Extra task on Great Expectations by Dickens

In the light of the following statement, reflect on themes and

characters.

“Estella’s disgust for everything “common” introduces young Pip to shame and

embarrassment over his family and his appearance. He becomes obsessed with the

desire to overcome his lowly position and become a gentleman in order to impress

Estella. He went through an inner conflict. He affected his close relations with

people around him. ”

Pip’s desire to win over the love of Estella is a very powerful challenge that he needs to

settle with himself. He feels so rejected and devastated at Estella’s reaction to him that he

feels the need to change himself completely to be worthy of her and obtain her approval.

He goes as far as to leave his home and those who truly love him in search of an

education and a chance at a higher social class, spurring on his internal struggle as to how

far he should change for her.

He rejects the loving and caring relationship he had developed with Joe and Bitty, those

who truly cared for him for a chance to pursue Estella. He is both devoted to them but

also ashamed of them all at the same time. Joe and Bitty represent everything that he does

not want to be associated with. Whenever, the opportunity arises for Pip to reunite with

them, he experiences mixed feelings and is torn between embracing them and rejecting

them.
When Pip finally finds out that Magwitch, the convict had been his secret benefactor all

these years, he meets a great inner conflict within himself. Pip had always refused to see

anything in Magwitch and believed society had it had told him that convicts were nothing

but low cold-hearted non-deserving criminals at the lowest end of the social rankings.

When Magwitch returns as the reason for all his wealth and success as a gentleman, Pip

must reconsider his values and eventually comes to accept Magwitch for the loving,

caring man that he is.

In the final stages of Pip’s struggles, he realizes that his search for Estella’s approval of

him have prevented him from enjoying his real life of loving friends and values. Once he

recognizes this, he returns to his former life and true friends. It shows that Pip needed to

establish his own morals instead of the ones that others and society have encouraged him

to believe were his.

It has been said that the antagonist in Pip’s life had been himself all along. It had been the

set of expectations that Pip had lead him to believe that made him act the way he did. By

doing so, Pip believed that he had to distance himself from those who had been kindest to

him. He also allowed himself to believe in the idea of marrying Estella. The character of

Estella, herself does not appear nearly as often as the thought of her does in Pip’s mind

suggesting that he had pushed the idea of her onto himself because of her external

qualities and not of her true character as he was never even happy when he was with her.

In the end, however, he learns that self-worth comes from inside and turns away from his

“great expectations”.