The novel follows the character of Pip through his journey from his childhood in a working class background to his adulthood in an upper class environment upon the realisation of his "Great Expectations". Pip meets the escaped convict Magwitch on the dark Kent marshes and aids him with food and a file to release him from his chains. This action changes the course of Pip's life forever, however he is unaware of this until Magwitch reappears many years later. From the moment Pip met Estella at Miss Havisham's, he felt a desire to better himself, taking her unkindness and dismissal of him as common to heart and beginning to resent his humble upbringing, "There had been a beautiful young lady at Miss Havisham's who was dreadfully proud, and that she had said I was common, and that I knew I was common" and "How common Estella would consider Joe, a mere blacksmith". This catalyses a change in Pip's character as he becomes ovelry familiar with the upper classes and upon his great expectations lives friviously and with thought only for material possessions, ""I wonder he didn't marry her and get all the property," said I." Pip's friendship with Herbert Pocket is a true one and yet their ideas about money are greatly different, whilst Herbert is repeatedly working to find "Capital", Pip undermines this by secretly paying people to employ him. It is not until Magwitch returns, revealing himself as Pip's benefactor that his attitude changes and he begins to realise the mistreatment he showed to the figures of his past.
Pip (Phillip Pirrip):
Great Expectations may be described as a buildungsroman as it follows the protagonist Pip's life and shows eventual maturity. Along this journey Pip witnesses and experiences many different types of love; his obsessive and painstaking love of Estella lasts a lifetime and causes Pip to question his own identity and seek another more fitting. His friendship with Herbert Pocket represents a platonic love within the novel, evident by Pip's desire to see him succeed and his inability to let Herbert leave England independently. "Herbert received me with open arms, and I had never felt before, so blessedly, what it is to have a friend ". As his fortune turns upon the death of Magwitch and his "portable property" lost he begins to realise the ingratitude he showed to both Joe and Biddy whilst lost within his own self-importance.
Miss Havisham:
Miss Havisham is amongst the most haunting of characters within Great Expectations, she personifies the pain caused by a broken heart presented by the literal decay of herself and her home, frozen in time via the clocks, "It was then I began to understand that everything in the room had stopped, like the lock and the watch". Jilted on her wedding day by the elusive Compeyson she vowed never to see daylight again and to cause pain onto men as pain was caused to her. Her story is unravelled throughout the novel and Pip begins to understand why she is the way she is and why she has brought Estella up to break hearts, "Let me see you play cards with this boy", seeing it as personal revenge.
Estella:
Estella may be described as a pawn in a vengeful game played by Miss Havisham, releasing her revenge on the rest of mankind. Brought up to be proud and cruel from their first meeting Estella succeeded in making Pip feel inferior. However, ironically, Pip discovers that she is the daughter of Magwitch but who was lost as Jaggers took in her mother after she committed murder. Estella therefore comes from the dregs of society and yet, although Magwitch had commited much crime and sin throughout his life his only desire was to make a gentleman out of Pip - something he could not achieve for himself. On the other scale Miss Havisham, wealthy and of a high class adopted Estella not out of love but in order to mould her into a weapon. Again, whilst marrying the hideous Drummle over Pip she gain suffered at the hands of wealth until the final chapter where both Pip and Estella return to Miss Havisham's house's remains.“Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching. . . . I have been bent and broken, but—I hope—into a better shape.” These are the first words Estella speaks wholly independently from influence and with any positivity in meaning.
Joe:
Joe from the beginning has showed a humble and yet powerful love for Pip almost in consolation for the resentment his wife, Pip's sister, showed in raising him "by hand". 'And bring the poor little child. God bless the poor little child,' I said to your sister, 'there's room for him at the forge!'"". This protectiveness never ceases and his own beliefs never shaken as he seeks not money or betterring himself but rather a happy life with a steady income, ""But if you think as Money can make compensation to me for the loss of the little child – what come to the forge – and ever the best of friends! –". This quotations is spoken to Mr Jaggers whom, upon dealing with a corrupt society daily, has lost any belief in relationships that look beyond money or gain but rather focus on love. Whilst Jaggers may arguably present the selfishness and greed of society at this period, Joe defies this assumption.
Magwitch:Magwitch has lived his whole life in corruption and, though he remained in the constant eye of the judge up until his death, his meeting with Pip and the resultant sacrifice of all his wealth in order to make a gentleman of the boy who helped him, ensures that Magwitch died achieving something positive. This most mysterious of benefactors may be described in parallel with Miss Havisham and yet completely opposite at the same time - both sought to take responsibility for a child and yet whilst the upper class society belonging to Havisham sought to form a vengeful, cruel and cold woman that may not be broken by man, Magwitch sought to create a true gentleman, ""As I giv' you to understand just now, I'm famous for it. It was the money left me, and the gains of the first few year wot I sent home to Mr. Jaggers – all for you – when he first come arter you, agreeable to my letter." Indeed Magwitch may also be using Pip as a replacement for his paternal instincts as he would have been of similar age to Estella, the child he lost "Look'ee here, Pip. I'm your second father. You're my son – more to me nor any son. I've put away money, only for you to spend." This is particulalry poignant as they met at the grave of Pip's own father.
Quotations:
"I wished Joe had been rather more genteelly brought up, and then I should have been so too."
"Whatever I acquired, I tried to impart to Joe. This statement sounds so well, that I cannot in my conscience let it pass unexplained. I wanted to make Joe less ignorant and common, that he might be worthier of my society and less open to Estella's reproach."
- Shows Pips desire to enter into the upper classes and also the influence Joe had on him as he feels he has been mirrored upon him.
"Whenever I watched the vessels standing out to sea with their white sails spread, I somehow thought of Miss Havisham and Estella; and whenever the light struck aslant, afar off, upon a cloud or sail or green hill-side or water-line, it was just the same"
"She reserved it for me to restore the desolate house, admit the sunshine into the dark rooms, set the clocks a going and the cold hearths a blazing, tear down the cobwebs, destroy the vermin – in short, do all the shining deeds of the young Knight of romance, and marry the Princess."
""It would have been cruel in Miss Havisham, horribly cruel, to practise on the susceptibility of a poor boy, and to torture me through all these years with a vain hope and an idle pursuit, if she had reflected on the gravity of what she did. But I think she did not. I think that in the endurance of her own trial, she forgot mine, Estella."
- Speaks about dreams, futures, plans and hopes.
"The unqualified truth is, that when I loved Estella with the love of a man, I loved her simply because I found her irresistible." - Arguably Pip is only in LUST with Estella rather than LOVE? In love with the idea?
"Before I could answer (if I could have answered so difficult a question at all), she repeated, "Love her, love her, love her! If she favours you, love her. If she wounds you, love her. If she tears your heart to pieces – and as it gets older and stronger, it will tear deeper – love her, love her, love her!" - Shows the revenge Havisham wishes to do unto those who love Estella.
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