A Brief Analysis of the Protagonist’s Great Expectations in Great Expectations

A Brief Analysis of the Protagonist’s Great Expectations inGreat ExpectationsContentsAbstract (1)Key words (1)I. Introduction (1)1.1 General introduction to the author (1)1.2 General introduction to the story (2)1.3 Introduction to the background of the English society and the developmentof gentleman (3)II. Analysis of the development of the protagonist’s i nner world (4)2.1 Social atmosphere in the 19th century (4)2.2 Three phases’different development of the protagonist —Pip’s “greatexpectations” (4)2.2.1 The first phase's development of Pip's "great expectations" (5)2.2.2 The second phase’s development of Pip’s “great expectations” (7)2.2.3 The third phase’s development of Pip’s “great expectations” (9)III. Conclusion (13)References (14)摘要：查尔斯﹒狄更斯是英国19世纪批判现实主义小说的代表作家之一。

作为他的后期主要作品之一，《远大前程》是一部教育小说，是描写个人成长和发展的小说。

本文主要分析《远大前程》中主人公—皮普的痛苦心理旅程。

狄更斯将皮普的“远大前程”分为三个阶段，本文也从三个阶段对皮普的“远大前程”进行简单的分析，揭示英国腐败的资本主义社会和当时的等级制度对一个人的成长和发展的影响，同时评价狄更斯幽默、讽刺的写作风格。

关键词：远大前程；等级制度；良知；真爱；忠诚Abstract: Charles Dickens is one of English realistic critics in the 19th century. As one of his late works, Great Expectations is a bildungsroman novel depicting growth and personal development. This paper mainly analyzes the protagonist of Great Expectations,Pip’s bitter mental journey. Dickens divides Pip’s “great expectations”into three phases, so this paper also briefly analyzes Pip’s three phases’different “great expectations”, and then displays how English corrupt capitalism and the class system at that time influenced on one’s growth and development, furthermore discusses the writing styles of Dickens: humorous and satiric.Key words: Great Expectations; class system; conscience; affection; loyaltyI. Introduction1.1 General Introduction to the AuthorCharles Dickens is English novelist and one of the most popular writers in the history of literature. In his enormous body of works, Dickens combined masterly storytelling, humor, pathos, and irony with sharp social criticism and acute observation of people and places, both real and imagined(Zhang Boxiang 2005, 3). Charles Dickens is considered to be one of England’s most popular writers worldwide.Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth in 1812. He died on 9 June 1870, and he was buried in the Poet’s Cor ner of Westminster Abbey. His father played an important role in Charles Dickens’s youth since he was imprisoned for three months for debt when young Charles was only 12. The child was briefly employed then in a blacking warehouse. Dickens was so traumatized by all his early humiliations that he did not give his autobiography to publish. Thanks to an inheritance he could study shorthand and enters a solicitor’s office as clerk. Later he becomes a news reporter on Morning Herald, where he publishes Sketches by Boz, its success making him write the posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (1836-1837). Driven by publication in monthly serialization, Dickens has a very creative period and in his novels he denounces his abusing times. In 1837 he publishes Oliver Twist. Disappointed by a slaving America, he publishes in volume form American Notes (1842). Carlyle influenced his historic novel Barnaby Rudge (1841), and Dickens admires him strongly. From 1843 to 1845 A Christmas Carol, The Chimes and The Cricket of the Heard appear, leaving a mark on the Anglo-Saxon sensitivity. When the events in 1848 took place, Dickens was in Europe, where he publishes Dombey and Son, bringing up the punishment of pride. The themes of children appear again in David Copperfield(1849-1850) and that of falsehood in Bleak House(1852-1853). Exploiting capitalism is denounced in Hard Times (1854). After splitting up with his wife, he writes Great Expectations (1861) and Our Mutual Friend (1864-1865), his last completed work where, like in Little Dorrit(1857), Dickens’s social criticism becomes more radical and his comedy more savage (/2006, 3, 8).1.2 General Introduction to the StoryThe novel Great Expectations written by Charles Dickens was published as a weekly series in 1860 and in book form in 1861. Many of the events from Dic kens’ early life are mirrored in Great Expectations, which, apart from David Copperfield, is his mostautobiographical novel. It is a bildungsroman novel depicting growth and personal development (Brian Phillips, Wendy Cheng 2003, 9 p.13).Great Expectations is considered as his most autobiographical novel, a bildungsroman novel depicting growth and personal development. This story to some degree is the reflection of the English society in the 19th century. At the same time, we can know the universal thoughts and the feelings of the people at that time. Great Expectations is one of the finest “psychological gothic” and a bildungsro man novel. Great Expectations is the story of Pip, an orphan boy adopted by a blacksmith's family, who has good luck and great expectations, and then loses both his luck and his expectations. Through this rise and fall, however, Pip learns how to find happiness. He learns the meaning of friendship and the meaning of love and, of course, becomes a better person for it. The main character is Pip who strives for his great expectations and changed from a non-selfish country boy to a snobbish youngster, and realized his mistakes in the end.Dic kens’s Great Expectations is “dark” with a sense of social estrangement.Its keynote is the orphan Pip’s intuition of life as a “universal struggle”, its arena increasingly London, the site of the modernity (John O Jordan 2003 p 78).It is written in old style language so this makes it quite hard to understand—some words don’t seem to make sense. Also he changes the spelling of a word when it’s said in a different accent, which is really confusing (Ahlers, Emily 2006, 3, 8).Though a dark novel, Great Expectations was deliberately more humorous than its predecessor A Tale of Two Cities, and even while it presented Dickens’s ever present social critique, it did so in a way that made people laugh (/ classicnotes/titles/greatexpectations/about.html 2006, 3).To me, this is a true love story. The fundamental lesson of the story is that love is pain, a philosophy I personally subscribe to. Estella, a weapon designed by a heartbroken old woman to destroy the lives of men. She will turn on the heat just to the point where men will kill for her and then walk away. The story follows the life of Pip, a boy who we later find out is the training partner to the deadly Estella. He is the mouse that the boa sharpens its teeth on. He spends his whole life trying to get her, only to lose her just when he thinks he has succeeded. To me, the story is perfect with only some slightly uncomfortable scenes surrounding a particular subplot with Pip and his secret benefactor. The emotion is fast paced and very intense. In a word, an excellent view of love through different scenery is not too bad a remark of the Dickens classic.1.3 Introduction to the Background of the English Society and the Development ofGentlemanNo matter in what age or country Dickens’s characters exist: they are pure, refined and gentle-hearted. Some of the unforgettable characters like Oliver Twist (Oliver Twist), Little Nell (The Old Curiosity Shop), Paul Dombey (Dombey and Son), David Copperfield (David Copperfield), Little Dorrit (Little Dorrit), and little Pip (Great Expectations), have become well-known figures throughout the world, and everyone wants to be a gentleman or virtuous young woman at that time, which were influenced by industrial revolution. This time period was one of incredible change in Great Britain and the United States. Vast cultural, social, and technological changes occurred. In general, the Industrial Revolution brought prosperity and urbanization to the United States.II. Analysis of the Development of the P rotagonist’s Inner WorldThis novel depicts a process of maturation and self-discovery through Pip’s experience as a protagonist moves from childhood to adulthood.I will analyze the development of the protagonist’s inner world from three aspects as follows: social atmosphere in the 19th century, three phases’ different development of Pip’s “Great Expectations.”2.1 Social Atmosphere in the 19th CenturyPeople at that time were influenced by the industrial revolution. Throughout Great Expectations, Dickens explores the class system of Victorian England, ranging from the most wretched criminal (Magwitch) to the poor peasants of the marsh country (Joe and Biddy) to the middle class (Pumblechook) to the very rich (Miss Havisham). The class system deeply impacted them, which is based on the post-Industrial Revolution model of Victorian England.2.2 Three Phases’Different Development of the Protagonist —Pip’s “great expectations”The novel Great Expectations mainly describes three phases’ different development of the protagonist’s “Great Expectations”. Here I will individually analyze every phase’s development of Pip’s “Great Expectations.”In my view, Pip is an idealist at heart. He always longs to get something that is better than what he has had, which we can see from the novel obviously. When he visits to Miss Havisham and see Satis House and Estella, he longs to be a wealthy gentleman and canmarry Estella; when he is aware of his moral shortcomings, he longs to be good; when he is conscious that he can’t read, he longs to learn, which fully embody themes of this novel: ambition and self-improvement, also completely reflect ambition and self-improvement of Pip. Pip thinks that life can be advanced and he has “great expectations” in his future.In the novel, ambition and self-improvement take three aspects: moral, social and education, which motivate Pip’s best and worst behavior. These can also be seen in the novel. Firstly, when he does immoral deeds and feels quite guilty, he treats himself very sternly and hopes to improve his own morality. For instance, when he goes to London, he treats Joe and Biddy badly, so he feels torment. Secondly, when he sees Estella in Satis House, Pip longs to be one of her social class, and, encouraged by Mrs. Joe and Mr. Pumblechook, he has fantasy of being a gentleman. This fantasy forms the basic plot of the novel. However, Pip’s life as a gentleman is no more satisfying and clearly no more moral than his previous life as a blacksmith’s apprentice. Thirdly, Pip longs to improve his own education. This wish is deeply related with his social ambition and longing to marry Estella for a full education is a requirement of being a gentleman. At last, through the experiences of Joe, Biddy and Magwitch, Pip realizes that social and educational improvement is irrelevant to one’s real worth, and conscience and affection are more valuable than learning and social standing.2.2.1 The First Phase’s Development of Pip’s “great expectations”At the beginning of the novel, Dickens introduces us to Pip, who acts as both the young protagonist of Great Expectations and the narrator of the story who looks back on his own story as an adult. Dickens uses a person to write the whole story. We are told that the protagonist of Great Expectations, Pip is a poor countryside orphan, who is brought up by his piquant sister and the kind-hearted brother-in-law, the blacksmith, Joe. When little Pip is sitting in front of his parents’ and five broters’ graves in the churchyard, he encounters an escaped and bullying convict, Magwitch. Magwitch threatens Pip to bring him a file and some food. Pip has to steals a file and some food for Magwitch from his sister’s house with fear. Even though he is afraid, Pip instinctively displays a sympathetic reaction. As Magwitch eats mouthful, Pip even puts away his fear to say, “I’m glad you enjoy it.”Here we can see that Pip is a pure, good and sympathetic countryside boy. Dickens uses many foreshadowings for carpeting in this novel. We can also see this. The first meeting between Pip and Magwitch will develop into the central relationship in this novel, which will cause Pip’s “great expectations” for him to rise and fall (/2006, 3 ). Pip not only lost his parents but is being raised by his stern sister. Under such circumstance, Pip and Joe, his brother-in-law, respect andsupport with each other. Pip treats Joe as his best friend and loves him. He thinks that Joe is very great and he hopes to be a blacksmith as Joe.The relationship, however, between Pip and Joe, is destroyed. Pip is introduced by Mr.．Pumblechook to a noblewoman, Miss Havisham, who lives in Satis House and has become half-crazy because she was abandoned by her lover on her wedding day. There Pip encounters beautiful but cold-hearted Estella, who was adopted by Miss Havisham as a tool of revenge on men, and falls in love with her deeply. But Estella laughs at him and looks down upon him. After that, Pip is fascinated by the showy life of the high society, and he begins to despise good but poor-cultured Joe and he is shamed for his own lower parentage. Pip’s desire for advancement largely overshadows his basic goodness. This Pip understands ideas like poverty, ignorance, and immorality, he does not want to be poor, ignorant, or immoral any more. Thus Pip all longs to be into the high society and to be a wealthy gentleman so that he can marry Estella as his wife someday. This is his initial “great expectations”, but his expectations becomes ashes. At last Pip still becomes to be Joe’s apprentice. Reality is far away from his “great expectations”. Thus Pip begins to complain of present life to Biddy, his another good friend, and he is not satisfied with present condition. Biddy’s comfort and suggestions don’t still work. When in the fourth year as Joe’s apprentice, Jaggers, a famous lawyer in London, appears in front of Pip and Joe, and tells Pip that an anonymous benefactor funds Pip to London for further education as a gentleman. At the beginning, he thinks that it is Miss Havisham who knowingly cultivated him so that he can marry Estella in future. Pip thinks himself has “great expectations” eventually.In the first stage of Pip’s “great expectations”, obviously anything that Pip sees in Satis House is magnificent but dark and decadent. However, exactly anything in Satis House tempts Pip and makes him want to be into the high society and to be a wealthy gentleman. It is ironic that the loveless environment of the Satis House is representative of the higher society that Pip would like to rise to. Here we can how corrupt capitalism society and class system influence on one’s growth and development, and we can also see people’s longing for wealth and improving social position.In fact, one’s class is rigid and preexisting. But Pip is allured by gorgeous semblance of capitalism and germinates the fantasy of being a wealthy gentleman when he visits to Satis House and sees Estella, and wants to marry her. When Miss Havisham informs him to be an apprentice of the blacksmith, Joe, his brother-in-law, his “great expectations”evaporates. During the time as a blacksmith’s apprentice, Pip always complains and isn’t satisfied with present conditions. When Jaggers appears and tells that an anonymoussupporter subsidizes Pip to get further education of being a gentleman. Here we feel Pip’s “great expectations” could also come true. Who is Pip’s anonymous supporter? Pip and us both want to know the answer. So Dickens successfully attracts us to continue the following plot.In the first stage of Pip’s “expectations,”his “expectations”vary with his social station and the environment surrounding him, and end with Pip’s leave for London.2.2.2 The Second Phase’s Development of Pip’s “great expectations”In this section, London is the setting for Pip’s great expectations, but immediately we find it rather ugly, unnatural, and suffocating, giving us an indication of how those great expectations may be played out. Ironically, looking at Jaggers’ office, we can feel how Pip’s grand future will be. The only warm spot appears to be Herbert, whom Pip had first met under strange and violent circumstances in Satis House in the first phase of Pip’s “great expectations”.When Pip is in Mr.．Pocket’s house, here Dickens makes two criticisms aimed at English society. The first is a humorous critique of England’s obsession with titles in their class system. Mrs.．Pocket always fancies that her father is or is to be a baron and she is caught up into the class system in complete oblivion to what is going on around her. The second criticism is Dickens’s continuing them of child abuse, and many ways in which children are oppressed and marginalized. In this section, we know that guilt or innocence is not decided in Jaggers’s mind by who is actually guilty or innocent, or even who has the most evidence or not, it is based on the talent of the lawyer to massage out of the participants the desired verdict. Once again, Dickens criticizes rather directly the judicial system and lawyers in general.In the second stage of Pip’s “great expectations”, after receiving his mysterious fortune, his idealistic wishes seem to have been reasonable, and he gives himself over to a gentlemanly life of idleness. Pip and Herbert live a luxurious life in London, and Pip gets into a large number of debts. And Pip’s idealism often leads him to perceive the world rather narrowly, and his tendency to oversimplify situations based on superficial values leads him to behave badly toward the people who care about him. When he becomes a gentleman, for example, 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. Although he now has become a selfish and snobbish flatulent beau, he still secretly helps Herbert buy the business way Herbert wishes for himself, which makes Herbert’s dream come true. Although Pip continues to make decisions based on which he thinks high society wants him to act—not going to see Joe and Biddy while he goes back to his hometown, we can recognize the fact that Pip feels guilt and shame about these decisions. These show us thatPip does not lose his conscience at least. From these, we can learn that Pip feels himself acting against his nature. This can be also proved in the latter. For example, Pip confesses to Herbert that he cannot let guilty go. Because he loves Estella deeply and he cannot leave and forget her. As long as he tries to be the person that Estella and society want, he will be acting against his nature. We can see that the lives of Pip and Estella are both controlled in general. Estella is not free “ to follow her own devices”; Pip, on the other hand, has trapped himself in how he thinks he needs to act, think, and feel, it is his lack of independence that causes him not to choose freely. Pip thinks himself to have “great expectations”in the future. The love for Estella and this belief forces Pip into acting a certain way(selfishly and snobbishly) and thinking a certain way(proud and wasteful) (/2006, 3). Ironically, although they both think themselves trapped and can escaped their lifestyle as long as they really want to, they don’t do that. Here we can learn that the deep influence of corrupt capitalism society and class system on English people.In this section, we can obviously feel that Pip isn’t happy with his lifestyle. He is not happy with his state of mind, feeling guilt about Joe and Biddy, nor with his day-to-day life as a young wealthy gentleman around town. This we can see from his joining a men’s club called “Finches of the Grove”. The reason is that he has chosen a lifestyle, which makes himself faraway from the people he loves, and even from his true self. However, Joe and Biddy never feel empty.Biddy’s relationship and Estella’s relationship with Pip predict Pip’s “great expectations”will be crushed sooner or later. Thus, the irony of the title of Great Expectations is echoed in the events in Pip’s life. In the second stage of Pip’s “great expectations”, Pip expects his anonymous benefactor, whom he continues to believe to be Miss Havisham, will appear on his birthday; however, with the appearance of Magwitch, an escaped convict whom he helped as a child, all his expectations and fancies become ashes, because his anonymous benefactor isn’t Miss Havisham whom he imagines all the time before, but Magwitch, a convict, the lowest of the lower- class in the class system. Ironically, Magwitch lives his life for Pip, and works hard to make Pip be a gentleman. However, with all of his money and education, Pip has become much less of a noble “gentleman than when he was a child”. We can see this from his treatment with his adoptive father Joe and his true friend Biddy and his horried reaction to his benefactor Magwitch. Pip has become an unkind, ungenerous and pompous ass.The second stage of Pip’s “great expectations” begins when Pip goes to London to get further education as a gentleman. London, the whole background of the story, the siteof modernity is the main site that Pip’s “great expectations”develops. Here we can see how Pip changes from a rustic countryside boy into a flatulent beau, influenced by capitalism. Now Pip only chases that life of a beau, and unhealthy amativeness, and treats Biddy and his brother-in-law badly, Joe, who brings him up and treats him heart to heart, however, he torments himself. This shows that Pip still remains his nature, which we can see that he helps secretly Herbert into a wealthy merchant. When Magwitch appears and tells Pip that he is his anonymous supporter, not Miss Havisham as Pip imagines all the time. Pip feels shamed that he accepts the supply of a criminal and he clearly realizes that all the expectations of his become to ashes. When Pip feels bitter and dejected for himself very much. The discovery that the wretched Magwitch, not the wealthy Miss Havisham, is his secret benefactor shatters Pip’s oversimplified sense of his world’s hierarchy. Considering his situation, Pip first becomes angry with Miss Havisham. But his anger soon turns to himself, when he realizes how badly he treated Biddy and Joe, his true friends. He saw Joe as common and low class when all the time he was being supported by the lowest of the classes, a convict. Although Pip learns that his expectations were all a fancy and he realizes that he has mistreated Biddy and Joe, he is still basing his thoughts on the class system, society’s ideas of “gentleman” and “common.”Although Pip’s future seems to have changed, he still has not learned that the hierarchy of the class system says nothing about the nobleness of a person or how to lead a happy life. Indeed, he thinks he is ruined because he now associates himself with a convict, even though the convict has shown him nothing but kindness. Even his guilt about how he treated Joe is based on the fact that the money, which brought him great expectations, is somehow less pure than money from Miss Havisham. Yet the convict is different, he thinks Pip as his son.In this stage of Great Expectations, obviously the revelations, to Pip, of the source of his financial prosperity, and Estella’s parentage, shocks him deeply, although ultimately they lead to a breaking down of his snobbish assumptions and his “great expectations”.The second phase of Pip’s “great expectations”ends with the appearance of Magwitch and the crush of Pip’s “great expectations”.2.2.3 The Third Phase’s Development of Pip’s “great expectations”The fact that he comes o respect Magwitch while losing Estella to brutish nobleman Drummble ultimately forces him to realize that one’s social position is not the most important quality one possesses, and that his behavior as a gentleman has caused him to hurt the people who care about him most.In this section, Pip gets closer to Magwitch. However, Pip believes that one’s value is decided by the class one is born, or adopted, into. Because he thinks of Magwitch as thelowest of the low, he thinks himself the lowest of the low because of his association with him. Magwitch does not see it in this way.We have been shown very few moments when Young Pip has been happy. Pip was unhappy even when he should have been happy - during his apprenticeship with Joe - and continued to be unhappy even when great expectations were announced for him. Now a great mystery has been solved in the way of the appearance of Pip’s benefactor, and Pip is, once again, unhappy. We notice, however, that Pip is unhappy not so much because of his circumstances but because of how he views those circumstances. Magwitch, his life in danger, seems strangely happy to be in the company of Pip. Only Pip has yet to reach within himself to find a happiness that neither society, nor romantic concepts of home, can offer him (/2006, 3).The higher-class life that Pip thought he wanted is not a very pleasant place. But Pip’s world had to be turned upside down for him to start seeing that. Pip is very angry with both Miss Havisham and Estella; though he forgives them both without them even asking because he realizes it was his own fool that brought him to unreal expectations. As the threat on Magwitch’s life grows, so does Pip’s affection and worry for him. Pip is no longer worried about himself, or even about having the blood of Magwitch on his hands; he is worried about the man at hand. Even if Magwitch’s appearance makes his expectations become ashes and he looks down upon Abel Magwitch at first, but gradually he begins to respect Magwitch and wants to help him go abroad so that Magwitch can escape death. So Pip and his friends plan to help Magwitch abroad with a boat. However, Orlick and Compeyson destroy their plan. Although they fail to help Magwitch abroad, we can still see Pip’s kindness and goodness. In the third stage of Pip’s “great expectations”, Magwitch grappling with Compeyson in the sea in a grotesque version of a ruffian assault on a gentleman, makes the novel get to the climax, taps into the primal bourgeois fears of lower-class violence and of losing class. In this section, the plot pivots on the expounding of Magwitch, and it is a mark of Dickens’s capacity to pinpoint fundamental social issues that this transportation should reflect not only the colonial extension of the 19th system, but also the extent to which that system entailed a brutal suppression of the lower-class. (John O Jordan 2003)In this section, Pip actually misses Magwitch and wants to be closer to him. We can be reminded of a parallel moment in the first stage of Pip’s “great expectations”when young Pip looked back on the marshes he was running from and saw Magwitch walking away into the cold and dark night, the lonely and poor figure on the horizon struck a sympathetic heart of young Pip, which is the first meeting between Pip and Magwitch.Here we can still see Pip’s good nature: pure and sympathetic, even though he treats Joe and Biddy badly when Pip is in London for further education as a gentleman. Here Pip also has changed from fear and disgust of the convict into sympathy and genuine companionship.Repentance and forgiveness is a common theme among the relationships in the novel and it is interesting to see the instances where forgiveness is given and where it is refused. For example, Mrs. Joe’s last words to Joe seeming ly imply a request for forgiveness for her actions toward him and Pip. Pip forgives Miss Havisham. Miss Havisham’s request for forgiveness reminds Pip of his own need to reconcile and ask for forgiveness from Joe and Biddy and his treatment of them. From these, reflecting the Christian influence in Victorian morality, those that do not seek reconciliation will sooner or later destroy themselves. We will see this in the later chapters with Magwitch’s hatred for Compeyson and Orlick’s hatred for Pip. Though Estella is the daughter of a murderess, he does not feel any less respect for Estella, because he knows her to be a lady. And so he must start to reevaluate how he judges people. He has judged himself harshly at times, because Pip treats Joe and Biddy coldly all these years when he gets further education as a gentleman in London, however, Joe is his true benefactor and never asks for anything in return, unlike Mr.．Pumblechook. With his reflections on Joe and on Magwitch, Pip is now examining great relationships in his life as opposed to his great expectations. When Pip and his friends send Magwitch abroad by sea, when Magwitch and Pip sit together in the boat, Magwitch is seemingly unworried about his future. In fact, Magwitch is only happy and content to be free for the moment and sitting next to the boy he considers a son. By the end of the chapter, with Magwitch in chains, Pip knows that he is where he should be, sitting next to his adopted father. Then Pip does not know how his future will become after all his expectations dashed, but he is content to stand by the man who risked his life to be near him. He will not live off the money of others again. In the second stage of Pip’s “great expectations”, Pip, with his great expectations, has failed to achieve any of them, and now does not have even the smallest expectation of a good honest living with a good beloved wife. Through his difficulties, however, Pip is being transformed from a proud boy to an actual gentleman, with respect for good relationships and rejection of societal value judgments. When Magwitch is caught into jail, Pip often goes to visit him. Throughout the trial, Pip holds Magwitch’s hand. At the sentencing, Pip assists Magwitch out of the chambers while onlookers point their fingers at them, now Pip can calmly stands by Magwitch and grips Magwitch’s hands in public. This Pip is completely different from another Pip who looks down upon his former friends or relatives a little.。