Literatura inglesa Professor: Jeck Aluna: Clarissa Ayres June, 2013

Charles Dickenss reat !"#ectation

Philip Pirrip, a seven-year-old boy known as "Pip," has his lifes
development divided into a stage of innocence, a stage of sin, and a stage of redemption
concerning his expectations. The frst stage presents Pip as an orphan
raised by his sister and her husband from whom he receives a lot of
care and attention. By this time, he is a nice boy who feels guilty for
his own wrong actions. ne day, he receives an une!pected help to
become a gentleman. Then, it starts the second stage which is
developed in "ondon when he becomes friends with #erbert Pocket
and $r. %aggers& clerk, $r. 'emmick. "ater already in his new life, he
receives a visit from %oe, and acts as a snob man. The last stage
presents a lot of solutions for the unanswered matters and mysteries
that happen throughout the novel( it is Pip&s chance to fnd and
redeem himself, also discover who his true friends are.
Pip as Philip Pirrip is known is an orphan who lives with his bad-
tempered sister and her husband, the only one capable of cherishing
him at home. ne day, he visits his parents& graves in the churchyard.
)ll of a sudden, an escaped convict threats him in search for food. )s
the man fnds out the little boy lives with a blacksmith, he also asks
for a fle. Thus, Pip goes home to steal a heavy fle and something
which ends up being his sister&s *hristmas dish( the pork-pie. )ctually,
when he goes to the marshes to give those things to the man, he
fnds out that is another convict who en+oys it very much and uses the
fle eagerly. The convict is soon caught and returns to the prison ships
from which he escaped. ne day, Pip attends to $iss #avisham&s
invitation so as to play with her adopted daughter named ,stella. -he
is a wealthy and very eccentric woman who had been abandoned on
her wedding day many years earlier and has never changed out of
her wedding dress since then. #er house was very much the same
covered with spider webs. .n fact, $iss #avisham has raised ,stella to
be a cold woman and although the girl despises Pip, he begins to fall
in love with her. nce in a while, Pip received money from $iss
#avisham/ however, one day she tells him she does not need his help
anymore, letting him down. Biddy, Pip&s friend and also orphan, is
Literatura inglesa Professor: Jeck Aluna: Clarissa Ayres June, 2013
Charles Dickenss reat !"#ectation
asked to be Pip&s tutor as Pip considers he needs to have a fne social
status. Because of his sister&s in+ure, Biddy moves in to help Pip&s
sister and the house chores. )t the forge, %oe is helped by Pip learning
how to be an apprentice of %oe, but this life does not provide the
status and lifestyle Pip wants for himself. )ctually, Pip has been fne
with %oe and his life at the forge until the day he visits $iss
#avisham&s. ,stella, proud and cold, was able to make him feel
dissatisfed with his position in life for the frst time, making him
reali0e that his hands are coarse, and his boots are thick, and that he
is +ust a 1common labouring-boy.2 #e loves ,stella and visits $iss
#avisham every year. The stage of innocence ends when some time
later Pip receives a beneft to be a gentleman. Then he is advised to
move to "ondon and take a man named $atthew Pocket as his tutor,
who happens to be a relative of Miss Havisham. Pip assumes that Miss Havisham is
his mysterious benefactor. Pip buys himself some new clothes and saying goodbye to
his family, leaves his own family, embarrassed to be seen in his new outfit with Joe.
The stage of sin starts with his life in ondon. There he shares rooms with
Herbert Poc!et who shows at first his !ind and gentle manner. Pip also as!s him to help
to correct his manners and show him more proper behavior. Mr. Poc!et teaches Pip the
famous places and sights he should visit in the city. "n ondon, Pip receives invitations
to have dinner in 'emmick and %aggers3 houses. Pip ac4uires elegant
new furniture, rugs and curtains. #e is mostly worried about getting
possessions and showing wealth to everyone. Pips life with all the money
changes his way of treating people, starting with Joe, the man that loved him. #s Pip
!nows about Joes visit, he does not want to see him, wishing he could have paid in
order to !eep Joe distant. The old little boy was not the one Joe !new once and Pip
himself affirms it. Pip feels very embarrassed related to Joes manners, feeling ashamed
for wee!s afterward Joes visit. The poor man recogni$es himself in the %wrong clothes
and he should have never gone there to see Pip. &ow Pip is only a snob selfish man who
wants to erase his past even if he hurts someones feelings.
The stage of redemption is full of surprises for Pip. He receives a visit from a
stranger and recogni$es after a while this man is the convict, #bel Magwitch who has
made a fortune as a sheep farmer in &ew 'outh (ales, #ustralia. This convict was very
Literatura inglesa Professor: Jeck Aluna: Clarissa Ayres June, 2013
Charles Dickenss reat !"#ectation
proud of having made Pip a gentleman. Pip was the boy who helped him that day,
providing him some food) however, Pip was shoc!ed and *uite embarrassed to !now
that his +great expectations, were given by this man and not Miss Havisham according
to what he had considered before. "n fact, Magwitch told Pip how he had been involved
himself into trouble with another criminal and ris!ed his life to visit Pip for he could be
a dead man if he was found in -ngland. Pip was not very satisfied !nowing his money
had come from a criminal) moreover, this man wanted to give him more money to buy
things. #lthough Pip is in debt, he does not want it. #ctually, Pip is not a gentleman
anymore. (orried about being responsible for Magwitchs capture in ondon, Pip and
Herbert organi$e a plan to help him escape secretly. .espite all the efforts, the escape is
not succeeded and $agwitch ends up severely wounded and is recaptured. Pip
tal!s to Miss Havisham and the old lady admits that she allowed Pip to believe that she
was his benefactress, and he as!s her to help him with a plan he has to set Herbert up in
business anonymously/ to buy Herbert a position in a new established shipping
business. Miss Havisham begs Pip to forgive her and he does despite his feeling of
believing that she had ruined his life in a way, yet Pip recogni$es himself as a guilty
person for his own failures, false expectations and foolish dreams. 0esides, he saves the
old lady from a fire, but she dies and Pip discovers that she had left the money he had
as!ed. Then, Pip gets a very serious illness and Joe is the one who ta!es cares of him
tenderly. #fter that, Pip returns to wor! in the partnership he arranged for Herbert.
(hen Pip visits Joe and the marshes eleven years later, he starts thin!ing whether his
inner self was found in his simple home and in the blac!smith forge. Pip begins to feel
guilty for abandoning Joe, who continues with his complicated marriage with her sister.
Pip has turned his bac! on him in shame and begins to feel it reflect bac! on himself.
Pip also meets -stella who has a ruined marriage and turns to him in a !inder way,
wishing she had given a chance to him years ago.
The three stages in Pip1s life helped to mold his character and to help him
develop into maturity. "t can be considered Pip is affected by everyone he !nows, either
negative or positive manner. "n stage of innocence, Pip !nows that stealing is wrong and
that his attitude may ta!e him to end up in the Hul!s. 2onse*uently, Pip feels guilty of
his childhood crimes, but he cannot change anything. Pip&s life really
changes when he visits $iss #avisham and knows -tella, a character
that really starts a5ecting Pip&s life from that moment on. .n the stage
Literatura inglesa Professor: Jeck Aluna: Clarissa Ayres June, 2013
Charles Dickenss reat !"#ectation
of sin Pip takes himself to a huge fnancial debt as he tries to live up
to the e!pectations that he has of himself and wants ,stella&s love.
)fter a few years, Pip begins to 4uestion his e!pectations( this is the
stage of redemption. #e begins to see that being a gentleman is more
than +ust spending money and living in "ondon. .t comprises honor,
love, and gratitude. .n the end he redeems himself by reali0ing who
his true friends are when all of his "e!pectations" and money are
gone. #e meets again %oe and Biddy with di5erent attitude towards
them. .n fact, forgiving $iss #avisham and helping #erbert Pocket are
attitudes Pip feels better for, helping him to reali0e he was a
gentleman somehow.
$ource: ."23-&', 2harles. 4reat expectations. Penguin Popular 2lassics, 5'#, ed. 6778.