Three Stages of Pip’s Development in the Novel “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens

Pip, the central character of the novel “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens (1812-1870), a great Victorian novelist, is haunted by great expectations of being a ‘gentleman’ from his very childhood. As he grows throughout the novel, he develops and matures from a naive, young boy to a moral gentleman by the three main stages that take place throughout his life. We are now going on to deal more thoroughly with what happens to Pip during the three stages of his great expectations.

The first stage Pips development goes from the beginning of the novel, when Pip is a small boy, until he leaves for London to be a gentleman and live out his great expectations.In this stage of Pip's life he is young and does not understand what it means to be a gentleman and how it can affect his life.  Hebasically asks for three wishes: education, wealth, and social advancement.  These three wishes are mostly so he can impress Estella, whom Miss Havishammoulds as a way of wreaking revenge on the male sex.

As Estella confesses:

    'I have no heart …'

Pip does not want to be a lowly blacksmith like Joe.  He wants to be intelligent.  He desperately wants to be considered a person of high importance. As he says:

    “I want to be a gentleman … I am not at all happy as I am. I am disgusted with my calling and with my life.”

 At the end of this stage he moves to London and begins to see the problems in the fog ahead.

 In the second stage, Pip becomes able to be educated and wealthy in London and begins to cultivate the bad habits of a typical wealthy and idle young man. He, then, starts realizing his great expectations to be imperfect and disappointing. His expectations have already taken control of him, and he becomes dissatisfied with what he desires just a week earlier. As time goes on, he gets very little time for other people outside of his tiny circle.

His relationship with Estella worsens.  As Estella does not return his feelings, his love for her develops an obsession. He expresses his inner agony when Estella decides to marry Drummle:

    “All done, all gone! So much was done and gone…, the light of the day seemed of a darker colour …”

Soon Pip’s sister dies and he is called back for her funeral. He briefly stays at the forge, but quickly leaves again after insulting Joe and Biddy. He finds he is embarrassed to be around them. As he himself confesses:

    "I lived in a state of chronic uneasiness respecting my behaviour to Joe. My conscience was not by any means comfortable about Biddy."

 Pip also begins to spend too much money and goes into debt even with his secret benefactor giving him money.

The second stage of his life ends with an unwelcome visit of Magwitch, the convict he assisted on the marshes to him.  He reveals to Pip that he, not Miss Havisham, is the true source of his fortune as secret benefactor.

 In the third stage of development, Pip tries to repair all his relationships with people he mistreated and loved. Here we find a kind, gentle, sympathetic as well as hardworking Pip who extend his helping hand to everyone who needs. Such as he helps Herbert find a good job even spending own money.  He also tries to help Magwitch escape though he cannot.  Pip makes Magwitch happy before he dies telling him that he has a daughter and that he is in love with her.  Pip also helps Miss Havisham discover the error of her ways. As he says:

    “I entreated her to rise, and got my arms about her to help her up”

 She is happy. Pip has shown her this and would like to give him some money to help him with his debts.  Pip does not take the offer and knows that he himself must work hard to pay off his debts.

  Pipthen goes to his home in the marshes.  Joe pays off all his debts and their relationship is now repaired.  As he expresses his gratefulness to them:

    “Joe and Biddy both… receive my humble thanks for all you have done for me”

Pip also meets Little Pip, the symbol of rebirth.  Pip fixed all his problems decides to live with the people he loved, Joe and Biddy, his family.

In Great Expectations Dickens speaks against the Victorian fascination with the dandy by agreeing to the opinion that it is no part of a gentleman's privilege to live on other people's toil. He does so by showing how Pip turns into an idle young gentleman form hard working fellow and comes to a bad end.  Whereas later when he starts to work hard again he is rewarded with his greatest expectation, Estella and he has become a gentleman.

To conclude we can say that Charles Dickens shows three stages of Pip’s journey to his great expectations of being a gentleman. At the initial stage he was very innocent, then in second step, he gathers experience through sufferings and in third phase, he finally reaches his desired goal.

This paper is prepared for you by Talim Enam, BA (Hons), MA in English.

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