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Great Expectations

Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens which tells the reader how Pip,the main character, was transformed from a poor boy into a gentleman at London.All over the period of his initiation, Pip interacts with different kind of people fromwhom he learns all the moral values he needs in life. Friends or enemies, simpleknowledge or strangers, each of them teaches Pip a lesson about life and what hemust do to accomplish thegreat expectations he had at the beginning of the novel.

The action of the novel starts when Pip, an orphan boy, who lives with his sisterand her blacksmith husband, Joe, helps an escaped convict, Magwitch, to get rid ofhis chains. The little boy is often taken to play at Satis House, where he meets MissHavisham, the lady of the house, and Estrella, her young ward. One day he finds

out that he has a secret benefactor who is going to pay for his education. Pip leavesfor London where he becomes a real gentleman. Here he finds out that Magwitchhas been his benefactor all this time. The former convict eventually dies and hisentire fortune is confiscated by the Crown. From now on Pip has no money and heleaves abroad to earn his living. Back in his village after years, he runs into Estrellaand they decide to get married.

On his way to becoming a real gentleman, Pip meets different kind of people withdifferent opinions about life. From all of them he succeeds to make his own visionof the world. Miss Havisham, the lady of the Satis House, who had been lied by her

husband-to-be, has a pessimistic opinion about life. With a kind of boast in herwords, she always talks about the event that destroyed her life and all she can thinkabout is revenge. Thats why she uses Pip to defy her destiny: a man had brokenher heart; therefore Estrella is to break Pips heart. So, Pip, from the little boy that

played games at the Satis House, becomes the toy which Miss Havisham plays withto be quits to her fate. Even if Pip suffers from this experience, he learns morethings from misss acts and selfishness. One of them is love. Pip loves Estrella,even if she is cold and cruel, and doesnt cease to love her not even when she getsmarried with Drummle. Another important thing he learns from Miss Havisham isthat one mustfightto have something (Estrellas love) and not always can one keep

a thing that belongs to him (Misss Havisham groom). So, the little boys initiationstarts with a cruel reality: that life is unpredictable and you have to be prepared foreverything.Magwitch is not only the convict Pip helps to escape, in the marshes from hisnative village, but his benefactor and Estrellas father. From him he learns thatacceptance and gratitude should overcome any prejudice one could have and thatonly by being thankful one can keep his friends. So, thanks to Magwitch Pip

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realizes how unfair was he with his old friend Joe and reconciles with him.Joe, the blacksmith wearing the same stained apron and little Pips best friend, is asimple man who cant even learn how to write, who is too shy to talk to MissHavisham and who is ashamed to be around Pip when he is with his new friend,Herbert. But, despite his simplicity, he teaches Pip the lesson of dignity. Even he

wasnt a gentleman whatsoever; he was dignified and had nothing to be ashamedof, except the contrast between him and Pip.Both Joe and Magwitch love Pip and they are generous with him, but Magwitchuses Pip to gratify his own ambitions. Both he and Miss Havisham use Pip andcarry out experiments on him. Magwitch wants to defy society: a convict will havecreated a gentleman; and Miss Havisham wants to defy her fate.

At first Pip is caught in a web of feelings: he is afraid of and fascinated by MissHavisham, terrorized and disgusted by Magwitch, ashamed of Joe. His moralvalues will be set right later and only then he becomes a gentleman. Only afterlearning the lessons of dignity, gratitude, acceptance, perseverance and love Piphave accomplished hisgreat expectations.