Great Expectations Themes

Social Identity / bettering oneself

 In the 19th century there was the industrial revolution and agriculture revolution
 Lots of people getting rich quick and changing class – Dickens explores the idea of changing class through
Great Expectations
 Mrs Joe tries to appear better than she actually is – at the Christmas dinner she ‘uncover[s] the little state
other time, but passed the rest of the year in a cool haze’
 Mrs Joe feels that she has married below herself (only married a blacksmith) ‘Perhaps if I warn’t a
blacksmith’s wife
 Mrs Joe always tries to please Uncle Pumplechook – thinking him better than her
 Pip’s first realisation of his class – Estella makes him feel a ‘dog in disgrace’ and calls him a ‘stupid, clumsy
labouring boy’ – ‘what course hands he has. And what thick boots’ – Pip then remarks that he ‘never thought
of being ashamed of [his] hands before’
 Pip wants to better himself to please Estella and is desperate to become a Gentleman - ‘I want to be a
gentleman on her account’
 He starts not being able to separate person and their social status and becomes ashamed of Joe’s ‘mere
blacksmith status’ even though Joe himself is a kind and loyal person – Pip is ‘disgusted with my calling and
my life
 ‘I wished Joe had been rather more genteelly brought up, and then I should have been so too’ – not seeing
Joe as a man of worth in his kindness – ungrateful for his kindness – focusing on what he doesn’t have –
longs to be part of Miss Havisham’s world – even though Satis House is decaying
 Pip is blind to the life that Miss Havisham and Estella live, an unhappy and lonely, spiteful one – in a decaying
old house, but still sees their lives as ones to aspire too – whereas Joe and Biddy are much more content and
happy with their status and roles in life but he doesn’t see this as a life to live
 The jewells that Miss Havisham has and puts on Estella disguise the horrid conditions in which she lives - Pip
only sees people from the surface and on a social scale – impressed by how much money people have and
not by who they are – looks no deeper than surface beauty and wealth
 Pip describes Biddy as ‘not beautiful – she was common’
 Pip feels that wealth is better than inner kindness and moral goodness – thinking Miss Havisham is better
than Joe – avoiding going to see Joe when back in town – he would rather hang out with Drummle (a nasty,
brutal aristocrat) than with Joe (a loyal, kind man)
 Pip wants to pay for Joe to be ‘less ignorant and common, that he might be worthier of my society and less
open to Estella’s reproach’
 Pip learns that social and educational improvement is irrelevant to one’s real worth and that conscience and
affection are to be valued above erudition and social standing.
 Affection, loyalty, and conscience are more important than social advancement, wealth, and class. Dickens
establishes the theme and shows Pip learning this lesson, largely by exploring ideas of ambition and self-
improvement

What is Dickens trying portray in the characters about social class?

 Happiest and kindest people in the book are Joe and Biddy – content with their lowly class – happy to be
who they are
 Upper Class Characters:
o Miss Havisham is a monster who lives in a large house ‘uptown’ – it is dismal and grey and in ruins –
she represents the aristocracy who hasn’t had to work a day in her life – her money and social has
brought her no happiness and she a sad pathetic character – a slave to the corruption that has gone
 on in her life – Compeyson leaving her at the alter and only her money – she was only seen as a rich
lady – lonely and sad and vindictive – her family (her father and brother) were both very corrupt
o Estella – proud and haughty – insulting – snooty and snobby – crushes men – lonely – has no heart
o Compeyson – who is a gentleman – evil and corrupt – greedy and ends up as a criminal – “no varnish
can hide the grain of the wood; and that the more varnish you put on, the more the grain will
express itself."
o Drummle – a filthy rich ‘gentleman’ who is a brutal monster – arrogant and haughty –even though
he is nasty and horrible - important contrast with Pip and represents the nature of class distinctions -
In his mind, Pip has connected the ideas of moral, social, and educational advancement so that each
depends on the others - Drummle, a member of the upper class, provides Pip with proof that social
advancement has no inherent connection to intelligence or moral worth. Drummle is a lout who has
inherited immense wealth, while Pip’s friend and brother-in-law Joe is a good man who works hard
for the little he earns. Drummle’s negative example helps Pip to see the inner worth of characters
such as Magwitch and Joe, and eventually to discard his immature fantasies about wealth and class
in favor of a new understanding that is both more compassionate and more realistic.
o All of these characters are unhappy or brutal and corrupt – representing what Dickens feels about
the upper class and the aristocracy – corrupt and devious – people who haven’t worked a day in
their lives but feel superior to all those who have
 Middle Class Characters:
o Mr Wemmick – content but keeps work and private lives very separate – at work he is heartless and
disdainful – but at home is very pleasant and nice – ‘the office is one thing, and private life is
another, when I go into the office I leave the castle behind me’
o Mr Jaggers - he is opposite of Wemmick – he is defined by his work – his work is his life – content in
his own way – OCD about cleanliness – cruel and heartless – cares only about winning cases – but
works very hard
o Mr Pumplechook – another character who wants to appear upper class – pretends that he is best
friends with Miss Havisham and thinks that he is the architect behind Pip’s precious fortune
o All work for their money – some more esteemed than others – all have climbed the class system
through hard work – not always nice – Wemmick has to put on a persona of cruelness and
unfeelingness to climb the social status and earn money – this is what you have to be like to earn
money and climb the class system
 Lower Class/ poorer characters
o Joe – happiest character in the book – content and happy with his position and status – doesn’t want
to move up – loyal and kind – has inner worth but not rich - honest
o Biddy – kind and happy – educated but has no intention of bettering herself and moving up the class
system – content with where she is – helps children by running a school – noble in her own right –
honest
o Herbert – a poor gentleman – happy and content – honest – marries Clara for love – a real
gentleman even though not rich – not corrupted by money
o Magwitch – poor, bottom of the social scale, scoundrel and criminal – however has inner worth –
however when he has money he controls Pip
o All these characters represent the fact that you can be happy and honest without having money –
the nicest people are those who are happy with who they are
o Orlick has grown up in the same place as Pip – wants to better himself – Pip squashes all of his
dreams (job at Miss H’s and marrying Biddy) – Pip (with money) ruins him and Orlick ends up as a
criminal
 Dickens wanted to shift the idea that social class and being a gentlemen was to do with monetary value and
‘old money’ aristocracy – but actually to do with hard work and honesty and virtue
 Only when Pip, at the end, goes and works for a living has he achieved full redemption and learning about
life
Being a Gentleman
 One idea in the novel, portrayed by the younger Pip, is that a gentleman has to have social status and this is
measured on his understanding of rules and social etiquettes, habits of dress and speech and the standing of
his family – also wealth is very important
 However we get the sense, as readers, that a true gentleman is a matter of virtue and honesty – and also
having a station or occupation in life which one can fill with dignity
 In Dickens’ time people were usually gentleman if they were in the upper class and had inherited wealth –
however times were also changing where the industrial revolution enabled men of humble backgrounds to
achieve immense wealth
 Herbert comments on the absurdity of the requirements for being a gentleman ‘I don’t know why it should
be a crack thing to be a brewer; but… while you cannot possibly be genteel and bake, you may be as genteel
as never was and brew’ (commenting of Miss Havisham’s family)
 Magwitch has this idea of ‘buying a gentleman’ – returning to the idea that being a gentleman is connected
with wealth – but also making it seem absurd as the idea is laughable
 Money has seemed to buy status for Estella – as no one knows who her parents are and so the idea that
being of the genteel class comes with ‘good breeding’ is also disrupted as she is the daughter of a criminal
but still considered a lady
 Dress and speech also play a big part in being a gentleman – one of the first things Estella comments on is
that Pip calls the ‘knaves jack’ – apparently a un-gentlemanly thing to do and also that he has thick boots
that are common
 Pip also repeatedly comments on how well Joe looks in his working clothes (again reflecting the theme that
you are defined by your occupation) but looks terrible in his Sunday dress – out of character and not like Joe
 When Pip becomes a ‘gentleman’ – which is his goal – he is called ‘Sir’ by Joe and Biddy
 When Magwitch returns it is impossible for Pip to disguise him as a gentleman as whatever he wears he still
looks like a convict – reflecting the comment that Mr Pocket makes about you can’t hide a grain of wood –
the more varnish you put on it the more it shows up – you have to be a gentleman on the inside, it doesn’t
matter what you wear or have (wealth wise)
o This sums up what Dickens wants you to take from the novel – Pip has to become a gentleman on
the inside and no amount of etiquette and dress and money will make him one – he only becomes a
true Gentleman at the end when he works honestly for a living and acts well and with gratitude to
everyone
o Trabb’s boy, Joe, Estella etc. can see that Pip is not a gentleman when he is in his finery because he
hasn’t reached that status on the inside
 In the book the true genteel people are those who act with integrity, and dignity and occupies their place in
society well
 We can contrast someone like Joe and Drummle - in Victorian terms Drummle would be the gentleman,
however Dickens challenges this as Joe is more honest and mannerly – more like a gentleman, but without
the status in society
 Pumplechook and other characters that think that being a gentleman is about a matter of show and outward
conduct are made to look silly and ridiculous – another way Dickens shows that being a true gentleman isn’t
about money or dress

Guilt and Crime /Morals

 In Victorian Britain there was an anxiety about crime
 Pip always is made to feel guilt – Mrs Joe always makes him feel guilty for being alive when the rest of the
family are dead – says that he should be lucky that she took on the awful job of bringing him up ‘by hand’
 Told that the young are ‘naturally wicious’
  When Pip steals food for the convict he feels his whole life and town ‘seemed to run at [him]’ – the stairs
creek and Pip seems to think that they are ‘calling after’ him and the same with the cows and the mist –
town is turning against him – he feels alone in the village – doesn’t fit in there
 The Hulks (prison ship) loom over Pip’s village as the theme of guilt looms over Pip – Pip lives in a guilt
ridden environment
 Mrs Joe says that people who go to prison ‘always begin by asking questions’ – Pip feels it is in his nature to
end up in prison – ‘the Hulks were handy for me. I clearly on my way there. I had begun by asking questions,
and I was going to rob Mrs Joe’
 Pip always feels guilt about his social status – and ashamed of it – when he is apprentice to Joe all he can
think about is the shame he would feel if Estella saw him
 When Mrs Joe gets assaulted Pip feels guilt for it – he wanted it to happen – Orlick does the deed for him –
Orlick represents the part of him he wants to quash – he also feels guilt as the weapon (Magwitch’s leg iron)
used to assault her was the one that he had stolen from the forge to give to Magwitch and Magwitch had
used to get off the leg iron – at first making him think he assaulted her
 Pip becomes ashamed by his home and occupation and is desperate to rise socially – this is because Estella
makes him feel guilt and shame about being a ‘common labouring boy’
 He feels guilt about the way he treats Joe and Biddy and how he disregards them and is ‘aware of [his] own
ingratitude’
 Mr Jaggers – the lawyer that oversees Pip’s expectations – he deals with guilty criminals on a daily basis – In
place of the Hulks that loom over the marshes, Newgate prison looms over London
 When Wemmick takes Pip to Newgate prison and he can’t shake the dust of the prison off of him –
symbolizing the feeling that Pip has that he is going to end up a criminal – the more he tries to shake it off
the more it sticks to him
 By making Pip a gentleman with a convict as his benefactor – Dickens portrays that the Upper Class world of
the gentleman is propped up by the criminality of the underclass – each class depends on each other to
thrive – they have a connection
 Mr Jaggers always obsessively washes his hands all the time – attempting the wash off the dirt and grime of
his clients guilt
 However at the end Pip realises the difference between the criminal by choice (Compeyson) and the criminal
driven to crime by desperation (Magwitch)
 Pip feels guilt about his ‘worthless conduct to [Joe and Biddy]’ after he realised that Magwitch was his
benefactor
 Pip is always to avoid going to prison – but in the very end he ends up in prison – finalizing his cycle of
learning – the guilt that shaped his life experiences made him a better and stronger man in the end

Women
 Patriarchal society – when women get married they give everything to their husbands
 The two nice women in the novel (Biddy and Clara) are domesticated and the Victorian ideal of women –
accepting and caring – soft spoken – apart from Clara and Biddy, most of the women in the book are angry,
bitter and have a negative influence on Pip’s life decisions and relationships
 Mrs Joe – had the most negative influence over Pip – she was the one who made him leave his life at the
forge and make him feel guilty and unwelcome in the life the led – however she was beaten and broken by
Orlick that brings her to submission
o Mrs Joe is dominating and wouldn’t ‘be over partial to [Joe] being a scholar, for fear [he] might rise’
 Estella is the second woman that has so much power over Pip – she is ‘pretty’ yet ‘proud’ and ‘insulting’ –
she is the one that creates the destruction of Pip’s other relationships with people – she makes him feel
shame and lowliness towards himself, Joe and honest life he leads – Estella made him unhappy
o Estella two gets beaten into submission by Bentley Drummle before she can be with Pip
  Miss Havisham, who’s aim in life is to wreak havoc by means of Estella on all men, controls Pip and leads him
into the trap that she has made for him through Estella – ‘giving up your whole heart and soul to the smiter –
as I did’ (Miss Havisham)
o However Miss Havishams’s whole existence and life revolves around and is controlled by the
wrongdoings that Compeyson did to her when he left her at the alter – her pain drives her to be very
vindictive
o This leaves her pathetic and lonely at the end – begging for forgiveness - left by Estella and Pip
 Dickens portrayal of women is not positive for most of the women in the book – the more positive
characters are Joe, Magwitch and Mr Wemmick – they teach and show Pip the error of his ways and teach
him the ultimate teaching of the whole book – a true gentleman is not defined by their social status and
wealth but by their inner moral values and honesty
 The women in the novel are Pip’s obstacles and are the people that pose a threat to his way of life

Money and Property

 Money and property defines you
 Drummle can mix with the right people because he is rich – although he is a scoundrel
 Joe, who is a nice and honest man, is looked down upon because he is not rich and Pip is worried he will
suffer from reproach
 Mr Wemmick – a man obsessed by ‘portable property’ – this portable property defines you

Relationships with different Characters

Pip and Joe’s relationship

 Pip thought that Joe was mild and good-natured – says that they are both ‘fellow sufferers’ of Mrs Joe’s
‘bringing up by hand’
 Pip says that he always regarded Joe as ‘a larger species of a child, and no more than my equal’ (Chapter 2) –
showing that Joe and him were friends of equal status
 When Pip steals from his sister he feels no remorse stealing from her, but does feel guilty about not
confessing to Joe – this represents the first separation from Joe – he doesn’t tell him everything anymore
(Chapter 3)
 At the end of his visit to Satis House he lies to Joe, Mrs Joe and Mr Pumplechook – later he confesses this lie
to Joe – signifying their still close and loyal relationship
 As soon as Pip starts to go up to Satis House and realises that he is a ‘common labouring boy’ and how
‘common Estella would consider Joe’ – this starts to drive a wedge through Joe and Pip’s relationship as
Estella and Miss Havisham start to replace Joe – they destroy and override his relationships with Joe – the
more he thrives to be like them and to have a relationship with them, the more unhappy he gets
 As Pip starts getting influenced by Miss Havisham and Estella, he becomes embarrassed by Joe’s ‘mere
blacksmith’s status’ and lack of education – he realises that he is superior to Joe in educationing skills,
disrupting their once ‘equal’ relationship
 When Pip gets his ‘Great Expectations’ in Chapter 19, he feels a patronising superiority towards the forge
and the village – he suggests to Biddy that Joe should have better education for a higher station in life – not
considering that Joe might be content where he is and proud to fill his occupation as a blacksmith –
representing the distance he has grown from Joe, where once he might of looked forward to having ‘such
larks’ by being an apprentice to Joe as a blacksmith, to now not understanding who Joe is, and how proud he
is to fill his job ‘well’
 When Pip is measured for a new suit and leaves for London, he departs from the forge alone so that him a
Joe don’t have to walk together – fear of being seen with him, shows the final stage of ending his
relationship with Joe
  When in Chapter 27, Joe comes to visit Pip in London – Joe calls Pip ‘Sir’ – showing that their relationship has
grown from being equal friends, to being quite cold, distant and formal – where Pip takes the higher status
o Joe also tries to dress in a gentlemanly way to try and honour Pip and not embarrass him – this
happens both in Chapter 27, when he visits him and in Chapter 13 when they visit Miss Havisham
 At the end of the novel Pip and Joe are reconciled, when Joe nurses him back to health – Joe tries to
apologise to Pip as he blames himself for their estrangement – Joe feels guilty for not intervening when Mrs
Joe was beating up Pip – both forgive each other and Pip again depends on Joe like when he is younger –
their relationship takes a cyclical journey

Pip’s Relationship with Miss Havisham

 Pip’s first meeting with Miss Havisham, where he sees the horrors of the house and how it has been left to
ruin – he is unhappy at the house but has an attraction to Estella – Miss Havisham treats him coldly and
mysteriously – she tells Estella to ‘break his heart’ – they both mock and are cruel about his ‘common’
clothes
 Miss Havisham orders Pip to sing ‘Old Clem’ with her – this is a song that he sings with Joe – Miss H is trying
to replace Joe
 The first stage of breaking his heart is when she ties him to an apprenticeship with Joe – when she knows
that he now wants to do something different and he expects to be able to climb the social status – also she is
separating him from Estella, who she knows that Pip loves
 When Pip receives his good fortunes he immediately assumes that the benefactor must be Miss Havisham –
she plays along to this and lets Pip believe that he is destined to marry Estella
 Miss Havisham now is seen by Pip as a ‘fairy godmother’ rather than the ‘witch of the place’ – Pip feels that
he is in her debt because he thinks that she is his benefactor – he thinks, as she adopted Estella, she has ‘as
good as adopted’ him too – showing he feels like she is a kind of parent figure
 When he visits Miss Havisham and Estella again, Miss Havisham cruelly mocks him and says that she wants
to feel the pain of ‘real love…as [she] did’
 In Chapter 44, Miss Havisham admits to using Pip’s good fortune to torture her relatives – showing that their
whole relationship was always a lie that Pip built around himself
 Miss Havisham gives Pip nine hundred pounds to endorse Herbert and offers him money – he refuses – she
begs him for forgiveness and he gives it to him – this shows that underneath her craving for revenge she
became attached to Pip and didn’t want to break his heart – seeking this revenge didn’t make her any
happier – she is now vulnerable and the roles in the relationship have switched
 Both Pip and Miss Havisham’s love has been rejected by Estella – so both find common ground in this
 She sets alight and Pip saves her

Significance of the Title of Charles Dickens's “Great

Expectations”
The title of Charles Dickens’s novel Great Expectationsmainly refers to Pip’s "great
expectations" which are many dimensional and ever-evolving. His great expectations arrive in
the form of his fortune and are embodied in his dream of becoming a gentleman. These
expectations also take the shape of his longing for a certain cold star named Estella. Each of
the three parts of the novel treats a different expectation, and we watch how Pip changes in
the face of his changing expectations.

Pip undergoes 3 phases in his life, in which he has different expectations:

The first stage of Pip’s expectations

Pip is a poor orphan living with his sister and her husband the blacksmith. He has an
encounter with an escaped criminal on Christmas and the help he gives him results in the
criminal setting him up with a secret inheritance. One day a lawyer comes and says that he
has money coming or "great expectations" and he has to have a different education now that
is he is to be a gentleman rather than a blacksmith.

The title also alludes to the idea of great things to come or things that are expected to come
but aren't there yet.

The second stage of Pip’s expectations

When Pip receives riches from a mysterious benefactor he snobbishly abandons his friends for
London society and his 'great expectations'.

The third stage of Pip’s expectations

On his arrival in London, Pip’s initial impression is London is unattractive and dirty.
Nonetheless, his great expectations lie before him, and he is informed by Jaggers and his
clerk, Wemmick, of his new living quarters. When Pip turns 21 years old, he visits Jaggers for
further information on his expected fortune and hopefully the identity of his benefactor.
Jaggers tells him he will have an annual allowance of 500 pounds until his benefactor is made
known to him, but refuses to tell him when his benefactor will be revealed to him. He also
tells Pip that when his benefactor is revealed, Jaggers’ business will end, and he need not be
informed about it.

In yet a fourth (metafictional) sense, we can say that the title refers to the readers’ great
expectations, which Dickens builds upon for his wonderful plot twists. All of these layers of
meaning in the title make for a rich reading experience.

Dickens portrays the expectations of other characters very efficiently in the novel .

Miss Havisham’ Expectation

Miss Havisham is the wealthy, eccentric old woman who lives in a manor called Satis House
near Pip's village. She is manic and often seems insane, flitting around her house in a faded
wedding dress, keeping a decaying feast on her table, and surrounding herself with clocks
stopped at twenty minutes to nine. As a young woman, Miss Havisham was jilted by her
fiancé minutes before her wedding, and now she has a vendetta against all men. Her
expectation is to obtain revenge on the male sex and so she adopts Estella and deliberately
raises her to be the tool of her revenge, training her beautiful ward to break men's hearts.

Magwitch’s Expectation

Magwitch and Pip first meet when Pip is a boy and Magwitch an escaped convict. Magwitch
does not forget Pip's kindness in the marshes, and later in life devotes himself to earning
money that he anonymously donates to Pip.

Magwitch’s expectation is to make Pip gentleman in a full sense and so his expectation is
great.

The sad irony of the title is that expectations are never great. A man is what he does. A man
who expects to be given is a parasite and a fool. The title has something to do with the
nature of Pip's perception of society. He comes from a poor blacksmith family and has these
great expectations of what he's missing out on. As the book progresses these "great"
expectations become less and less great to Pip. He meets Magwitch (as Uncle Provis) and he
is just realizing how much he'd rather be back at home at the forge than live out all of these
great expectations he had for the rich social class.

Great Expectations – Pip’s Crisis of Identity

Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations (1861) contains a wealth of moral, social, and philosophical insights. Rife with
rich characterizations, fairy-tale elements, grotesque and bizarre plot twists, Victorian social issues, and a beautifully
thoughtful and imaginative commentary on the universal human themes of loss, guilt, abuse, identity, money, social
status, and love, this novel remains an outstanding example of truly great art, both popular and classic. Great
Expectations stands out among Dickens’ writings as a story that does not end as happily as many of the author’s
other works, and in fact possesses two separate endings.1 In this book, Dickens uses the young protagonist Pip to
explore the idea of the identity of the Victorian gentleman in relationship to his society, employing fairy tale
constructs to ridicule the romantic illusions of the time period. A bildungsroman of epic proportions, the formation,
distortion, and redemption of Pip’s identity illustrates Dickens’ narrative of secular transformation.

J. Hillis Miller writes, “Great Expectations is the most unified and concentrated expression of Dickens’ abiding sense
of the world, and Pip might be called the archetypal Dickens hero” (249). Although Pip is a radically different hero
from Scrooge, Oliver Twist, Amy Dorritt, or other more typical Dickensian protagonists, he embodies characteristics
of Dickens’ thought in extremely vivid and complex form. Pip’s story of identity formation in a nineteenth century
English context demonstrates how Dickens’ life and writings, influenced by spurious and inconsistent theological
beliefs, express the idea that sin is largely social rather than personal, and that therefore redemption is a secular
rather than a religious concept, illustrated in two different ways in the multiple endings to Great Expectations.

Although unique among Dickens’ characters, Pip also remains an archetypal Dickensian protagonist in his attempts
to form his identity. As Miller adds, “The typical Dickens hero, like Pip . . . has no given status or relation to nature, to
family, or to the community . . . Any status he attains in the world will be the result of his own efforts. He will be
totally responsible, himself, for any identity he achieves”. Great Expectations, like many other Dickens works,
investigates themes of identity, social class, and relationships. Dickens protagonists such as Pip, David Copperfield,
Esther Summerson, and Martin Chuzzlewit engage in the search for a unified, coherent identity. They must learn
who they are in themselves and in relation to the rest 3 of the world. Pip’s quest to find his true identity is especially
tragic and multifaceted, remaining one of the finest examples of Dickens’ tendency toward realism in his vision of
the world. This vision is both Victorian and timeless, for while at first Pip believes his identity is that of a gentleman,
the most coveted position in Victorian society, he eventually realizes that a true gentleman is one characterized by
gentlemanly qualities, not one merely possessing gentlemanly trappings.

The story of Pip’s transformation into a gentleman, like David Copperfield and large portions of Bleak House, is told
by a first-person narrator. Characters in need of redemption generally become rather disagreeable, and Pip’s story
fits this pattern. Although likeable enough at the beginning as a kind and abused orphan, Pip eventually becomes a
guilt-ridden snob who outwardly comes to conform to society’s idea of a gentleman while despising his true friends
and engaging in a self-destructive relationship with the dangerous Estella. Established firmly within the
bildungsroman or coming-of-age genre, Pip’s story is the tale of a young boy whose identity is distorted as it is
forming, but is eventually reconstructed in the end. Because Pip becomes twisted, however, he becomes less and
less likeable, with some exceptions, as the novel progresses. Yet it in order for readers to be instructed and find
catharsis in Pip’s transformation, they must be able to identify with the deluded young man. Christopher Ricks writes
that a character’s personal confession of guilt is the best way for an audience to empathize with a displeasing
protagonist such as Pip becomes. Ricks states that this “is of course just what Pip’s first-person narrative does. The
effect of using the first-person is completely to reverse the normal problem about keeping a reader’s sympathy.
[People] do not, in the ordinary way, have much difficulty in liking someone who tells [the audience] how bad he has
been”. Pip’s identity re-formation is far more powerful because of his sadder-but-wiser narration throughout the
course of his ethereal, haunting story.

Consequently, Dickens writes Pip’s identity distortion as a study of twisted emotional socio- economic values, not
spiritual deficiency. As a fallen character, Pip possesses an identity that for much of the novel is characterized by
remorse, guilt, and shame. Jack Rawlins explains that most critics view Great Expectations as either a story of “Pip’s
personal moral failure,” or of “society’s moral failure” (667). One of the great questions of the book is the analysis of
guilt: who is at fault? Pip or society? More explicit examination of what wrongs have actually been committed by Pip
or society provides a background for the redemption of Pip’s identity: if Pip is morally culpable, then he is in need of
personal redemption, and he is defined by his fall and the necessity of restoration. If the primary fault lies with
society, however, then Pip must simply learn to overcome society’s negative projections of guilt onto himself.
Dickens seems to answer that the wrongdoing lies both within society and also within Pip (though mostly within
society), although unlike for Pip, no real provision is made for the restoration of society. The question then becomes
what exactly society and Pip are guilty of, respectively. Society is certainly guilty of abusing and distorting Pip’s
identity. This abuse, in turn, produces tremendous shame in Pip, which overshadows his guilt for actual wrongdoing.
Growing up, Pip is abused by most of the adults in his life, and by his older sister in particular. Pip’s story is told in
both first and third person, and at the outset he explains, “Within myself, I had sustained, from my babyhood, a
perpetual conflict with injustice. I had known, from the time when I could speak, that my sister, in her capricious and
violent coercion, was unjust to me. I had cherished a profound conviction that her bringing me up by hand gave her
no right to bring me up by jerks”.

Pip’s great expectations of education, money, and social status stem in part from the abuse he received at the hands
of the adults in his life. Jack Rawlins explains how blame for tolerating abuse includes even the kindly Joe, who
“insists that his father was a good man and that Mrs. Joe is a good woman, in fact that everyone is good and that in
general the sun is shining brightly when Pip knows it’s raining”. Everyone else aggressively abuses Pip, thereby
eroding his self-concept, but through his well-intentioned but disastrous passivity, Joe inadvertently sends Pip the
message that Pip is not worth defending. Additionally, despised by Estella and made to feel dreadfully ashamed of
who he is and where he comes from, Pip reacts by deciding to become someone he will not be ashamed of being, a
man of great expectations. Mortified and devalued by the abuse of adults and the scorn of the wealthy Estella, Pip
searches for redemption throughout the novel, needing to have his shame relieved so that he can form a coherent
identity by dealing with his guilt. Encouraged passively or actively by most of the other characters in the novel to
believe that Miss Havisham is his benefactress, that he can become a gentleman merely by acting and looking the
part, and that Estella is meant to be his bride, Pip lives for a long while in world of illusory fairytale expectations
where all his dreams come true and he is blissfully free of moral responsibility to God or his fellow man.

Great Expectations is a story about identity, specifically the identity of the protagonist Pip and the origin, distortion,
and transformation of his identity and the resulting clarification of the relationship between himself and the world
around him. Great Expectations begins with Pip’s announcement in the second sentence of the novel, “I called
myself Pip, and came to be called Pip,” and several lines later that “my first most vivid and broad impression of the
identity of things” (9) was formed during the story’s opening incident with Magwitch in the graveyard on Christmas
Eve. Pip’s name, emphasizing the concept of growth, is extraordinarily fitting. Unique names often characterize their
possessors in literature: Peter Pan, for example, another orphan boy, has a name appropriately reminiscent of the
Greek god Pan, a god of nature and nymphs. As an abused orphan, Pip is not only completely lacking in a positive
bestowed identity, but he is also so undefined that he actually names himself. Consequently, Pip’s journey to finding
his true character involves great struggle and conflict and contains many missteps and failures. Throughout the
course of Dickens’ novel of transformation, Pip must learn to claim his identity through recognizing the difference
between morally-induced guilt and socially-induced shame, and coming to accept the loss of his illusions and the
love or forgiveness of those whom he has wronged and been wronged by, regardless of whether his redemption
ends up being more social or moral in nature.

Like most children, young Pip was utterly unable to retain or even begin to form a healthy identity in the face of his
orphaned state and the violent physical and emotional abuse perpetrated by most of the caregivers in his life, so his
identity is defined from the first by shame. Pip feels ashamed of simply being alive, and worthless and unloved as a
result. His sister constantly reminds him that she brought him up “by hand,” yet simultaneously implies that Pip was
not worth the upbringing. When he has been to visit his parents’ graves in the churchyard without informing her, Pip
is appalled by his sister’s outraged reaction. He recounts the conversation: Mrs. Joe asks, “Who brought you up by
hand?’ ‘You did,’ said I. ‘And why did I do it, I should like to know!’ exclaimed my sister. I whimpered, ‘I don’t know.’
‘I don’t!’ said my sister. “I’d never do it again”. From his earliest years, Pip is raised to believe that he is utterly
valueless as a person. Despite Joe’s kind assurances of Pip’s value, Mrs. Joe is a far more powerful and dominating
figure in Pip’s life, so she is the one Pip listens to, not the kindly but powerless Joe.
Upon first being introduced to the wonders of the upper class through his initial visit to Satis House, Pip suddenly
begins to dream of an identity he might one day attain that could bring him social acceptance: the identity of the
gentleman. Because all he consciously searches for is social acceptance, the gentlemanly identity that Pip begins to
construct in earnest at eighteen when he inherits a fortune is an identity that is solely focused on external social
mores. Human nature in the Victorian Era was similar in that the attainment of respect from one’s peers meant that
in his tortured quest for personal value, Pip would have to obtain the correct education, spend the right amount of
money, be seen at popular locations, live in socially acceptable accommodations, and wear all the proper clothes
and accessories. In this way, Pip was trying desperately to be accepted by his society and to convince himself that he
did in fact possess genuine worth as an individual, as he looked to society’s acceptance to validate his worth. In
allowing his society’s views of power (which translated into economic and class distinctions) to determine his values,
Pip moves further away from establishing a realistic identity and genuine relationships.

When Pip begins to see the colossal foolishness of having built his identity around the idea of becoming a socially
acceptable gentleman and marrying Estella; shockingly, the great expectations that he had thought were being
realized are immediately and perhaps forever out of his reach. Pip is unable to accept that the convict, a man who
represents the lowest part of the lower classes, an aspect of his identity from which Pip has deliberately tried to
escape, is actually financially responsible for making Pip the gentleman he has become. Once he realizes that the
money is “tainted,” Pip refuses to accept it (256), although this is quite simply an act of pride. Although Magwitch’s
motivations for his generosity were complex and somewhat self-serving, they did involve genuine love, and the
money was honestly earned. Pip had no charitable reason for refusing to continue to accept the money. Because his
identity was so class-conscious and external, he simply could not stand to obtain his social status through the means
of a lowest-class citizen.

As Pip comes to focus on outward appearances more than inward qualities, he inexorably begins to lose his soul or
identity while it is yet forming, as he comes to the point of crisis in which he meets Estella at the young age of
thirteen. Pip comes to despise his occupation as a blacksmith, and is discontent with his “coarse hands and . . .
common boots”, the external reminders of his life as a poor commoner. Pip detests his life, his friends, (for they are
common), his occupation, and those interior and exterior qualities in himself which he perceives to be “coarse and
common.”

Pip’s illusory world of external socioeconomic expectations comes crashing violently down on his head when he
learns that Magwitch is his mysterious benefactor. When Magwitch reveals the truth, Pip says, “All the truth of my
position came flashing on me; and its disappointments, dangers, disgraces, consequences of all kinds, rushed in in
such a multitude that I was borne down by them and had to struggle for every breath I drew” (240). Not only is Pip
devastated to learn that Miss Havisham is not his benefactor, and that therefore he has not been groomed and
dandified for Estella’s sake, but also, he is horrified to discover that all his attempts to escape the dark violence of his
past are for naught, and that it is that very violence itself that has made his rise in social status possible. Because
Pip’s great expectations and very identity itself are constructed upon an external foundation, his expectations are
utterly shattered by Magwitch’s revelation. When Pip comes face to face with Magwitch towards the end of the
novel, Pip is suddenly forced to realize that his very soul, his entire identity, is based on a lie. All his hopes and
dreams for the future immediately appear to be distorted and unattainable, and Pip is left to wonder who he really
is, what he truly values in life, and how on earth he can live in poverty after having lived as a gentleman, in a world
where a gentleman is defined by either his parentage, or his money, or both. Pip snobbishly decides that Magwitch’s
money is “tainted” and that he, Pip, can no longer accept it.
One ironic aspect of Pip’s disillusion, however, is the fact that even had he known all along that Miss Havisham was
not his benefactor and even if he had loved Biddy, not Estella, he might well have ended up becoming the same kind
of gentleman that he did in fact turn into. Pip is the consummate class-conscious Victorian gentleman, and he values
the same external things that his society values, neglecting the importance of internal qualities of nobility. The
devastation of Pip’s illusions is in some ways similar to Estella’s disillusionment. Raised without authentic love or
empathy, Estella’s identity never included much kindness or compassion. However, her abusive marriage to Bently
Drummle, and through this torment Estella finally realizes, like Pip, that she has been proud and selfish, basing her
identity upon meaningless externals rather than internal priorities.

When Pip and Estella are confronted by great suffering and the destruction of their illusory values, only then is the
opportunity for any kind of redemption possible in their lives. Faced with the reality of their value distortions, each is
challenged to re-form his or her identity in correlation with kindness and humility. For Pip, being expected to show
gratitude and friendship towards Magwitch becomes the turning point in his shallow existence. After attempting to
help Magwitch escape the country, Pip finally comes to empathize with the convict, and he tells the reader that “in
the hunted wounded shackled creature . . . [was] a man who had meant to be my benefactor, and who had felt
affectionately, gratefully, and generously, towards me with great constancy through a series of years. I only saw in
him a much better man than I had been to Joe”. Only once Pip finally comes to terms with his selfish love of money
and prestige at the expense of his humanity is he able to show great loyalty and love to Magwitch, humble himself
before Joe and Biddy, and obtain a sort of works-based absolution from his guilt. For Estella, the turning point takes
place outside of the story, as she is terrorized and abused by Drummle. She tells Pip that “suffering has been
stronger than all other teaching”, and has clearly been changed for the good as a result. Once the identities of Estella
and Pip are thus brought to crisis, the two are then afforded the capacity for rebuilding their souls, and re-forming
their identities into that which is more humble and compassionate.

Throughout the trials and frustrations that Charles Dickens experienced in his quest to become a Victorian
gentleman, the author came to believe deeply in the necessity of holding an accurate perception of one’s life
priorities. Like many Victorian society members, Pip’s moral and socioeconomic values have an external, social,
romantic, and monetary slant, and his idea of the nature of a true gentleman is deeply flawed. When Pip’s
expectations and very identity are shattered by the appearance of Magwitch and his inescapable relationship to
violence near the end of the story, Pip is prompted to come to terms with the hollow and false identity that he has
constructed for himself, based upon flawed premises of what was truly valuable in life. It is only when Pip’s
gentleman identity is inadvertently destroyed by Magwitch, its patron, that Pip is able to begin to understand his
need for the internal values that define a true gentleman. Estella’s soul, scarred as it was being formed, is similarly
undone by her abusive husband Bently Drummle outside the pages of the book, and it is only after this suffering that
she, too, is afforded the opportunity to construct a new identity for herself based upon qualities of true nobility.