Dicken's Critique

So I have talked about this grand idea that permeates throughout the entire novel. It is an idea that drives Pip's quest and is a social criticism. This idea is that wealth corrupts the goodness in a person and it cannot give someone goodness. This idea is defined through a parallel structure that constantly compares and contrasts those that have and those who do not. Initially, Pip lives his life, although bullied and abused at home, happy and doesn't fight it. However, that all changes when he goes to see Miss Havisham for the first time. On that visit he meets Estella. Estella is the one who throws him for a loop. She critiques him on his "rough hands and working boots" as well as calling him "common". This makes Pip extremely self conscious of his social position in life, so much so that he is conscious of Joe's commonness and has a conviction that "[he] had liked Joe's trade once, but once was not now." This mindset continues to permeate all aspects of Pip's life because of his admiration for Estella. He decides that he will better himself and become a gentleman just so that he can be with her. This idea is so strong that it eclipses Biddy from Pip's view. He even says " I should of been good enough for you: shouldn't I, Biddy?" but then continues to discuss his love for Estella. If I know anything about relationships, you do not discuss with someone how you could of loved them and then love someone else. But, moving on to how that plays into the criticism. Biddy understands the world much more so than Pip but we are limited to Pip's interpretation as he is our eyes and ears for the novel. Biddy knows that chasing after Estella will only crush Pip and lead him down a dangerous path. The next conversation that Biddy and Pip have it is when he asks her to improve Joe's manners and says that he would not fit in with the company he wants to have (this reflects back to when Joe comes with Pip for his last visit to Miss Havishams, dressed in his awkward Sunday suit, where he not once speaks to Miss Havisham but directs his responses to Pip. A habit that makes Pip extremly uncomfortable and ashamed). Here Biddy gets very upset with Pip and argues that Joe is actually one who is proud of his work (in the previous post on Joe's innocence) and not ashamed of who he is because he lives a good life. Again, this is just something that Pip can not understand and it marks a significant turning point for him. This turning point can be seen in Pip's conscious after he is informed of his great expectations from Mr. Jagger. Since the novel is translated through Pip's experinces, we can see this change in conscious due to the tone that alters. Previously, Pip felt small. His voice wasn't filled with authority. "'Come and Fight' What could I do but follow him? I have often asked myself the question since; but, what could I do?" He has not authority and just goes along with it. After learning from Mr. Jaggers that he has great expectations, Pip's tone changes. He gains authority. He gains entitlement. After speaking with Mr. Jaggers, Pip "caught them looking at me, though never so pleasantly, I felt offended; as if they were expressing mistrust in me." This trend continues outside of Pip as well. As with Joe who lives his life at the mercy of his wife and yet still loves her and does everything in her power to make her happy, there are polar opposites to him. Miss Havisham is a good example of this. She has a ridiculous amount of money. She has jewels on her dressing table, estate, and a massive house. Yet, she is one of the saddest and cruelest characters in the whole novel. She essentially creates Estella to become a heart breaker for men in her life all because a man broke her heart. When Pip is over, she constantly asks him what he thinks of Estella and reminds him she is better than him. All the while, Miss Havisham lives in isolation, lives in the past, and lives in her memories. This commentary is almost painfully obvious once recognized. Dickens uses Pip to reiterate it multiple times throughout the novel, all the while Pip is oblivious until the very end. Mr. Jagger is described as a beast who controls his work and the people in his life with savage control. Uncle Pumblechook is the epitome of an oily scum-bag. All of these characters throughout the story have the feel of being hungry for something. Jaggers for power, Havisham for revenge, Pumblechook for money. Yet, it is the characters of Biddy and Joe and Abel Magwitch that feel complete. They are the ones who feel full and not lacking of substance, the ones who we feel as being actual humans. I suppose that is what Dickens was trying to get at. Pip is actually the only character that is dynamic in that sense. He starts his life like Joe and Biddy, then he attempts to transform into the likes of Estella and Pumblechook, but fails and realizes that he is better off being true to himself. Thus, his ultimate quest. The reason in Pip's mind to win Estella, the road is the road to London, and the true meaning is to discover that true goodness is not obtained from money and wealth. True goodness is found inside of someone, allowing him to finally come to terms that Estella will never be for him and letting her walk into the mist in the final scene as he "saw no shadow of another parting form her."
In the end, I feel that Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is a wonderful book. The language, writing style of Dickens combined with the perspective that is Pip is both an entertaining and delightful read. Charles Dickens is an excellent writer and Great Expectations is obviously his greatest work. I would highly recommend this book to anyone that is looking for a longer novel for reading in free time or burning through all in one night (although highly unlikely).

The Innocence of Joe

First a little information on my innocent Joe character. Joe Gargary is the father figure to Pip in Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. He married Pip's sister, Mrs. Gargary, and when Pip's parents died he brought Pip into the household. Contrary to Mrs. Gargary, who for lack of a better term, abuses Pip and makes sure his life is miserable (even though he is her brother), Joe is warm and friendly to Pip. He not only looks out for Pip but he also supports and encourages Pip's development. For example, when at the holiday dinner while Mrs. Gargary and Uncle Pumblechook are berating Pip, Joe calmly spoons Pip spoon after spoon of gravy.
Joe is also the village blacksmith. His trade and his connection to Pip's humble beginnings make him a very important character for the development of Pip's personna and a strong contrast to the theme that Dickens develops (to be discussed in the synthesis post). When Pip runs into "his convict" in the marshes, the main reason he is spaired is so that he can return home and recover a file- one of Joe's tools- necessary to removing his shakel. This is extremely important since Able Magwitch, the convict, will become the reason that Pip has the chance to become a gentleman. Equally important is the contrast that Joe provides to the other characters in the story. Miss Havisham, Estella, Mr. Jaggers, and Uncle Pumblechook are all characters that are rotten. They are corrupted by wealth and social class which has destroyed their humanity for others. Miss Havisham is extremely wealthy and heartbroken, thus she raises Estella to be cold and manipulative as to wreck revenge on innocent men, Mr. Jaggers makes his living as a criminal lawyer while manipulating the people in his life with sheer force, Uncle Pumblechook is abusive of Pip until he comes into his "expectations", which he fully exploits (earlier after Pip is paid for attending to Miss Havisham, Pumblechook takes the Gargary family out to dinner with the money Pip was paid). Among all of these people, is our innocent Joe. He is oblivious of the wretchedness of these other people in his life and one of the only true characters within the whole novel. There are two very important instances that make this true. The first is when Pip is just a boy. Joe becomes Pip's only friend and they develop a special bond. While they eat their afternoon meal of bread and butter, the two after each bite put up the bread and compare bites with the other. A little ritual that builds their bond and eventually cares over into the forge when Pip becomes Joe's apprentice and they spend long hours staring into the hot coals together. The second instance is when Mr. Jaggers comes and informs Joe that Pip is to become a gentleman. In this moment, Joe is losing an apprentice and his one true friend he has had in life. Mr. Jaggers understands this and offers to pay him a compensation. What does Joe do? He accepts nothing. He lets Pip go. Asking for nothing in return, Joe allows Pip to move on and better himself. What does Pip do? He goes with Mr. Jaggers to become a gentleman and in the process he losses respect for Joe. He sees him as common and even asks Biddy (another orphan who Pip spent time educating himself with) to better Joe's manners. This was even beginning to happen before Pip was madea gentleman. After meeting Estella, he felt ashamed of his "common" background and his "rough hands and working boots". From then on he felt ashamed of himself. Joe on the otherhand, he has pride in his innocence he even says "if you can't get to being oncommon through going straight, you'll never get through it going crooked". He has pride in the work he does, the life he lives, and who he is. For some reason Pip can't understand that, and he will not understand until the very end of the book when he realizes that wealth only corrupts goodness and that the only truly good people he has ever meet in his life have not been wealthy lawyers or estate holders, but a convict, a blacksmith, and an orphan.

One Day to Define Them All

So we have discussed the way in which Great Expectations is narrated and who that narrator is, a male named Pip who starts of as an orphan and eventually becomes a well to do gentleman. (Although we have full insight into what Pip thinks and feels, how he hates when adults ruffel his hair or how his sister who is raising him treats him so poorly, we actually never get a phyiscal description of Pip. Interesting) This drastic change in status is arguably the main focus of the story and it is all thanks to a single act of Pips. One that occurs in the very beginning of the novel and is referenced to many times later throughout the story and Pip's development. That one act is simple: helping a man in need. This is a common trend in stories, the main character aids a helpless wanderer. That wanderer, unbeknownst to the character is actually an angel, a milionaire, a princess, or someone who later returns the favor and makes the life of the main character more intersting. This is exactly what happens to Pip, although with a little bit of a spin. Pip is out wandering the marshes on a cold foggy day, he is actually observing the graves of his dead parents, and he is attackd by a convict who turns him upside down and shakes his pockets empty. Afer doing so, the convict threatens to have Pip's "heart and liver out" if he doesn't bring him a file for his shakel and food the following day. Pip being a young, friegthend orphan rushes home (he lives with his sister who makes sure he knows how much of a pain he is) and plots to steal a file from his "father" Joe and food from the pantry. He ends up being successful and the convict is saved from starvation and disappears off into the fog. Yes! Done! Pip is free from having his liver and heart removed, well not exactly. He actually accompanies a group of soldiers later along with his father figure, Joe Gargary, to search out the convict and is witness to his rearrest. This 'convict' or reference to the action that took place on the marshes is  then hint to on and off again for the rest of the story. For example, Pip goes to the Three Jolly Bargemen, the local pub in town, and while there he meets a secret stranger who stirs his drink with a file. A very peculiar thing to do, if you do not get the reference back to the convict in which Pip gave a file. This stranger also bestows Pip with a shilling, a shilling wrapped in two one pound notes. A not very large gift, but a gift none the less. Possibly repaying the favor that Pip did for him? The next rather odd encounter that Pip has is when a man named Jaggers enters town and tells Pip and Joe that Pip has come into a great deal of money. Such a great deal in fact, that he is going to be made a gentleman with land and have "great expectations" (I always love it when the title of the book reappears within the novel). However, Pip is not to know who the mysterious benefactor is, until the benefactor sees it right to make himself/herself known. Until then Pip is bestowed in to the custody of Mr. Jagggers and travels to London to be educated. In an effort of Pip's to see Estella, essentially the reason he wants to become a gentleman (as he said earlier to another orphan he grew up with so that in order to become worthy of Estella he would have to improve his position), he runs into two convicts being taken off to prison ships. One of which Pip recognizes as "his convict". He over hears him talking about paying a a man to "find out that boy that had fed him and kept his secret", this is undoubtly "his convict". Now upon Pip's twenty first birthday, Jaggers tells him that he has come into the bulk of his "expectations" and that he shall recieve five hundred pounds as a yearly allowance from now on. That is a pretty substational amount of money when two pounds was a big deal earlier while Pip lived with Joe. Here, while in London, Pip meets his mysterious benefactor. It is, in fact, the convict that Pip helped those many years ago on the marshes. His name is Abel Magwitch and he plays a large part in the underlying them that Dickens incorporates into Great Expectations, one of which the true goodness in someone comes from their soul and that wealth corrupts that soul.

The First Taste of Expectation

I am reading, as you already know, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. In this first blog I would like to do two things 1) discuss a little bit about the time the book is set in and the man behind the writing and 2) discuss the form of narration that is used within the story. First, Charles Dickens was one of the most successful English authors to ever live and Great Expectations was his best selling book. Dickens lived in the early 18th century in Landport, Southern England. He was one of eight children and lived a relatively good life, yet he only attended formal school for three years. With  little formal education, his experiences were largely a part his work and are seen throughout Great Expectations and the life of Pip. Now enough backstory, (I like the ability to actually play around with informal writing and blogging) I want to discuss the narration of Great Expectations and how it is used to tell the story since it has been such a large part of our classroom discussions of late. To get started, the narrator of the story is a boy named Pip, Philip Pirrip is his realy name but it is shortened to be just Pip since no one likes to say it. The entire story is told in first person, never shifting away from Pip and always radiating out around him. We as readers get a very good sense of what Pip is feeling and we see through Pip's eyes. While this gives us a great deal of insight into the life and tale of Pip, it forces Dickens to use Pip's observations to characterize the other characters within the book and all events revolve around his bias. For example, Pip is sent to a woman's home, named Miss Havisham, who is extremely wealthy and lives in isolation. After being led through the dark house by Estella with a single candle, a women around Pip's age who he falls in love with (dictating the actions and progression of Pip, but that is for later), he arrives in a room that "looks as if it has stopped in time". All of the clocks in the room are stopped exactly at the same time, the table is arranged for a dinner that never happened and a large wedding cake is just sitting and rotting on top. It appears as if light has not entered into the room for decades. Miss Havisham is wearing a yellowed and crumbling old wedding dress, which she never changes out of. These observations are made through the eyes of Pip and thus our perception and understanding of Miss Havisham is 'forged' by Pip (his father figure is a blacksmith). Now that brings me to the part that intrigues within the novel. Since Dickens has created this character named Pip and he uses him as an outlet to dictate the story, we need to view the entire story as a commentary that is designed by Dickens and worked out through Pip. Almost exactly like Briony in Atonement. Which brings up the question, just like how we couldn't necessarily trust what Briony said because she wrote in the first person and we were ultimately bomboozled in the end, can we not trust Pip? Or does the story that he occupies validate his authenticity? I believe it does validate his authenticity becaues we are reading the 'story of Pip'. Of course there is an underlying theme that has social criticism, an over arching message that Dickens is trying to convey, hidden subtleties that Pip doesn't pick up on, but we are being brought along through the story on Pip's shoulder. Therefore, as THE narrator, we have to make our assumptions and conclusions based off of what Pip tells us and what Pip experiences. This makes for a very interesting story that truly feels like a powerful and great work of fiction.