The Self-development in Pip Character

There's regularly a time in our lives where a particular event changes our lives
forever and our character changes as well, for better or worse. The first scene within
the novel is such a moment in the life of Pip Pirrip. In the first scene Pip meets Abel
Magwitch, an gotten away convict. As we discover out later within the novel, the
events that take after this meeting are the basis for the book's title since Magwitch
eventually gets to be Pip's benefactor and the provider of his “great expectations”.
Pip at first may be a little boy, without parents, who has the awful misfortune of
meeting a convict. His behavior during this scene, described as “dreadfully
frightened”, is understandable and justified (Dickens 3). Any youthful child would
be rightfully anxious of any man bearing the appearance of Magwitch and one who
threatens to eat you. Pip's character, for the most part at the starting of the novel, is
replete with fear and cowardice. At the same time, one might say that these
characteristics are the result of his exposure to certain overbearing and threatening
people. Of course, this can be seen with Magwitch but more so within the presence
of Pip's sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery. She boasts that she has “brought me [Pip] up 'by
hand' ” (Dickens 6). Her character is so acrid during the first few chapters of the
book and her show of brutality toward Pip and Joe is such that gives us reason not
to feel sorry for Mrs. Joe but to feel sorry for Joe and Pip. She is portrayed as “not a
good-looking woman” and having a habit of going “on the Ram-page” (Dickens 6-
7). Besides, Pip portrays her doing things in a very violent way; e.g. “a trenchant
way of cutting our bread and butter”, “her housekeeping of the strictest kind”, among
many other rough and abusive examples (Dickens 8). Therefore, one might say that
Pip's character is justified. In any case, there's a ray of hope of a few kind of bravery
in Pip. Pip promised Magwitch he would get him food and a file; Pip does fulfill his
promise, in spite of the threats of Mrs. Joe, and therefore appears a few great “heroic”
qualities of honesty and bravery within the middle of threats. In spite of the fact that
impelling and the threat of death spur such actions, these characteristics are there in
Pip. Pip is more or less a puny, persecuted youthful boy during the first eight
chapters. This period can be labeled the first during the course of Pip's development.
Each period in Pip's development is marked by an event and new influencing
character.
The second period is marked by Pip's exposure to Miss Havisham. Earlier to his
exposure to Miss Havisham and Estella, Pip's as it were impact was the stifling,
overbearing, rough behavior of his sister and the quiet, unheroic, powerless behavior
of Joe. When he meets Estella and Miss Havisham, he gets to be under the impact
of higher-class snobbery and the habit of taking advantage of individuals. Due to
Miss Havisham's misfortunes with love, it is her objective to save a youthful lady,
Estella, from her own experiences of misery and heartbreak by making her cold and
exceptionally proud (Dickens 378). Such education had a comparative impact on
Pip. As a result of his connection and influence through Miss Havisham and Estella,
he becomes snobbish and conscience of class. Estella has maybe more impact in this
respect since it is she who acts condescendingly toward him whereas playing cards,
calls him a “stupid, clumsy, laboring boy”; as well as treating him with contempt the
complete time he is in her prescence (Dickens 55, 57, 59). Her contempt results in
his own shame of his brother-in-law Joe, his greatest friend during the prior portion
of his life. In fact, Pip expresses this in his own words:

It is a most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home. There may be black ingratitude
in the thing, and the punishment may be retributive and well deserved; but, that it is
a miserable thing, I can testify. Home had never been a very pleasant place to me,
since of my sister's mood. But Joe had sanctified it, and I had believed in it. Now, it
was all coarse and common, and I would not have had Miss Havisham and Estella
see it on any account (Dickens 100).

This is often essential manifestation of Miss Havisham and Estella's impact.

It is at this point in which Dickens divides Pip's account into a second part upon his
entry in London. His purpose in going to London is to gotten to be taught in the
world of business under the supervision of Mr. Jaggers and act according to the great
expectations set upon him by his secret benefactor. Whereas Estella may be
contemptuous and abusive with her beauty, Mr. Jaggers is much more terrible and
overbearing to me. It is under this strange man's auspices that Pip comes under care
and sets up shop in London. Yet whereas Jaggers may be cruel and “Scroogesque”
in regards to cash and relating to individuals, he certainly is wise and fair in his
dealings with Pip and these qualities are not manifested in Pip during this period of
living in London under “great expectations”. His character amid this period is
marked by carefree living, heedless investing of his allowances, and disdain for those
around him. This is made apparent best in chapter thirty-four where Pip confesses
his disdainful behavior, his heedless investing, and terrible impact on others. He
starts by lamenting his treatment of Biddy and Joe, “As I had developed accustomed
to my expectations, I had insensibly started to notice their impact upon myself and
those around me. Their impact on my own character, I disguised from my
recognition as much as possible, but I knew very well that it was not all good. I lived
in a state of constant uneasiness regarding my behavior to Joe” (Dickens 258). It is
in this moment that he wishes he had never met Miss Havisham, “I used to think,
with a weariness on my spirits, that I ought to have been more joyful and better if I
had never seen Miss Havisham's confront, and had risen to manhood content to be
partners with Joe within the honest old forge” (Dickens 258). He overviews his own
character and influence on others, particularly Herbert Pocket and laments,

The influence of my position on others…hat it was not beneficial to anybody, and,

Due to his lavish lifestyle and thoughtless investing he “began to contract a quantity
of debt” (Dickens 258). It regularly amazes me what happens to individuals once
they receive a great deal of cash without properly earning it and how they suddenly
spend it away and come off more awful than they did some time recently they got
the cash. I believe that's partly what Pip had in mind when he wished he hadn't met
Miss Havisham and acquired “great expectations”. Shortly after his accruing debt,
he gets a huge sum of his inheritance upon his turning twenty-one years of age. Not
as well long after this event, in which his behavior to Joe and Biddy does not repair,
he meets his secret benefactor, Abel Magwitch the convict whom he helped when he
was just a fellow. Here his vanity and snobbishness are uncovered once more in a
time when he ought to have been thankful. When he meets Magwitch he responds
thus, “'Stay' said I. 'Keep off! In case you're grateful to me for what I did when I was
a small child, I hope you have got shown your gratitude by mending your way of
life. If you have come here to thank me, it was not necessary'” (Dickens 301). Again,
pip reels in terror when he learns Magwitch is his benefactor, “The abhorrence in
which I held the man, the dread I had of him, the offensiveness with which I shrank
from him, may not have been exceeded on the off chance that he had been a few
awful beast” (Dickens 304). This is maybe worse than his shame of his family
relations because Magwitch's honest earnings saved Pip from debtor's prison and
gave him a better stronger life (or a way better potential for a great life) than he had
previously enjoyed. Magwitch's gift was in fact greater than that which Pip gave him
in the marshes and he, at first, gets no thanks for it. Thankfully, Pip gets to be
thankful for Magwitch's sacrifice since he had risked his life to see Pip as a
gentleman (Dickens 307). It is at this point when Pip becomes aware of his terrible
behavior to others, especially Joe, additionally realizes that his endeavors to court
Estella and gain the trust of Miss Havisham are all in unsuccessful (Dickens 307).
Thus ends the second portion of Pip's adventures.

The third portion of great Expectations is concerned with the recuperation of Pip's
better qualities and the attempt to keep Magwitch from the law. This part cleans up
all the loose ends of the books such as the marriage of Estella and Drummle, the
death of Miss Havisham, as well as the completion of the mystery of Mrs. Joe's
accident. In such occasions, Pip proves to be a way better man than in the prior
portion of the novel. He tries to rescue Estella from an unfortunate marriage with
Drummle (Dickens 343-346). Of course, he tries to assist Magwitch in getting out
of the nation in spite of the fact that to no avail (Dickens 421). He moreover tries to
reconcile himself to Biddy and Joe (Dickens 447-8). Within the end, Pip works with
Herbert Pocket for a time until Herbert married Clara and Pip took over the Eastern
Branch (Dickens 455). After a few times, he comes back to visit Biddy and Joe and
here we discover him quite older, a businessman and still a bachelor. His character
is marked by his modern life; he has forgotten his liking of Estella and has gotten to
be content (Dickens 457). Be that as it may, a little later when he meets Estella once
more for the last time, he confesses he hasn't forgotten her and their previous parting;
a separating that pained him greatly (Dickens 460). Thus, ends Pip's story, a long
and sober tale.

As for Pip's development all through the novel, Pip goes through a roller coaster of
events, all of which impact him enormously. The greatest question in making a
judgment on the development of his character would be whether or not he is an
antiheroic character as Chesterton says he is. His character at the starting of the novel
is one marked by naivety and care for his own life. His benevolence toward
Magwitch is incited due to a danger. Within the handle of his benevolence, he
moreover lies and steals, two very terrible characteristics or propensities to have.
This appears even as a child his essential concern is himself even in spite of the fact
that he loves Joe. When he gets to be acquainted with Estella and Miss Havisham,
his naivety is besieged by the cruel, cold beauty of Estella and her own snobbishness.
As one peruses encourage into the novel, one finds Pip ceaselessly charmed with
considerations of Estella and he gets to be inflated and despicable of his claim
humble beginnings and kind brother-in-law. His shame becomes so incredible within
the shadow of his own height to riches and the status of a gentleman, that he moves
to London and doesn't visit Joe and Biddy until many years later. Typically certainly
not the character of a hero. His snobbishness and self-centeredness reach its climax
when Magwitch uncovers himself to Pip as his benefactor and Pip at last comes to
realize his own faults. Had Dickens wanted Pip to be a heroic figure, Pip would have
been more quickly inclined to love Magwitch and I believe would have dropped the
entire Estella affair and gotten to be more successful in the end of the book. His life
after Magwitch's death and the marriage of Estella is one that takes off me, the reader,
very unsatisfied with his life. Rather than starting over or moving on and having a
joy filled life, it seems to me that Pip leads a life still stuck within the past and can't
appear to do more than have a mediocre work. In this manner, I would agree with
Chesterton when he says that “a novel without a hero” (464). Thus, Dickens makes
a character that breaks the norm of most Victorian books and makes a different but
well written story.
One might definitely agree with G.K. Chesterton in saying that Dickens was trying
to be a “cynical eyewitness of human life” when he wrote this novel (465). Yet even
in his dark cynicism, Dickens captures the epitome of the human condition and puts
it on a pedestal for all to see. In this novel one can discover the cold cruelty of the
upper class and greed of the upper center class alongside the criminality of Victorian
England; a true testament to the brutality of the times. Such is Dickens' gift and were
he to live in our time period, I wonder if his novels would be any different. However,
Dickens' greatest feat in writing this novel is to portray a primary character whose
character is not at all like most nonspecific book characters, making the novel all the
more interesting.
References:

Chesterton, G.K., Introduction. Great Expectations. By Charles Dickens. New York: Everyman’s
Library. 1992.

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. New York: Everyman’s Library. 1992.