Influential Characters Around Pip

Book ... Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Analysis ... Influential Characters Around Pip
Year ... 1996

The novel Great Expectations was written by Charles Dickens who although being a promising writer had an unpromising childhood. His parents, even before he was born, found it hard to make ends meet and the whole family had a hard life. Further devastation occurred when Charles’ father was sent to prison for massive debts. Charles, a mere child, was taken out of school and sent to work. After his father was released and wished that Charles be sent back to school, his mother declined the suggestion and this might have been the greatest wound in Charles’ life. From the experience of these hardships and short childhood, grew a writer whose published works touched the hearts of many.

Great Expectations is a narration by a young lad named Pip and the first chapter opens with him telling us about the family he really belonged to - his parents and his five brothers who are all dead and buried in the churchyard. It is while he is visiting their graves one day that he meets a man he comes to fear the very instant Pip sets his eyes on him. Pip does not know that this man is a n escaped convict. But Pip does know that he is strong and is capable of carrying out the threats he has issued to Pip. Young Pip is to tell no one about the man in the marshes and needs to assist the man by bringing him food and a metal file to break his prison chains. Pip’s fear is obvious when he thinks that this man is capable of murder and the convict does nothing to ease Pip’s fear but merely worsens it when he turns Pip upside down. “His eyes looked powerfully into mine; and mine looked helplessly up at his.”

Pip scuttles home as soon as he is let go, promising the convict assistance and secrecy of it. Upon Pip’s return home, we are introduced to Mrs. Joe Gargery and Joe.

Mrs. Joe Gargery is Pip’s sister who has brought Pip up “by hand”. To a reader, we simply understand that she was solely responsible for his upbringing. Pip, however, amuses us by telling us his perception of being brought up “by hand” is that Mrs. Joe whacked had whacked him a lot with her hand and thus he was raised by her hand. Mrs. Joe is portrayed as tough, stern, moody and grumpy person. If she does not beat Pip with her hand, she uses Tickler, the cane. Mrs. Joe is praised by those around her for raising Pip single handedly although Pip feels that she treats him like an orphan. Unlike Joe, Mrs. Joe has got no patience with him and chides him for asking ever so many questions. “Ask no questions and you’ll be told no lies.” However, Mrs. Joe is a well-versed housewife who cooks and cleans with an almost scary efficiency for she believes “cleanliness is next to Godliness.” Her presence is well-noted throughout the story and when she does get hurt later on, Pip and Joe miss her greatly, for although death does not take her, she appears to be turned into a vegetable from the heavy blows struck by her assailant. Her death and the sadness that surrounds it brings, brings us to see that in each one of us, as much as there is the desire to be strong; we are all made weak by circumstances. We also see a gentler side of her in that although described as a difficult person, she loved passionately and was loved in return.

Pip also tells us about Joe, the man he knew as good as he might have been his father. Joe is portrayed as a true Christian and the-ever hardworking blacksmith who helps his wife in raising her brother. Joe is a simple man and we also learn that he cannot read which is why he is probably adamant in encouraging Pip in what the lad wants to do while at the same time, taking the opportunity to instill unforgettable values. It is a touching moment, when after Pip, arriving at his inheritance is visited by Joe, the latter insists on calling Pip “Sir”. Pip, uneasy at this title insists on being called otherwise. Joe sticks by Pip although Pip, at times is so caught up with himself and his wants does not realize this. Dickens strongly highlights this point when Pip is ill after being involved in debts and Joe is at his bedside throughout the entire time, receiving no thanks but leaving with gratitude. It is obvious that even when Pip felt Joe too simple and Joe’s profession disdainful, Joe only had love for Pip. We see this towards the end, when Joe after remarrying, names his own son, Pip.

Yet another important character in Pip’s life is Miss Havisham who is the owner of Satis house (satis means enough). She invites Pip to her mansion which appears dull, old and musty inside, to play with her daughter whom we later learn is actually her step daughter. The girl, Estella, who looks older but might be around Pip’s age has been brought up to hate men. This slowly unfolds to the time after the death of Miss Havisham’s mother, her father denied her nothing. She grew to be a woman, fell in love and decided to marry. Everything was bought, the gown, the cake, jewellery and more to make it the most splendid wedding ever. The day arrived but unfortunately not the groom, Compeyson. He wrote her a letter having no decency to face her to break off the engagement of the marriage. Emotionally torn apart at this heartache, Miss Havisham hated men till the day she died and continued to live in a dream world where everything was left just as it was before the wedding. The clocks were stopped, the cake though never eaten rotted in the dining room and she wore her wedding gown. She pays Pip for coming to play with Estella and apprentices Pip to Joe. When Pip receives news about his inheritance, she makes him believe that she is anonymous donor and it is her plan for him to marry Estella. She dies in a tragic way but not before telling Pip that she forgives Estella for her wrongdoings.

Estella, it seems is portrayed as Pip’s greatest expectation of all. At their first meeting, while playing cards, she calls him “rough, coarse and common.” These words without a doubt send tears to his eyes and hatred for her in his heart. This changes years later, when Estella after returning from abroad, appears to be the most beautiful thing Pip has ever set his eyes upon. He grows to love while she grows to hate him and instead falls in love with Bentley Drummle., Pip’s steadfast enemy. Dickens points out Pip’s love for her at many different parts of the book. It seems that he has appeared to have taken Miss Havisham’s words seriously. “If she favours you, love her. If she wounds you, love her. If she tears your heart – and as it gets older and stronger, it will tear deeper – lover her, love her, love her!” Pip goes through much pain, first for the girl that she is and later for the young woman she has become. She does marry Drummle but it is years later when Pip finds out that the marriage has failed and the Estella he now sees and still loves is a kind, mild, tender-hearted woman who learns that after all, she loves him too.

Abel Magwitch @ Provis @ the convict at the Marshes has his character revealed in an unlikely plot. It appears that it is he who being so grateful for Pip’s assistance at the marshes is the real benefactor. It is his most sincere wish that Pip has no sufferings in life and be groomed as a gentleman. Pip is at first disappointed that his benefactor is not Miss Havisham but is grateful for all that Provis has done and helps him get away from Compeyson upon his return to home ground. However, Magwitch is finally convicted of the crimes he has done and he breathes his last, old and tired, in prison with the gentleman he has made, Pip, by his side.

It is around these characters that Pip’s entire life revolves around. His expectations made upon each one of them and their expectations of. “The strongest will win in the end but the strongest must be discovered first.” Pip lived his past, present and future around these people these people. He influenced their lives as much as they influenced his. In different bonds and in different relationships but at the end of it all, Pip’s great expectations were realized, sought after and won.