Notesale: Turn your study into money

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Themes
Alienation and Loneliness
Beneath the Dickens' major theme of a great respect for wealth is an
analysis of the fate of the outsider
...
Joe,
Magwitch, Estella, and Pip himself — have suffered loneliness, but each character
reacts differently
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Pip himself is often threatened with death
by his sister and again by his convict, Magwitch
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Joe Gargery is Pip's only friend on the marshes, and even after
Pip is introduced to city life friends are few compared to the number of those who
are coldly uncaring or dangerous
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Estella plays with Pip like a cat toys with a mouse,
certainly not like an equal or playmate, for that is not Miss Havisham's intention
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Mrs
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She lives on the marshes among rough,
working class men and has no friends but Joe and no female acquaintances
whatever
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As Pip's sister, Mrs
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Indeed, Mrs
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Aside from these obvious loners, each struggling to find his or
her place in the world, Jaggers also stands alone, an upholder of the law but to an
inhuman degree
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No matter how
openly Pip offers friendship, Jaggers maintains a distant attitude and instead
admires the wealthy but evil Bentley Drummle for knowing what he wants and
getting it
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Only when Pip has
exhausted his expectations and has no other direction to turn does he realize that
he is quite lucky to have two good friends who love him for himself and can forget
about his social status
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Although this hard-earned knowledge was not one of his
original "expectations," Pip finds that this is far greater wealth than any
benefactor's inheritance
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An orphan living with his sister in near poverty, he dreams of
great wealth
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He submits to the insults of Mrs
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Wopsle, Estella and Miss Havisham's relatives
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Later, he is anxious and delighted to
escape that life and go to the city where he can establish a new identity as a
gentleman in his own right
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Pip" and treated well
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"
What is Pip avenging but the poverty to which he was born? Yet when Joe comes
to London, Pip is ashamed of him, embarrassed that Joe now calls him "Sir" yet
distressed by Joe's low-brow speech and country clothes
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Even after learning that the convict is responsible for Pip's rise in
status and his great allowance, Pip does not want to be seen with the old man
because Magwitch does not fit into Pip's new identity
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Pip frequently returns to the village to visit
Miss Havisham and Estella, and to enjoy a gentleman's treatment from the
shopkeeper Trabb and Trabb's boy who once sneered at Pip
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In time, Pip
is ashamed of that and apologizes to both Magwitch and Joe
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But this cannot
happen until he has endured greater suffering and pangs of conscience than he
ever knew as a weakling boy on the marsh
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Once cruel, she ends by suffering from the realization that she
has wasted her life on hatred and vengeance, yet it is too late for her to enjoy her
change of heart
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Another good model comes from Wemmick, who adores his old father
and shares care of the Aged Parent with Pip on at least one occasion when,
ironically, Pip is avoiding contact with Magwitch
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When Pip finally returns to the marsh
to propose marriage to Biddy and to thank Joe, he finds them already married
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to earn his way in the
world and to repay Joe for covering some of his bills
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Having been first a pauper, then a man of the leisure class,
and finally a middle-class worker, Pip is finally certain of his place in the world by
knowing true contentment and self-worth
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He has yet to learn that such power is not equal to the strength of being
true to one's convictions, as Pip learns
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Mrs
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Yet Pip has not been
spared numerous encounters with "The Tickler," his sister's cane
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Joe suffer a violent beating before her
death
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Magwitch, once a thug on the streets of London, is stalked by his former
accomplice
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Also, Molly is
"tamed" by Jaggers
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But she is a
powerless victim who never learns the fate of her daughter except that the child
has been adopted into a wealthy household where she will receive the food and
shelter Molly cannot provide
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A victim
of Miss Havisham's icy character instead of enjoying the love of a mother, Estella
is first the abused and then the abuser of both Pip and Miss Havisham
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Yet, finally, at least in the
original ending, Estella is a potentially better mother to her daughter than either
her own mother or Miss Havisham ever were to her
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And a lesser
character, Trabb's boy, insults Pip and his first good suit of clothes
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In this way, Trabb's boy is both the
victim of class distinction in his society and a victimizer of the upper class in the
only way he can be
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Pip himself must realize that he has victimized people by
treating them as lesser creatures
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He hurts
Biddy by telling her that he could never love her, even though he returns
intending to ask her to marry him after he has lost all of his money
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Trabb's boy is not Pip's only
example
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Yet Pip doubts
that Jaggers has much to enjoy when he goes home at the end of the day
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Guilt and Innocence
With the law as a backdrop for much of the action, Pip finds that guilt and
innocence are much more complex than he first thought
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When they do, they are much different than
Pip first supposed, for he must first deal with his own conscience outside of the
English courts
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Everyone who
acts unjustly in the novel is made to either suffer and repent or to die without
forgiveness
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While Pip is owed an apology by Mrs
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The same could be said of Miss Havisham, who
dies powerless, alone, and begging Pip's forgiveness
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Pip pays for his carelessness by suffering and nearly
dying, and by falling from great wealth back into poverty
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Estella is too late to reconcile with Miss Havisham,
but she finally treats Pip as an equal in both endings to the novel
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While the law is not kind to Magwitch, he accepts
it
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That he is Pip's own convict is his
redeeming quality, and in turn Magwitch has saved Pip's humility by revealing
that a criminal, not a lady, is providing the money to fulfill Pip's grand
expectations of joining the upper class
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He could have easily spent the money on himself instead of
Pip
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Less obvious are those who have never learned what Pip has found
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Guilty of not listening to his heart, Jaggers will
live out his days by guarding his words and emotions
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Told through Pip's voice, the story shows that the power of
forgiveness is great, for it is by mercy to others that one is forgiven
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As Pip concludes about himself by
remembering Herbert Pocket, Jr
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" Or
as Estella says to Pip upon meeting him again, "I am greatly changed
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"

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