Great Expectations Themes

Great Expectations Themes

1. Ambition and Self Improvement

   • Moral
     • Desires to be morally good
     • extremely hard on himself when he acts immorally and feels powerful guilt that spurs him to act better in the future
     • When he leaves for London, he torments himself about having behaved so wretchedly toward Joe and Biddy
   • Social
     • In love with Estella
     • Longs to become Estella's social class
     • Fantasises becoming a gentleman
       • Encouraged by Mrs. Joe and Pumblechoock
       • Forms basic plot of novel
       • Dickens can gently saterize class system of his era
       • No more satisfying or moral than being Joe's apprentice
   • Educational
     • Social
     • Full education is a requirement for a gentleman
       • If he's an igorant country boy is cant be a gentleman
       • Wants to win over Estella's love
       • As Pip becomes more educated he becomes more arrogant - see's himself as superior to others
     • Learns to read in Mr Wopsle's Aunt's school as a young boy
     • Takes lessons with Mathew Pocket as a young man
     • Tutored by Biddy
       • Education can be a good thing
     • Mrs. Joe doesn't want Joe to be educated
       • 'For fear I might rise'
         • She'll loose control of him
     • Dickens questions whether education is a good thing
       • Most educated people are unpleasent
         • Drummle is rude and cruel
         • Compeyson uses education for criminal activity
   • Social and education improvements are of no worth to ones worth
     • Conscience and affection are to be valued
     • From examples of Joe, Biddy, Magwich
   • Many characters have ambition to go up in society
     • Due to the industrial revolution it becomes easier to move social class
       • By working hard and earning money
   • Ambitious characters use each ther
     • Mr Pumblechoock wants to mix with the top level of society
       • Takes Pip to Satis house - keen to meet Miss Havisham
     • Pocket family (apart fromm Herbert and Mathew) are ambitious
       • Social climbers - suck up to Miss Havisham in hopes to inherite money
     • Several characters use Pip to get ahead in Society
     • Mrs. Joe takes all Pip's money from Havisham
       • Makes him go back to get more
     • Mr Pumblechoock takes Pip to see Miss Havisham
       • Even though he knows she is strange and scary
   • Less ambitious charcaters are usually happier
     • Joe is kind and loyal
       • He is happy to be a blacksmith and doesn't want to get in the way of Pip's future
         • He gets ahappy ending and marries Biddy
     • Biddy didn't spend the whole time dreaming of the future
       • Concentrates on helping others
         • Life grdually improves - has a good teaching job, marries Joe
     • Herbet wants to get a job of insruing ships and then work way up to having a 'Perfect fleet'
       • Dickens shows having ambition isn't a bad thing - but you've got to be prepared to work hard
     • Characters like Joe, Biddy and Herbert work hard to improve their lives
       • Joe pays off all Pip's debt
         • Dickens contrasts these 2 ways of life to show dignity of working hard for a living
   • Ambition is Pip's driving force
     • At Satis house
       • Estella describes him as a 'common labouring boy' and treat him iike dirt
         • Pip is upset and wants ti impress Estella
           • He is driven to become a gentleman
     • Pip beleives he needs: education, money and manners to be a gentleman
       • He forgets about love, friendship and loyalty
     • Dickens tries to balance Pip's character
       • Show's how Pip's ambition and wealth change him
         • Without making him so awful the reader dislike him
           • H emakes the reader feel sympathy in the opening chapters
             • Presented as weak and defensless
   • Pip becomes happy when he looses hsi ambition
     • When Pip becomes ill all hope is lot for him being a rich man
       • Finally reunited with Joe and feels sorry for his behaviour
     • Pip works hard after he looses all his money
       • Goes to work with Herbert in Egypt
         • They don't make 'Mints of money' but they do 'Very well'
           • Pip becomes one of several characters who work hard and are happy
             • Joe and Wemmick
     • After Pip looses his money he realises what is really important
       • Relationships

2. Social Class

   • Pip's realisation: wealth and status are less important than affection loyalty and inner wort
     • Realises this when understands ones social class isn't connected to ones character
       • Dummble is of the upper class but a lout
       • Magwitch is a persecuted convict has deeper inner worth
       • Wants to be rich to be a gentleman
         • Realises that not what a gentleman is
   • Class system post Industrial revolution
   • Dickens ignores the nobility and the hereditary aristocracy, in favour of characters whose fortunes have been earned through commerce
     • (He doesn't focus on peoples whose wealth is inherited (princes) but on self made people)
       • Even Misss Havishams fortunes were made by the brewery connected to Satis house
       • Connects social class to idea of work and self advancedment
         • Subtly reinforces overarching theme of self worth and development
   • Explores social class ranging from criminals, poor peseants, middle class and the very rich
   • Pip is treated differently when people find out he's rich/or not
     • Pumblechook
       • Calls him 'Boy' and 'Rumple my hair'
       • Calls him 'Dear young friend' and 'Can't stop shaking my hand'
     • Tailor
       • Doesn't think Pip is 'Worth his while
       • Can't do enough for Pip
     • Blue Boar Inn
       • His 'Usual bedroom' is full gets a room 'Among the pigeons'
       • His room is probably being used by someone 'With expectations'
   • Upper class are obsessed about looks
     • Miss Havisham's relative Camilla complains a mourning father (of his dead wife) as not dressing his children in 'the deepest of trimmings' on their mourning clothes
       • Shows upper class can be shallow and ridiculous
     • When Pip buys new clothes for traveling to London in they don't fit
       • 'Rather a disappointment'
         • Show that Pip doesn't belong in the upper class
           • Realises and goes back to the marshes at the end of book
     • Dickens satirises people who are obsessed with social class

3. Crime Guilt and Innocence

   • Shown through the Convicts and Jaggers
   • Symbol for Pip's inner struggle
     • With moral conscience and Institutional Justice system
   • As social class becomes a superficial value that Pip must look beyond in a better way to live his life
     • The external trappings of the Justice System become a superficial standard that Pip must look beyond to trust his inner conscience
       • Magwitch scares Pip because he is a criminal
         • Pip is guilty for helping him because he's scared of the police
           • Pip discovers his inner nobilty and is able to look past him as a criminal
             • Pip helps Magwich evade the law
             • Replaces an external standard of value with an inner one
   • Dickens was a lifelong critic of the British legal system
     • He thought it was corrupt and harsh and only encouraged crimmanls to re offend
     • Has a distrust in lawyers
       • First hand experience of the effect of their decisions
         • Father jailed for debt
   • Pip is surrounded by Crime
     • First chapter Magwitch makes Pip steal and file and food for him
     • The leg iron Magwitch files off in the marshes is used to attack Mrs. Joe
       • A constant reminder of Pip's guilt for helping a convict
     • Pip's village is located on the marshes near Hulks were he sees Gibbets used for hanging a pirate
       • In London he lives near Newgate prison and sees Gallows used for hanging people
         • Can't escape prisons and hanging
     • Language used to describe Pip's apprentice
       • 'Bound' 'Red-handed
     • 2 convicts on the coach when he goes to Kent
     • Motifs of crime haunt Pip till Magwitch returns
   • The law wasn't fair
     • The court saw Compeyson as a gentleman that had been led astray my Magwitch and given a shorter sentence
     • Magwitch got longer because he's lower class and had been to prison before
       • Judge thought he would reoofend
         • 'More likely to come to worse'
     • Jaggers shows how corrupt the law can be
       • He is famous because he can get guilty people off the hook
         • Would use hired witnesses to give false statements
     • Jaggers is prepared to bend the truth to win a case
       • Want to make money and be successful
         • Also bends the truth to help people escape a life of crime and misery
           • Miss Havisham's adoption of Estella
   • All characters get what they deserve
     • Magwitch dies happy
       • Pip by his side knowing his daughter is alive and a lady
     • Joe and biddy are nice throughout the novel
       • End up happily married with children
     • Compeyson ends up drowning in the Themes
       • Jack searches for his body to steal his stockings
     • Drummble mistreat Estella
       • Killed by a horse he mistreats
   • Characters feel guilty for what they have done
     • Miss Havisham deliberately makes Pip miserable by leading him to marry Estella
       • Teaches Estella to never love anyone
         • Admits her guilt
           • Repeats 'What have I done'
     • Estella asks for Pips forgiveness
       • Realises what she has taken when rejecting him
         • Feels guilty for treating him badly
     • Not all characters are guilty
       • Compeyson destroys Miss Havishams life
       • Drummble mistreats Estella
         • Don't hear about them feeling sorry
           • Both get what what's coming and are killed brutally
     • Dickens questions whether some crimes are justifyed
       • Herbert and Pip help Magwitch escape
       • Magwitch kills Compeyson
         • Sense that it's fair - not punished b legal system
     • Dickens show character as being guilty
       • Evokes sympathy
         • Deserve to be forgiven
   • Characters who feel guilty for their actions make up for them
     • Pip makes up for rejecting Magwitch
       • Looking after him when he's dying
     • Pip make up for treating Joe badly
       • Asking him for frogiveness
     • Estella learns to appreciate Pip in a bad marriage to Drummle
       • Begs for forgiveness
         • End story as friends
     • Miss Havisham apologises to Pip
       • Tries to make it up by paying for Herbert's job
         • Tries to put it right but still dies after he fire
           • This could have happened due to locking herself in the house and has a 'Profound unfitness for the earth
     • Dickens believe that novels should encourage people to act in the right way
       • After doing something wrong you can still be forgiven and have a happy future
         • if you put things right

4. Sophistication

   • Pip becomes obsessed with the ideas of become sophisticated
     • And takes risks to do so
   • When pip first meets Estella he becomes acutely self conscious
     • 'I was a common labouring boy: that my hands were coarse, that my boots were thick pg59
   • When he moves to London he is opened to a new world
     • So crowded with people and so brilliantly lighted'
       • Quickly begins to contract expensive habits'
         • After spending money on personal servant and fancy clothes
           • Falls into debt and damages Herbert's finances
   • Tries to avoid anyone who might undermine his reputation as a young gentleman
   • Sophistication is revealed as a shallow and superficial value
     • Leaves Pip lonely and misserable

5. Family

   • Pip and Estella both grow up as orphans
     • Pip grows with love and support from Joe
       • Fails to see value of unconditional love
         • Reconciles with Joe understanding mistakes
     • Estella grows with damaging values from Miss Havisham
       • Gradually learns from experience what it takes to care for someone
     • Both learn how to trust, love and have a good relationship
       • Growing up
     • Both made mistakes and have to iive with them
       • Helps give them perspective on what is truly important in life
         • 'Suffering has been stronger than all other teachings'
   • Characters who give love find love
     • Joe loves Pip even though they're not related
       • Biddy loves Pip even when he doesn't notice
         • Both end up married together and content
     • Herbert marries Clara
       • Even though his family doesn't think she's good enough for him
         • Build a happy life together
     • Wemmick treats his father with huge affection
     • Wemmick has a loyal friendship with Pip
       • Happily married to Miss Skiffins
   • Some characters are unable to find love
     • Mrs. Joe beats Pip and Joe with the 'Tickler' and isn't ever kind to them
     • Estella's been trained to burry her feelings
       • Tells Pip she 'Has no heart'
     • Miss Havisham Flatters and praises Estella but doesn't show much love herself
       • All these characters have bad relationships
         • Mrs. Joe is attacked
         • Estella is physically abused by Druummle
         • Miss Havisham is rejected by Estella
           • Makes them realise how important loving relationships are
             • Mrs. Joe's temper greately improved
             • Estella regrets throwing Pip's love away when she was 'Ignorant of it's worth'
             • Miss Havisham asks for Pip's forgiveness
     • A lot of characters that can't love are women
       • Dickens doesn't portray women sympathetically
         • Antithetical of a woman
   • Pip's relationship with Estella
     • Estella is reason Pip think he isn't good enough
       • Her comments on his 'Coarse hands' and 'Thick boots'
         • Make him ambitious and obsessed with social class
     • It stops him realising Biddy loves him and they'd probably be happily married together
     • His loyalty pays off when they become friends
       • Although reader left wondering what will happen next
   • Pip has 2 important relationships
     • Pip is the first real friend Joe has
       • When Pip grows to become a gentleman Pip feels awkward to be around his lower-class past
         • Avoids Joe, but Joe stays loyal
       • Pip's friendship with Joe teaches Pip that friendship is more important than money and social class
     • Pip and Hebert fight the first time they meet
       • They then become friends when Pip goes to London
         • Pip ends up working for Herbert in Egypt to pay off debts
       • Pips friendship with Herbert shows Pip how to be independent and responsible for himself
         • Herbert has to earn for what his worked for unlike Pip
   • Pip has several father figures
     • Pip's relationship with Joe and Magwitch show him that loyalty and friendship is more important than Money and social class
     • Pip is ashamed of Joe
       • Joe looks after Pip when he is ill
         • Pays off all his debts even though he is a poor blacksmith
     • Magwitch isn't always a good father figure
       • Forces Pip to steal
         • And what he does is largely motivated by his desire to get revenge on society
           • Miss Havisham isn't a good motherly figure
             • Exploits Estella to get revenge on men
   • Pip has to learn what true love and friendships are
     • Young Pip is immature and values money, class and cares what Higher class people think of him
       • The older, more mature Pip gets, realises other things are more important: kindness, taking care of others, loyalty
     • Pip learns what is important in life when Magwitch is dying in prison
       • Magwitch supported him for years without knowing who he was and risked his lide to see Pip
     • Pip repays Herbert for his friendship by getting him a job
     • Repays Joe and Biddy for their love and loyalty by begging for forgiveness

6. Education

   • Viewed as a force of social mobility and personal growth in the novel
   • Joe and Biddy use it to pursue new opportunities
     • Shows education in a good light
     • Takes advantage to gather as much education as can
       • Pip observes that she 'Learns everything i learn'
       • Becomes a school teacher
       • Teaches Joe to read+write
   • Pip receives an education that allows him to advance into a new social light
     • Improves his mind without supporting his character
     • Pip's education doesn't provide him with practical skill or common sense
       • Pip and Herbert get into debt
   • Pip's learning of who his benefactor is changes him into the man he wants to be
     • Not his education