Great Expectations

Riya Bhatt October 18,2013
Great Expectations In Charles Dickens's Great Expectations, Herbert Pocket describes Pip as "a good fellow, with impetuosity and hesitation, boldness and diffidence, action and dreaming, curiously mixed in him." Although Pip does not agree with this description, I believe Herbert's depiction is accurate. Pip's impetuousness can be seen by his comment, "We spent as much money as we could, and got as little for it as people could make up their minds to give us." (Dickens, 250).This reveals how Pip spends his money without considering the possibility of running into a huge debt. Additionally, Pip shows hesitation when he attends his sister's funeral and promises Biddy to return but suspects, "...that I should not come back, and that Biddy was quite right, all I can say is —-they were quite right too." (Dickens, 261). Pip demonstrates boldness when he encounters the second convict and though he is terrified he continues on to find his convict to give him the file and food. He says, "'It's the young man!' I thought, feeling my heart shoot as I identified him. I dare say I should have felt a pain in my liver, too, if I had known where it was." (Dickens, 16). Pip shows his lack of confidence towards Estella when he drops her off to Richmond and says, "And still I stood looking at the house, thinking how happy I should be if I lived there with her, and knowing that I never was happy with her, but always miserable." (Dickens, 247). Furthermore, Pip continues to fantasize about Estella and is thrilled by her presence when he visits Miss Havisham. He admits, "I stammered something about the pleasure I felt in seeing her again, and about my having looked forward to it for a long, long time." (Dickens, 215). In spite of Herbert's accurate description of Pip, I believe that we know more about Pip's inner character than Herbert does at this point because as a reader, we're introduced to Pip's behaviour and feelings from his point of view. For example, we know how Pip truly feels about Herbert when he says, "There was something wonderfully hopeful about his general air, and something that at the same time whispered to me he would never be very successful or rich." (Dickens, 162). I feel that Pip, now that he is a "gentleman", has become an arrogant and selfish person that judges others according to social status and wealth including Joe . This is disturbing because in the beginning of the novel, we see the close bond between Joe and young Pip. Despite his change in behaviour, I still think Pip has the ability to once again become the caring person he was as a child.