Carle 1 Nicholas Carle Mrs. Gardner English 10 HON, 1.

10 March 2014 Seeking a Path of Light Throughout Great Expectations, Dickens uses light and dark to devise the gothic elements foreshadowing the realities of Pips expectations. Apprenticed to Joes forge, Pips social class separates him from his great expectations. Consequently, Pip alludes to the night sky defining him as a dreamer seeking a star lightness, rather than idealistic lover. Drawn in by Estellas lightness beneath the confinement of darkness within the Satis house, Dickens utterly defines Estella as being cold suggesting her inner darkness. Seamlessly disillusioned by Estellas physical appearances, Pip is unable to recognize his place in society-impeding on his ability to accept the warming lightness of the forgery-forcing him to suffer the indefinite pain of truth. Separated by social class, Pip longs to be a gentleman in order to claim his star: Estella. Pip shows eagerness to be a part of societys upper class through his allusions to light and dark beneath the spit of the sand off the point of the marshes gleaming against the black night sky. (Dickens 91). Confident that his fate is determined, Pip describes his natural surrounding as reflecting on his superstition of his expectations. Pips refers to a black night sky intending to reflect on him, while the gleaming sand beneath him refers to Estella. Justifiably, Pip alludes to the light as being a path of fire across the road (91). He suggests their social class is the only thing that separates them, with the road being a barrier preventing him from reaching her. Dickens contrasts the path of fire with the misleading path of candles in the Satis house to

Carle 2 enhance the gothic tone of the novel, ultimately describing the repetition of disillusions Pip undergoes as a result of his transformation to adulthood. Concealed by the darkness of the Satis house, Estella is glorified beneath the gloomy room with a low ceiling. (78) Dickens compares Estella to a misleading star, by contrasting the idea that the brightness from her candle cant last forever. Pip finds himself lost in a separate world beneath the gloomy Satis house as though he followed the candles up, as he had followed the candles down. (60) Isolated from the natural recurring light of society, the artificial lightness from candles defines Pips expectations as being surreal. Following the path of fire to what he think is his great expectations, Pip finds himself only to be treated as if he were a dog. (60) Allowing Estella to mistreat him, Pip is unable to understand Estellas moral darkness. Dickens isolates Estellas from the rest of society to pervade her character as being a star when she really is a bitter cold character of darkness. Following in Joes footsteps, Pip respected Joe for his kindness and loyalty; however Pips sudden transformation into a gentleman forced him to surpass the welcoming abundance of light beneath Joes forgery. Dickens justifies Pips moral conscience as making up his character in which his factual conscience is replaced with a more abstract conscience. As a child, Pip sought to be like Joe by once defining the forge as the glowing road to manhood and independence. (106) Dickens suggests the light within glowing road represents a safe haven confounded within the forge, while the road devises a path for Pip to follow in order to become a well-respected person similar to Joe. Setting himself apart from Joe through his newly upper social class, Pip redefines his courteous options of the forge as being coarse and common. (106) Dickens contrasts Pips ideal picture of himself, with his newly constructed view on himself. Ultimately, Dickens captures Pips inability to mature as a result of his unexpected

Carle 3 benefactor, forcing him to suffer the inexplicable devastating pain prying into his heart and probing its wounds.(303) Dickens engulfs Pip with consequential decisions as Pip tries to choose which light to follow and which darkness to evade in the process undergoing a transformation from childhood to adulthood. When Pip seeks out in the distance of the gleaming marshes, when Pip gets drawn in by the false lightness of Estella, when Pip overlooks the welcoming lightness, His ability to express his moral conscience becomes diminished and replaced with the gloomy horror of moral terror. Ultimately light and dark foreshadow the destruction of Pips moral character in order to undergo transformation from a boy to a gentleman. Great expectations is a novel that contradicts the impeding views of social class forcing Pip seek a path of artificial lightness to achieve his great expectations. Misled by an artificial lightness, Dickens alludes to society ability to alter Pips moral sense. Caught up in a world designated to Estellas lightness, Pip is unable to recognize the threatening darkness replacing his moral conscience. Dickens attempt to reveal that light and dark cannot occur at the same time by contrasting the natural way of the seasons for its summer in the light and winter in the shade. (438) Dickens refers to Pips inability to understand that light comes from those who our moral while darkness warns the immorality of one. Ultimately Dickens attempts to convey a moral lesson, devising that you cant expect find something that doesnt exist.