Great Expectations Free Essays

string(48) " that his good fortune comes from this convict\." â€Å"Great Expectations† was written in the mid 19th century by the world famous novelist Charles Dickens. Of key significance is the relationship between Pip (a growing young man) and Magwitch (an escaped convict) In Chapters One and Thirty-nine we read about the first and second meetings of the two characters, separated by 15 years. In Chapter one of Great Expectations Pip is a humble, polite orphan whose parents died before the time of photography and he now lives with his sister and her husband Mr Joe Gargery. We will write a custom essay sample on Great Expectations or any similar topic only for you Order Now As he has never seen his parents he uses the look of their tombstones to get an image of what they would have looked like. â€Å"The shape of the letters on my father’s, gave me an odd idea that he was a square, stout, dark man, with curly black hair. † This suggests Pip is a lonely sensitive boy and one who misses his parents and brothers. He also goes on to describe his mother as a freckled and sickly woman, not a very high opinion of his mother, maybe due to the fact that his sister (Mrs. Joe Gargery) is a cruel mother figure and an accurate guess at what his mother would look like if she were alive. He also describes his five brothers who all died at a young age and he buried under tombstones/lozenges all of them, he imagines born with their hands in their pockets lying on their backs. Pip goes on to describe the Kent marshes on which he lived as a very bleak place and a place that you could understandably imagine as being shivery cold during the autumn and winter. Living on this cold marsh would be hard it was in an inhospitable environment one cold Christmas eve. As Pip encounters a man that appears from amongst the graves, he is without a hat (Nineteenth century, gentlemen wore hats) and dressed shabbily with a great iron around his leg, it must have been clear to Pip that this man was a convict. The man was clearly shivering and not dressed suitably for the weather. Pip is then threatened on a number of occasions, â€Å"Hold your noise! † cried a terrible voice, as a man started up from among the graves at the side of the church porch. â€Å"Keep still, you little devil, or I’ll cut your throat! The convict, Magwitch, issues imperatives/commands and orders Pip around. The convict goes on to demand after much deliberation, a file and wittles (food), Pip has been threatened by the convict time and again and one of the convicts methods of intimidation is by threatening Pip with a person that goes by the name â€Å"Young man†, he compares this young man to himself by calling himself an Angel in comparison, this young man is said to be able to eat a child’s liver, creep his way into a boys room and when they feel safe under their covers tear them open. Pip is finally let go, to run home but meanwhile with the thought of this young man in his head thinking about how to get food from his cruel sister. Mrs. Joe Gargery is hard and Pip would be hit by the tickler (a wooden stick) if caught stealing food or even suggesting giving food to the convict (Magwitch). There is a significant change in the Pip of Chapter thirty-nine to the poor, labouring boy in Chapter one. Pip has now grown up into a 23 year old gentleman and 15 years have elapsed since his unnerving ordeal on the marshes where he used to live. He now has money from a mystery benefactor and time on his hands, he reads for hour upon hour for much of the day (Not many people could read in the 19th century. It was an important source of entertainment if you could read). Although Pip had his books, his flat mate Herbert had taken a journey to France, leaving him by himself, miserable and dispirited. The weather played a huge part in creating mood and atmosphere as it was menacing and miserable outside. The wind rushing up the river shook the house that night, like discharges of cannon, or breaking of a sea† which in an echo of Chapter 1 on the Kent marshes with the discharges of cannon signalling the escape of convicts. â€Å"The staircase lamps were blown out† showing it to be a murky crepuscular environment. Pip then hears the sound of a single footstep on a stair, making him apprehensive and connecting it with being crept up upon by his dead sister Mrs Joe Gargery in an earlier chapter. Eager to discover who or what it is, he remembers the storm outside and the pitch darkness before him. Remembering then, that the staircase-lights were blown out, I took up my reading-lamp and went out to the stair-head. Whoever was below had stopped on seeing my lamp, for all was quiet. † A voice answers him from the dark, eclipse staircase. Moving the lamp closer to the stranger Pip started to describe his face as being browned by exposure to the weather which suggested that he worked in the fields as a labouer, Pip is proud that he is no longer a â€Å"labouring boy† as Estella once called him. The conversation between Pip the stranger – Magwitch reveals that he is Pip’s benefactor. Pip is then shocked to believe that Magwitch his childhood tormentor is his benefactor and tries to find ways in which to involve Miss Havisham or any other respectable people that he could think of. The dialogue between them showed a significant role reversal, with Pip issuing orders and Magwitch like Pip in the marshes, holding on to some hope that he will be treated kindly by Pip. Pip doesn’t want anything to do with this man and repulses him. Yet as the conversation starts to end Pip starts to feel more and more incriminated. He wants this to have never of happened and regrets that his good fortune comes from this convict. You read "Great Expectations" in category "Papers" He starts to think to himself and use personification to describe the wind and the rain. It becomes apparent that Pip is startled and astounded by this change in events, yet still does not want Magwitch to suffer the punishment due to him if he were to be caught in England. (hanging). The mention in Chapter one of the gallows is a reminder to us of how cruelly prisoners could be treated in Victorian times. The escaped convict in Chapter one, was revealed to be named Magwitch, He had escaped from the prison ships and somehow made his way through the Kent marshes to the cemetery where Pip, was mourning his dead family, Magwitch had no real hope of surviving on the harsh, arctic temperatures and gale force winds of the marsh environment. He needed to convince this boy to get him food and some sort of tool to remove the great iron from his legs. The only way to ensure that Pip would do what he asked was to install fear in him. Magwitch cleverly using the idea of has protecting Pip from another young man. He ensured that Pip was going to get him some food and a file, but still had to sleep in the marshes over night holding onto some hope that Pip might come back. Magwitch in Chapter Thirty-nine is a rich man having made a fortune Australia and is now looking towards Pip for hope. He’s come all the way from Australia but is still a fugitive. He hopes that Pip will accept him into his life. Pip’s rejection of him as being his benefactor must have been a huge bombshell to Magwitch to see the repulsion on Pip’s face. Magwitch has spent 15 years dreaming of this meeting with â€Å"my boy† Pip. He’s grateful to â€Å"noble pip† that helped him on the marshes. He must be hurt by Pip’s rejection. On the sound of the second cannon another prisoner escapes from the prison ships. He gets to safety in the marshes and is found by Pip as a drunk convict. When Pip tells Magwitch of the man he is instantly startled and files away trying to get the great iron of his leg. Pip thinks this man was the young man Magwitch was using to intimidate him but it wasn’t. There is no clear explanation of why Magwitch and Compeyson (the 2nd escaped convict) have a rivalry but the scar on Compeyson’s cheek tells a possible story in itself. Many of a thing could have happened to result in Compeyson obtaining a scar on his cheek but the most common view is a most probable fight with Magwitch. Compeyson in chapter thirty-nine is a man still eagerly awaiting revenge on Magwitch (whose alias is Provis). He finds out that Magwitch has come to England and sees this as his chance to get Magwitch back into prison/executed. He follows the movements of magwitch for a substantial amount of time; Magwitch is caught and almost killed by a ship’s enormous rotating wheel. Provis succeeds in his revenge, and Magwitch later dies in a hospital bed beside Pip giving him a sort of blessing to marry his daughter Estella. There are powerful descriptions of settings throughout the novel, such as the dark murky Kent marshes and the dark staircase of the apartment in London. The Setting can have a huge effect on the imagination of the reader and the mood the author is trying to convey. During the early stages of chapter one Pip gives the readers a clear understanding of what the marshes looked like in the sentence, â€Å"Ours was the marsh country, down by the river, within, as the river wound, twenty miles of the sea. † This alone tells me the marshes are located in a not too dissimilar surrounding to London in the way a river passes through it, but as a source of information to tell if the area is widely populated or if the building are fairly new or maybe old. It doesn’t help that much, maybe a purposely written piece of setting by Charles Dickens, giving the reader the chance to use there own imaginative freedom to make a mental picture in their minds. â€Å"that the dark flat wilderness beyond the churchyard, intersected with dykes and mounds and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it, was the marshes; and that the low leaden line beyond, was the river†. Have feature of a horror story. Dickens sets a chilling mood to prepare the audience for something scary. The alliteration†low leaden line† the metaphor â€Å"savage lair† enhance the atmosphere of ominous brooding. Chapter thirty-nine opens with a setting of real importance. Without Dickens’ clever use of short and long sentences, repetition, metaphors and personification, Chapter Thirty-nine in my opinion wouldn’t be as effective and would reduce the whole climax of the chapter when Pip’s benefactor is revealed to him. â€Å"It was wretched weather; stormy and wet, stormy and wet; and mud, mud, mud, deep in all the streets. Day after day, a vast heavy veil had been driving over London from the East, and it drove still, as if in the East there were an Eternity of cloud and wind. So furious had been the gusts, that high buildings in town had had the lead stripped off their roofs; and in the country, trees had been torn up, and sails of windmills carried away; and gloomy accounts had come in from the coast, of shipwreck and death. Violent blasts of rain had accompanied these rages of wind, and the day just closed as I sat down to read had been the worst of all. † This single paragraph is a key component in the structure of this whole chapter. The opening sentence uses repetition and semi colons indicate how it should be read in a specific thrilling way. It creates a picture of a wilderness not too dissimilar to the settings in the bleak Kent marshes. Dickens describes this storm as a terrible event, the use of the word â€Å"Eternity† indicated a constant barrage of wind and cloud dominated the sky, a never ending attack of fury upon the rooftops of London. An enormous change can be seen in Pip from the small fragile boy in Chapter one to the snob and spoilt young man of Chapter Thirty-nine. This is a story of the development and change of Pip, Magwitch and Victorian Society. How to cite Great Expectations, Papers Great Expectations Free Essays Have you ever wonder how wealth can bring a person happiness and how it can change a person or does it make that person a better person who was once poor? Driving to a local grocery store for an example, to buy some food for your family to eat and at the register, you have a dollar left. So you decide to buy a lottery ticket and later that night watching TV, you out of million hit the jackpot which would change your life forever. Or just going to school everyday and doing your homework knowing that your family poor and have money problem, you kept up in school and later went to college and getting a master degree plus a well-pay career bring you wealth. We will write a custom essay sample on Great Expectations or any similar topic only for you Order Now Being poor to wealthy or being rich and staying rich as a child to an adult, does the wealth usually bring you happiness? In the novel â€Å"Great Expectation,† Pip is a character who as a child become a wealthy person from a poor background family. As he grew up in a poor childhood, an opportunity came up for him to become rich and surely he took that opportunity from a secret benefactor which was Magwitch, Pip convict. Now being wealthy, Pip thought that it would bring him closer to the girl he loved, Estella. But it didn’t. In return, he had more problems personally then before to face and wasn’t enjoying his wealthy life. Wealth brought him to the path of broken love and change him because if Pip didn’t take the job or opportunity to become rich at the Satis House where he first fell in love when he saw Estella. And now for him to get Estella, he has to change his old way of life to a higher class of people like Estella herself to even have a chance with her. (Chater 8) So according to Pip, wealth doesn’t bring happiness, but it regard only one person only Pip. The way he live in London, he look back at his childhood and old lifestyle, he realize what a terrible place he grew up in and was an embarrass to him. (Part II of the novel until the end of the book or Chapter 20) When Pip was poor, his relationship with Joe was like father to son. But when Pip became wealthy, the relationship grew further apart until a point where Pip became a higher classmen then Joe which he was at the low classmen of people. Looking back now, Pip again realize how Joe was an embarrassment to him now and that he couldn’t socialize with Joe. From what he realize, Pip didn’t talk to Joe as often as he would thought when he came from poor to rich. So wealthy does change a person and in Pip case, it made him not a better person but a poorer person especially in attitude. But Pip is only one individual compare to hundreds of thousands of people. How about what other people experience other then Pip. Another character in the novel, Miss Havisham who almost have the same but simliar problem like Pip with wealth, love, and happiness. Miss Havisham being wealthy herself wanted to get marry with guy who name is Compeyson, but she thought that the marriage was base on love not money. She also didn’t know that the guy Compeysonwas just after her money not her love. Her father warn her about this, but she didn’t care. When the wedding day came and everything was set up, the guy she thought she was going to marry stood her up just as her father warn her. Now heartbroken and mad, Miss Havisham left everything that day like the wedding cake still on the table til the present day, molding away. Because being wealthy, Miss Havisham didn’t find true love as she wanted and now so depress from that day, her lifestyle change to a witch like house. Not seeing the sun or letting sunlght enter her home, she growing old and wrinkle not having happiness to enjoy. Love was want Pip and Miss Havisham thought as happiness, but none of them got it because they were wealthy. In conclusion, so does wealth usually bring a person happiness? To my oppinion yes it should bring a person happiness because it let what the person want and desire knowing that they can afford it. It really depend on the person and what he or she think happiness is and their attitude toward other people about their wealth. Maybe being greedy or just being a fool falling in love over the person because of their wealth or their appearence. Money is money whether you earn it or win it, and it will cause the person who own its problems because of the way they spend it. But money can’t buy true love which is happiness for a person like Pip or Miss Havisham. But on the other hand, if you found true love when your poor and become wealthy, the same person that love when you were poor is true love like Herbert Pocket love life and of course you’ll be happy like Herbert and his love becoming rich. So according to the novel, about 75% percent say that wealth doesn’t bring happiness. But Pip and Miss Havisham are only two people compare to hundreds of thousands of people in real life. Maybe so, who really know what wealth will really bring happiness. If you ask me I would say yes it does for me. Well how can wealth change a person? Its can change a person in many ways from their attitude to their physical appearence. Wealth can change a person by making them feel better about life and knowing that what the want they an get. And does wealth make someone a better person that someone who is poor? Well once again, it depend on that person. That once poor person who became wealthy can realize the hardness of life low on money can help out in many way. Giving away money to buying cloths for the poor. But on the other hand, wealth can make a person attitude even poorer then before over greed. So I think wealth does bring a person happiness for a while and it can the person too. How to cite Great Expectations, Papers Great Expectations Free Essays In the novel great expectations, there are many downfalls and disappointments that Pip encounters during his lifetime, if you read on you will see some of them. A few are, when Pip realizes who his benefactor is, when he realizes Joe is not a gentleman and he is lower class, and when Estella the son of the convict marries Pips enemy Bentley Drummle. If you read on you will hear my elaboration of all of these problems. We will write a custom essay sample on Great Expectations or any similar topic only for you Order Now The benefactor, who is indirectly raising Pip to be a man with nobility and prosperity, is found out, of being the convict, a man of scorn and hate, Pip is so disappointed, he is disgraced, he hates the convict. He cant believe that a man that is one of the most frowned upon men in society has raised Pip to great expectations. Pip starts to refuse the money he receives of his benefactors, and plummets into great dept, and finds him self in jail, debtors prison. There is one subtle, but bright disappointment Pip faces some what late into the novel, and that is when he realizes that Mr Joe, the man who raised him and had so much fortune for, is a mere peasant, a naà ¯ve fool, n-o-t a â€Å"gentleman† like Pip, someone who doesn’t fit Pip’s standards and regulations. Because of this Pip ignores Joe and wished he could pay for Joe to leave him alone. Which is by all accounts nothing less than a jackass, and ignorant scum, who has to find him real self, his lineage. Even though it is JOE who PAYS for PIPS (The gentleman) BAIL, on his dept in prison. One of Pips great disheartens of Estella, is when he founds out that she has married his worst enemy, Bentley Drummle, a man who is also a gentleman like Pip, Estella falls for Bentley and they are presented in a holy marriage, that Pip longed for, for so many miserable years. Pip was very disappointed and depressed; he hated everything in this world after he found out what happen with Estella. He wanted to marry Estella the day he met her at Miss Havinshams house, when he was just a boy, and he remembers the kiss he did with her, on the cheek when he fights the little boy which little becomes his best friend, his companion some one who he will live with, and try to start an insurance company with. All in all Pip was born in a life of hardships and escaped it with a life of glam and fortune and had many loyal friends, and also many bloody crummy ones. He was very lucky to be put in a life with great expectations but very foolish to take advantage of it, He got in dept many times because he was naà ¯ve, he was a fool. He won the lottery but had no idea how to maintain the income that was presented in his way, I personally do not like the man Pip, he is scum in my eyes, he got lost, which many good men do, but he remained lost, without trying to find out his true self, but yes he did repay all the depts. But, he still, is who he is, a man with great expectations, but you know what they say about great expectations. Great expectations, lead to great disappointment. How to cite Great Expectations, Essay examples