Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

The evolution of a person can be complicated when one has “great expectations. ” In Charles Dickens’ finest novel, “Great Expectations,” a young boy named Phillip Pirrup known as Pip who’s great expectations are a dramatized exploration of human growth and the pressures that distort the potential of an ordinary individual, especially in the process of growing up. Pip is a simple blacksmith’s boy who aspires to cross social boundaries when he realizes his own upbringing is common; however, he has no means to change; mysteriously, he is given the means, but wealth only brings him arrogance.

He learns that happiness in life can be achieved only by hard work and the great expectations not grounded in reality can only lead to tragedy and heartache. Uncommonness on the inside is more important than uncommoness on the outside. Pip progresses through three stages of life, all of which he goes through different goals. In Pip’s first stage of life he is an innocent boy with a good heart, whose goals are to be apprenticed as a blacksmith with his friend and guardian, Joe Gargery. Perhaps, he doesn’t have very many goals as a seven-year-old because he doesn’t know what the world has to impact upon him.

This shows that Joe is a role model to Pip and is a factor of his life. In Pip’s second stage of life, his goals change a bit to which makes him change his attitude toward his loved ones; he meets Estella, a rich snobby, but beautiful girl, whom rejects Pip, therefore Pip has a goal to become a gentleman to be in the company of Estella. This shows that Estella is an influence to his goals and affects his attitude in life. This also reveals that Pip becomes arrogant because of the predominance of Estella because he wants to be at the same level as her to with her.

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Pip’s third stage in life has soon to come, his goal is to still be with Estella, but mostly he wants to help out his benefactor, Abel Magwitch, known as the “convict;” he also learns that his expectations are all one big sham. This shows how is attitude has changed from a cold hearted arrogant person to a warm hearted caring person. This also reveals that he has to help his benefactor in order to feel a level of satisfaction. Ultimately, Pip learns that his goal in life is out of reach and is full of haughtiness. Undergoing his three stages of life, he has many different values toward himself and others.

In Pip’s first stage, his values are very primitive, the only values he has is for Joe, his values for Joe are very father-son like, he feels equal to Joe. Perhaps, Pip has very primitive values because he has very little knowledge about how life works. This also reveals that he might have felt this value because of the way Joe treated Pip. In Pip’s second stage of life, his values for Joe change tremendously because of the money he receives while getting an education. This shows how money can change a person’s values for the people around him.

This also reveals that he thinks he is better than Joe is because he is now wealthier and is high class. In Pip’s third stage of life his values change dramatically, he realizes how is arrogance and selfishness affect the way he treats other people, like the time he is disgusted to be educated by a convict. This shows how Pip and society put a tag on people and it can never change. This also reveals that Pip learns from his mistakes once it has backfired on himself. Pip’s values dramatically change, he learns from his mistakes and his worth of being a human become clear.

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