Pip's+Stages+Through+Life+and+Major+Themes

Meagan Ackerman Allison Batillo Zachary Cappella John Decker

1. Pip has gone through three stages in his life. Describe each stage with examples from the text.

2. What are the major themes in this novel. There are many themes to choose from; therefore, I would like you to choose at least eight. State the theme and its relevance to the novel. Be sure to define and explain theme before you begin!

**Social Classes:** Throughout //Great Expectations,// social classes were a big part of Pip's life. Pip believes the more money you have and the higher social class you are, the more you are respected. In the beginning Pip comes across a crimial named Magwitch. Magwitch was poor and no one cared about him. He lived alone in a graveyard hiding from the police. Pip had no respect for him. Then Pip meets Miss Havisham and Estella. They were so much higher on the social class list than Magwitch that he had so much more respect for them. He also thought that if he were more classy Estella would fall in love with him. Pip's life is changed when an anonymous benefactor provides enough money for him to go to London to become a gentlemen. He was soon a weathy, classy, gentlemen and was highly respected in society. However, Pip's attitude changed a lot along with his clothing. He turned away his best friend Joe because Joe was a lower class than him. Once Pip found out that his anonymous benefactor was the crimial Magwitch, he thought he was now in lower class. All of this happened to Pip because of the love of his life Estella. Before he met her he didn't mind the fact that he was a blacksmith and he didn't really think so much about the social classes. Pip ended up learning that having innner worth is better than having outer wealth.

**Love:** Love plays a big role in //Great Expectations//. For example, Pip's love for Estella made him do crazy things. Pip's love for Estella caused him to strive to be a gentleman; leading to Pip moving to London and, in course, becoming a snobby jerk to Joe and thus risking the strong relationship they had. Also, Miss Havisham's love for Estella plays a huge role in the book. Ever since the day that Miss Havisham was left at the altar by Compeyson, she raised Estella to be the girl that every guy wanted. However, whenever any guy would get near her, she would crush their hearts like Miss Havisham's had been. An unexpected love was the love that Pip felt for Abel Magwitch. When Pip first learned of the man, it was as a mean, frightening convict in the graveyard. But little did he know that this convict would be of great help to him. As the book went on, Pip grew fond of the convict Abel Magwitch, his anonymous benefactor. A not so unexpected love was the love that Joe and Pip shared. They had almost a father and son type of relationship. Joe was always there for Pip and grew to know him as the most important person in his life. There were many times in the book that the theme of love showed up.


 * Family:** Family, in //Great Expectations//, is one theme which is mostly overshadowed by others until close to the end of the book. However, it is still an important force throughout, in that it plays a large role in shaping Pip's character early on. Though he temporarily forgets it in his quest for wealth and status, Pip has a great love and admiration of Joe, of Biddy, and even, to a lesser extent, his sister. It is his family alone which, in the end, is able to redeem him and return him to the simple purity of his former life, free from the corruptions of wealth. In the end, Pip's family becomes one of the few groups of people who, after past cruelties and years of separation, are able to forgive him and welcome him back without hesitation.

**Education:** Education is almost like the turning point of //Great Expectations//, because Pip wants to become an educated person like Estella so he gets Biddy to tutor him. After he learns to read and write he thinks he will now be good enough for Estella but that is not so. She wants a weathly gentleman and that is most certainly not Pip. So Pip decides to leave his apprenticeship with Joe and go to London with Mr. Jaggars. Pip strives to become a gentleman for the educated Estella and leaves his family and simple life behind to try and become the ideal of what Estella says she wants.

**Redemption:** Redemption is one of the most important overall themes in //Great Expectations//. Though many of the characters Pip meets are originally abound with flaws - Miss Havisham's hatred and self-seclusion, Estella's cruelty and coldness, Magwitch's criminal past, and even Pip's treatment of Joe and Biddy - nearly all of them come to be redeemed at some point in the book. This change of heart usually seems to happen following a critical turning point or particularly trying event, and it also generally seems to happen through Pip, and his involvement in their lives. For Magwitch, it begins after Pip's first kindnesses, and continues through his long time in prison. He is able to transform himself from a murdering convict into a respectable, honest businessman, solely through his love of Pip. For Miss Havisham, it is her realization of the long torture that she has caused Pip through Estella, the very same rejection that made her into the bitter woman she appears as in the novel. In Estella's case, it is only after much suffering in a cruel relationship that she comes to understand, like Miss Havisham, what exactly she has done to Pip, and how she had made miserable his simple but happy life. Pip himself comes to be returned to his original innocent and kinder nature only after being brought low by the realization that Magwitch, the criminal who represented everything over which he felt he had risen, was his benefactor. Pip is also reconciled with Joe and Biddy by the terrible fever that very nearly took his life.


 * Wealth:** Wealth, in a way very similar to social classes, plays an important role in //Great Expectations//. Wealth is the main driving force behind the division of society, and excludes most people from elevating their social status. Without wealth, it is nearly impossible to gain universal respect, and those with money are able to live a life of ease, privilege, and pleasure, set far above those without. Pip, being poor, falls victim to this division early on when first meeting Miss Havisham and Estella, and is derided and looked down upon, almost as less human, by each. Wealth is the force, then, that also drives Pip to abandon his family and old life, in the attempt to raise himself high enough to both live the life of ease with which he has become entranced, and to gain the admiration and love of Estella. However, this money quickly betrays him, as he finds himself spending beyond his means, and less happy than ever. Though he has finally gotten the wealth he had desired, he is no better off in any way, and lives mostly a hollow life, finding the life for which he had longed to be not at all as he imagined it. It seems that, in the novel, nearly all of the most happy, most pleasant characters are the ones who lack money, and that those who have it are quickly corrupted by it. This can perhaps be seen to tell of Dickens' own feelings on the subject.

**Ambition and Self Improvement:** In //Great Expectations//, Pip desires to change and improve himself educationally and socially. These longings to change started when he met the soon to be love of his life Estella. His first desire to change was educationally. This started when he began working for Miss Havisham and started being with Estella more. She could read, write, and speak like a civiliazed women and it hurt him that he could not act like gentleman. He wanted to impress her so badly. He wanted to change for her. Another one of pip's desires was to change socially. He wanted to climb the social ladder and become rich and respected. He desired to become a gentlemen to also impress Estella but also to be known in society. Pip thought that if he was rich and highly respected then Estella would want to be with him and fall in love with him too. Basically, everything that Pip did, he did to impress Estella. He wanted her to love him so badly that he fought his way to the top and hurt some people along the way.

**Crime:** Crime plays a big role in //Great Expectations.// For example, if Magwitch was not a criminal to society he would not have escaped from the prison boat, and Pip would never have met him in the graveyard. Then, Pip never would have given Magwitch the food that he wanted and Pip would have not gotten the inheritance from Magwitch; thus Pip would have stayed a poor blacksmith. This would, of course, change the whole course of events that the book entails. Another example of crime was Compeyson, and how he tried to scam Miss Havisham out of her money. If he did not leave her at the altar, she would not be the man hating woman she is throughout the novel. Miss Havisham then would raise Estella as a regular woman and not a tool to use against men. Pip then might have a chance with Estella and change a major plot of the story.

**Pip's three stages:**
 * 1st stage** **-** Pip, an orphan, lives with his sister and her husband, Joe Gargery. One day he meets an escaped convict, Magwitch, which threatens his life if he didn't bring him food and a file. Magwitch is later caught and sent away. Pip is very happy with his life until he is hired by a wealthy woman, Miss Havisham, as a companion to her adopted daughter, Estella. Pip then falls in love with her. Pip shows his love for her by leaving his simple ordinary life to become a gentleman. After many years as a companion to Estella and Miss Havisham, Pip became an apprentice to Joe, which can assure him as a future blacksmith. Pip's life is then suddenly turned up side down when he is visited by a London Lawyer, Mr. Jaggers, who instructs him that he has to come into the "great expectations" of property and has to be trained to become a gentleman because of the anonymous benefactor (Pip assumes it is Miss Havisham)

**2nd stage -** Pip heads off to London to start his new life. When Pip arrives, Mr. Jaggers informs him about where he will be staying and gives him a tour around the town. When Pip arrives he starts to meet some new people. He first comes across a man named Herbert Pocket, who is a relative of Miss Havisham. He tells Pip about Miss Havisham's past, the reason that she is the way she is now. He explains to him the story about her wedding day, when she was left at the altar by Compeyson. He also ran off with all her money. Miss Havisham was so angered that she decided to raise Estella to take revenge on all men. With the help of Herbert Pocket, Pip is taught to read, write, and act like a classy gentleman. Pip had a good job and an allowance that gave him a good deal of money to be apart of the higher society. Pip started to adapt to all the chararcteristics of a high class gentlemen, including the attitude. When Joe comes to visit him, Pip becomes embarassed by him and asks him to go away. At the end of this stage of Pip's life, her learns about his ananoymus benefactor, Magwitch. **3rd stage -** From now on Pip's life changes from upper class into now a normal reality. This reality includes moral and financial challenges. He learns that Magwitch is innocent and that Estella is Magwitch's daughter. He realizes that he can't accept Magwitch's fortune. He doubts the values he once embraced and that he cannot get back many of the important things he carelessly set aside. He discovers that Bentley Drummle has tricked Estella's heart. Pip tries to warn her but she ignores him and continues with the engagement. Pip then returns to the Satis House and finds Miss Havisham anxious with remorse. She realizes that she had done Pip wrong and ruined Estella. She begged for his forgiveness and he quickly gave. Later while they were sitting next to the fireplace her dress catches fire and she goes up in flames. He saved her with only getting burns on his hands. Pip soon receives an invitation by a mysterious stranger to the Marshes in his old town. There he is kidnapped by Orlick, who doesn't like Pip for spreading his reputation with Biddy, who he secretly admires. He admits to attacking Pip's sister and is about to kill Pip just when he is saved by Herbert. They return to London and try to smuggle Magwitch from England to Hamburg, Germany on a foreign steamer. This fails when Compeyson leads the police to the ship Magwitch is on. Magwitch seizes Compeyson and a fight in the water ensues. Compeyson dies and Magwitch was hit by the keel of the steamer ship, which was to take him away, and is apprehended. Shortly after, Mr. Wemmick marries Ms. Skiffins and Herbert leaves for Cairo, Egypt. Magwitch falls ill and Pip tells him before he dies that his daughter (Estella) is still alive and that he loves her. Magwitch dies in peace, but Pip falls ill. Joe tends to him and pays the debts that Pip has accumulated. Pip eventually travels with Herbert as an occupation in the Middle East.