornness almost lost him a friendship between him and his brother in-law Joe, who was his great friend before he lived in London: “I had been mistaken in my fancy that there was a simple dignity in him. The fashion of his dress could no more on its way than when he spoke these words then it could come on its way to heaven. He touched me gently on the forehead and went out. As soon as I could recover myself sufficiently, I hurried out after him and looked for him in the neighboring streets, but he was gone” (Dickens 236). If only Pip loved Joe for who he was and was not ashamed of him.…

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Through the events of Great Expectations, Pip explores and changes his identity as he ages. On a walk with Biddy, Pip…

    • 915 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Characters come and go throught his life, but not the important ones stay. During the first stage of Pip's life, he realizes he does not want to be a blacksmith like Joe, who is his sister's husband who hes lived with ever since his parents passed away. At this point he is young and mostly only cares about impressing the beautiful Estella. He wants to impress her by his education, wealth, and becoming a gentleman.…

    • 545 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    An individual would often have preconceived notions of their identity and the way their lives are suppose to go. Such thoughts can lead to ignorance and arrogance. The volatility and unexpectedness of life would eventually come to shatter such expectations and reveal the true bearings of their self and their lives. The writers Charles Dickens and Cormac McCarthy created stories of personal growth and self realization. In The Great Expectation and No Country For Old Men, both Pip and Sheriff Ross have presumption towards their identity and the world around them.…

    • 602 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In addition, Joe even takes the fault on himself of making Pip uncomfortable due to his presence in Pip’s social surrounding. Here the reader understands Joe’s wonderful nature of constantly working for the betterment of those he loves and in this case it being Pip. Moreover, Joe also assures him that they will continue to remain friends and nothing will change their…

    • 415 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    That ain’t the way to get out of being common, old chap” (81). Joe suggests Pip use his moral compass to guide his way to the life of an uncommon gentleman, if it’s something he desires, as an alternative to lying his way into it. In this, Joe values hard work and honorable means of achievement. Despite growing up in a hostile environment and without any formal education, Joe doesn’t harbor any resentment either. He further demonstrates his wisdom by rising above anger in the way he was brought up and refusing to dwell in the past.…

    • 1076 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Miss Havisham Essay

    • 640 Words
    • 3 Pages

    People are born into certain levels of society, and some characteristics of their birthright remain throughout their lives despite how they have adapted to face various challenges. These remnants of early life are often characters’ defining features, such as is true in the case of Miss Havisham in the novel Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. The theme of one’s original social class determining relationships is developed by Miss Havisham’s bitter obsession with her past. Vast amounts of wealth cause revenge plots and hatred to be central parts of a person’s life.…

    • 640 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Pip Eulogy Essay

    • 522 Words
    • 3 Pages

    We all know that Pip did not have the best home life with Mrs. Joe, but he did not let the thought of consequences stop him.…

    • 522 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    How Does Dickens End?

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Thirteen: an unlucky number for most. The bad luck associated with this number has caused hotels to skip labeling the thirteenth floor as so and strikes even the most skeptical people with paranoia when their beloved friday is marked as such. This misfortune also hit Charles Dickens’ thirteenth novel, Great Expectations, due to its lack of a sufficient ending. While he received backlash for his original resolution, today’s readers are not too thrilled with the revised version either. As a result, a different and more realistic ending should be written.…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The narrator Pip reflects on his past and harshly judges the decisions he had made, such as leaving his loved ones for a selfish life of guilt and loneliness. Pip realizes that he had become negatively affected by external forces. His obsession for a higher status grew over the early years of his life. Pip was consumed in a plethora of wealth and opportunity and he, at the time, believed it was in his best fortune to leave his sister, Joe, and Biddy for an independent life of…

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Pip becomes even more deeply ashamed of his position in society because he believes that it will ruin his hopes to get Estella’s love. Almost immediately, Pip’s ego grows tremendously and he becomes arrogant as he looks down on his “common” yet caring and loyal friends. Pip’s life begins to reverse when he is taken to London by the lawyer. Pip can get the considerable money from the lawyer every month and attends the gentlemen training class tailored for him in order to learn to become the gentleman in the life of city. Except that, Pip also takes part in a dull society group and pays a regular visit to Estella, who has moved to London.…

    • 849 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Fear overcomes Pip many times in the story due to the people he encounters at certain places. In particular, the marshes create a suspenseful mood, because Pip always risks death due to the people he meets, especially the convict Pip first encounters in the novel. When the convict chases, violently shakes and yells at Pip, Pip thinks of him as a “fearful man” who threatens that if Pip ignores his orders, “[he’ll] have [Pip’s] heart and liver out” (3). The convict threatens to kill Pip if he ignores his orders or turns him in to the police. To get the file and victuals for the convict, Pip must steal from his sister Mrs. Joe, who he fears, and brother-in-law Joe, who he loves unconditionally.…

    • 387 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As Pip got to know people of hierarchy, he started to disown his upbringing and he slowly began to embrace his status and wealth. Pip’s arrogance and ego led him to forget his past, his cherished relationships. Therefore, social division and economic difference created a distance in their relationship, causing the reader to reflect on the negative effects of wealth causing one to abandon their relationship. Similarly, Pip’s attitude changed around Biddy, just like Joe had experienced.…

    • 787 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Pip wants to go to a good school and get the education that he never got through his whole life. I wanna do the same i want to do good in high school and go to college. One thing that is different is he is very arrogant. Pip is very self centered throughout the book, he doesn't really care about anyone but himself. But he finally gets over that starts to realize a lot.…

    • 864 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays