Great Expectation Essays

Great Expectation Essays Great Expectation Paper Great Expectation Paper Charles Dickens Great Expectations tells the powerful story of a young orphaned boy, Pip and his journey through childhood to adulthood, following the life changing events, which challenge him along the way. We see how he develops into a young man, engulfed in aspiring to achieve his ambitions.  Lacking parental love and support due to an early death of his parents, he lives under the mercy of his elder sister Mrs Joe. An abrupt, hot-tempered woman lacking sympathy for others, viewing Pip as an unfortunate hindrance with which she is burdened. Her husband, Mr Joe Gargery, An uneducated Black Smith, has quite the opposite temperament to his wife. He appears rather inadequate in her presence, sharing the same childlike fear of her unusual female dominance as Pip, rather than daring to show his own male assertiveness. Pip forms a strong bond with Joe throughout his childhood. Pip is originally set to become an apprentice to Joe as a blacksmith. However, when he receives a request to attend to Miss Havisham at Satis House, an archetypical bride jilted at the alter. Mrs Joe sees it as a grand opportunity for Pip to earn his fortune. Upon his arrival to Satis House, the young and beautiful Estella greets Pip. Who is in the care of Miss Havisham.  Failing to recover from her grief of being jilted at the altar, Miss Havisham lives a life of seclusion, while the time and atmosphere in the house are made to stand still. To seek her revenge upon men, Miss Havisham raises Estella to ruthlessly break their hearts. Pip is yet to experience this, mystified by Estellas harsh arrogance towards him, and her dismissive manner. Repeatedly addressing him as Boy, as if enforcing his insignificance. As an adult he reflects on his sensitive emotions as a child and how he struggled to maintain his composure on occasions, here this may be reflected from Dickens own experience s. : During his visits to Satis House Dickens shows how Pips distaste grew for Estella, yet accompanied by his lust and awe for her. He is constantly goaded by Miss Havisham to admire her, developing a strong passion for her and becomes engulfed by her spell, drawn in by her beauty and arrogance, finding it mystifying and intriguing.  As time passes by pip becomes angered by Estellas indifference towards him, feelings of distress and irritation begin to burden Pip.  Her contempt for me was so strong, it became infectious and I caught it. Here pip explains how strongly he was affected by Estellas mental cruelty. He describes it as becoming so infectious, that he caught it, feeling that there was no escape from spell of contempt. However, he may have wanted to be infected, even though he loathed her contempt, he grasped onto it, unable to release his passion for her.  He becomes discontented with his social status, due to Estella referring to him as poor and common Dickens writes strongly about the effects of social classes, having been an issue of importance during his own life. It causes Pip to feel inadequate and bitter lacking the qualities he does not possess to gain Estellas acceptance, let alone her affection. She later becomes the main source of his need to for fill his goals and ambitions. However, during Pips visits to Miss Havishams there are brief moments where Estella shows Pip a mild affection, occasionally kissing him on the cheek and generally lowering her harsh persona. This of course inspires Pips longing for her, although he is perfectly aware that there is a remaining distance between them where social status is concerned. When Miss Havisham decides that it is time to let Pip go, she gives him a sum of money for his apprentice ship to her and tells him to return to his original apprentice ship as a black smith.  Pip, and Mr and Mrs Joe are slightly mystified by Miss Havisham, as they had been confident that she was to be pips benefactor and make his fortune, yet this did not appear to be the case. After leaving Miss Havishams, returning to the forge with Mr and Mrs Joe, Pip becomes restless, remaining discontented with his life and apprentice ship to Joe. Wanting to seek a better fortune aspiring to greater expectations  After Pip had remained at the forge for sometime, they received a visit from a respectable lawyer from London, named Mr Jaggers. Pip immediately recalled seeing him attending Miss Havishams during his visits to Satis House, and concluded that he had been sent on her behalf.  Mr Jaggers proceeded to inform Pip that he was to come into a handsome property, and must be removed from his current sphere of life, and brought up as a gentleman with great expectations   My dream was out; my wild fantasy was surpassed by sober reality; Miss Havisham was going to make my fortune on a grand scale.