Great Expectations Character - Pip

Great Expectations Character - Pip

1. Most important character

   • protagonist
     • Pip's actions make up the main plot of the novel
   • Narrator
     • Pip's thoughts and attitudes shape the reader’s perception of the story
     • Story told many years after the events of the novel toke place
     • Judges his own past harshly, no credit given

2. Personality

   • Immature
   • Romantic
   • Good conscience
   • Deeply wants to improve himself
     • Educational
     • Moral
     • Social
     • Join upper class
       • Doesnt want to be poor
         • Pip immediately begins to act as he thinks a gentleman is supposed to act, which leads him to treat Joe and Biddy snobbishly and coldly.
         • Ashamed of his background after seeing Satis House
   • At heart very generous
   • Sympathetic

3. Influences

   • Miss Havisham
     • largely overshadows his basic goodness
   • Estella
     • Loves and wants to marry her
       • loses Estella to the brutish nobleman Drummle
     • Pip wants to become a gentleman so that they can be together

4. Developments

   • Beginning
     • Ashamed of his background and family
     • Wants to be a gentleman and have his fortune
       • Upper class
   • End
     • He realizes behavior as a gentleman has caused him to hurt the people who care about him most
     • Realizes him and Estella will never be