Great Expectations Pip Character Analysis

Great Expectations written by Charles Dickens titled is a bildungsroman which deals with the character Pip’s development and focuses on his moral growth. The character of Pip is the protagonist in the novel and the reader follows his development when reading the text. This novel delves into the effect of money and class on the individual and therefore traces the development of Pip as the development of strong sense of ethics and morality. Pip’s development is mostly influenced by, his obsession with gentility and the quality of appearing to belong to a high social class. The purpose of this essay is to argue that the character of Pip undergoes development that is, for the most part, influenced by the obsession that he has with gentility and

Pip’s visit to Satis house leads to his awareness of himself as “coarse and common“ (Chapter XIV 86). He appears to be embarrassed and ashamed of the confines imposed upon him by his social class. The discovery of his “expectations” seems to give Pip motive for his shame at his origins, and he ends up wanting to place some distance between himself and his original home. Pip becomes aware of his social class background from meeting Miss Havisham and Estella, who are of the upper social class, when he states that “[n]ow the reality was in [his] hold, [he] only felt that [he] was dusty with the dust of small-coal” (Chapter XIV 87).Another change takes place when Magwitch secretly hands Pip his fortunes and this where Pip begins to look down on his past. The money that Magwitch hands Pip changes him for the worst. Pip releases that Magwitch and Joe retain gentility and class through their actions and not by the amount of money they have. Pip becomes a different man when he starts to be aware of how ungracious he has been to Joe and reconciles to him when Joe cares for him in London. After being introduced to Estella and being instructed to fall in “love her” by Miss Havisham, Pip sees the need to belong to the upper social class so that he can be suitable for her (Chapter XXIX 184). The other characters in the novel not only lead to the change in Pip, they shape him as a