Great Expectations

By Charles Dickens

Cultural Context:

19th century English society but focused more on the poor, struggling and desperate citizens in society. For more background to Dickens's inspiration for his novels click here.

Main Issues / Cultural Values:

The novel Great Expectations by Charles Dickens presents the story of a character's growth as he struggles to become a part of society. This character, Pip, grows in a variety of ways; and, as he grows, he begins to realize that his object should not be to conform to the values of society, but to become a morally just person. The novel presents Pip's moral development through three stages. In the first stage, Pip has a basic sense of right and wrong but lacks the knowledge as to why he must act in conformity with these principles. He, therefore, frequently violates them. In the second stage, Pip is seduced by his desire to gain wealth and to be a "gentleman," and he abandons his code of morals. During the third stage, Pip realizes what a true gentleman is and returns to his previous sense of morals. However, he returns with greater knowledge, experience and understanding.

ISSUES

• Bondage:

  Bondage is one of the most significant themes within Great Expectations. Bondage is a state of slavery or servitude in which one's freedom to choose or act is limited by some force. In the case of Great Expectations this binding force is both external and internal. Internal bondage is the state of being bound only by one's personal attitudes, beliefs, and ideals. External bondage, on the other hand, is a constrainment by something externally, usually another character. Pip is the prime example of bondage. He is bound externally to Estella, Miss Havisham, and later Magwitch. Internally, he is bound by his shame, guilt, fear, pride, and his expectations. All of these forms of bondage are inter-related or are sources of each other.

  

• Control:

  - Estella controls Pip with her looks, status and wealth through envy

  - Pip struggles to maintain control over his own life in all aspects: fiscally, morally and socially

  

• Conformity:

  In Pip's second stage of moral maturation, he tries to live as what he perceives to be a 'gentleman' by spending his money thoughtlessly and conforming to what he believed society wanted him to be. His image of gentility was ultimately undermined by his true morals.

• Importance of Social Status:

  Estella immediately looked down on Pip upon seeing how coarse his hands and boots were. Because of his poor social status, she did not accept him as an equal. Rather than seeing him as a playmate (or a possible future husband), Estella saw Pip as a victim for her cruelty. From her social status spawned a morally ugly sense of arrogance.

  In Pip's adulthood, he was prejudiced against Magwitch for being so grimy and brutish. He was both appalled and embarrassed by the man who had given him his fortune and this resulting sense of arrogance is similar to Estella's.

  Prejudice held by the Victorian society toward criminals:

  "...he held my hand while all the others were removed, and while the audience got up (putting their dresses right, as they might at church or elsewhere) and pointed down at this criminal or that, and most of all at him and me." (Great Expectations, Chapter 56, Page 468)

• Morality / Moral Maturation:

Great Expectations encompasses almost every aspect of the human condition. From this novel, one learns that true friendship is worth much more than material possessions. Wealth and social status does not necessarily guarantee happiness. In life, it is sometimes necessary to sacrifice one's illusions or fantasies to discover one's own inner worth. As displayed by the character of Miss Havisham, it is foolish to live in the past, because it is a selfish act. Not only did she harm herself, but Estella and Pip as well. In the end, Pip discovers that wealth and social position can be corrupting to a person's morality. Ulitmately, Pip realized that he had to sacrifice his great expectations in order to preserve his morality and inner worth.

Pip experienced three basic stages of moral maturity: fear, self- satisfaction, and altruism:

- Pip's original childhood innocence was stripped of him when he began to desire material wealth and influence.

- His "shame" of certain characters like Joe and Magwitch inspired him to do some undesirable things.

- Next, when Pip was in London being supported by his convict, he spent his money recklessly in an attempt to gratify himself.

- Finally, after Pip realized the truth about people, his formerly selfish attitude turned altruistic and he accepted others for whom they are: not for what they look like.

EXAMPLES

• Speaks to Biddy about Joe in a degrading way:

'Well! Joe is a dear good fellow ... but he is rather backward in some things. For instance, Biddy, in his learning and his manners.' (Great Expectations, Chapter 19, Page 175)

• Arrogance due to his new status leads him to hurt those people who are concerned only with his well-being:

"I walked away at a good pace, thinking it was easier to go than I had supposed it to be, and reflecting that it would never have done to have had an old shoe thrown after the coach, in sight of all the High-street,"(Pg.186, Ch.19).

• The first and greatest of Pip's acts of compassion and altruism was to help Herbert become the success that Pip had previously thought impossible:

"We owed so much to Herbert's ever cheerful industry and readiness, that I often wondered how I had conceived that old idea of his inaptitude, until I was one day enlightened by the reflection, that perhaps the inaptitude had never been in him at all, but had been in me." (Great Expectations, Chapter 58, Page 489)

• Upon learning that Magwitch had worked very hard to gain wealth on Pip's behalf in order to become his benefactor, Pip reacts to the man's kindness with the following thoughts:

"The abhorrence in which I held the man, the dread I had of him, the repugnance with which I shrank from him, could not have been exceeded if he had been some terrible beast,"(Pg.377, Ch.39).

• Pip stays true to the end with Magwitch and never abandons him as shown when he states:

"I will never stir from your side... when I am suffered to be near you. Please God, I will be as true to you as you have been to me."

• In a direct contrast to his earlier words about Joe, Pip tells Biddy the following on her wedding day.

'Dear Biddy,' said I, 'you have the best husband in the whole world, and if you could have seen him by my bed you would have- But no, you couldn't love him more than you do.'

• Upon finding out that Estella is to be married to Drummle, his reaction shows that he is more concerned for Estella's happiness than for his own:

"Among those few, there may be one who loves you even as dearly, though he has not loved you as long, as I. Take him, and I can bear it better, for your sake!"

• Pip even puts his concern for Magwitch above his own personal safety, as proven by these lines:

When I told Herbert what had passed within the house, he was for our immediately going before a magistrate in the town, late at night as it was, and getting out a warrant. But, I had already considered that such a course, by detaining us there, or binding us to come back, might be fatal to Provis.

CULTURAL VALUES

1) Gratitude - Pip does not show gratitude towards Joe.
2) Suffering - Miss Havisham suffers from having lived her entire life in the past
3) Obsession - Pip is obsessed with Estella.
4) Prejudice - Estella resents Pip for not being refined. Pip is appalled by Magwitch's appearance and behaviour.
5) Greed - Pip only wants to heighten his social and economic status.
6) Envy - Pip envies Estella's wealth and social status.