Great Expectations Close Study

Section 2 The Novel – Close Study
Question 1
A)
Dickens’ key theme in the novel is the concept of a true gentleman through which he conveys how society often mistakes wealth and social-class for gentility and shows that true gentility comes from high moral qualities. Dickens’ bildungsroman focuses on Pip’s development as he pursues his aspiration to become a gentleman. Firstly, when Pip first encounters Satis House and the “decaying” and “corpse-like” Mrs Havisham he is inspired to become a gentleman in order to win over the “beautiful young lady at Miss Havisham's who was dreadfully proud”, that is Estella. However, Pip mistakes gentility with wealth and social class and begins to feel “ashamed of the dear old fellow”, Joe and the forge and wishes that “Joe had been rather more genteelly brought up”. Pip begins to feel ashamed of himself also and sees himself as a “common laboring-boy; that my hands were coarse; that my boots were thick; … and generally that I was in a low-lived bad way”. Secondly, after Pip receives his great expectations and goes to London to be educated, Pip encounters characters whom society would regard as gentleman, but who are revealed to not only be coarse and brutal but also extremely cruel and unjust. In particular, Pip first hears of Compeyson through Magwitch’s recount of their history, describing his gentleman-like appearance, “When we was put in the dock, I noticed first of all what a gentleman Compeyson looked, wi' his curly hair and his black clothes and his white pocket-handkercher, and what a common sort of a wretch I looked.” This juxtaposed imagery reveals how the social conception of gentility is based on appearance and wealth. It is Herbert who first warns Pip of the distinction between a true gentlemen and “show-offs”, telling him, “I have heard my father mention that [Compeyson] was a showy man … that he was not to be … mistaken for a gentleman”. Thirdly, Pip’s impression of Drummle reveals him to be a character who is “avarice, brutal and mean”, especially in his treatment of Estella (whom he marries). The imagery, “I saw him through the window, seizing his horse’s mane, and mounting in his blundering brutal manner, and sidling and backing away,” conveys Drummle’s ugly manner and challenges the concept of a gentleman being defined by wealth and social class. It is also through the caricatured characterisation of Pumblechook, with his appearance, pretensions and snobbery that Dickens’ challenges the concept of a gentleman being defined by social class and the associated pretensions. Finally, it is towards the end of the novel that Pip realises that a true gentleman is defined by high moral Christian qualities of kindness and a caring nature, loyalty, honesty and also gentility and an ability to love, and that Joe is the most gentlemanly character of the novel. Pip’s epiphany comes when Joe is at his side during a long illness and after much betrayal by Pip, and Pip narrates in a joyful and emotional tone, “Joe withdrew to the window, and stood with his back towards me, wiping his eyes. And as my extreme weakness prevented me from getting up and going to him, I lay there, penitently whispering, "O God bless him! O God bless this gentle Christian man!" Ultimately, Dickens’ challenges the idea that wealth and social class define gentility, and reveals that Christian kindness and loyalty are true gentleman like qualities.

b) In the novel Dickens uses setting to create a detailed world in which to tell the story of Pip’s development in the bildungsroman style and explore his insights about the development of Pip’s character as he pursues his aspirations to become a gentleman. Firstly, Volume I of the novel is set in a small village in Kent, where Pip grows up at, “Joe’s forge [which] adjoined our house, which was a wooden house, as many of the dwellings in our country were” creating an image of the forge as a place of warmth and rural simplicity and which is symbolically covered with a “mist” to convey the naïve simplicity of Pip’s childhood. The forge also represents the significance of Joe to Pip’s development: like Joe, who is metaphorically described as “a sort of Hercules in strength, and also in weakness” a “steam-hammer that can crush a man or pat an egg-shell”, similarly the forge is both a harsh place of blacksmithing and of Mrs Gargery’s “rampages” and a warm and welcoming place which Pip had once viewed as “the glowing road to manhood and independence”. But this is also a setting of contrasts, with the simplicity of the forge being juxtaposed by the “decaying” grandeur of Satis House, where Pip first encounters the genteel life and meets Estella. The light imagery of Estella’s “light came along the dark passage like a star” is symbolic of Pip’s awakening to the life of a gentleman, and despite the negative imagery with which Pip describes Satis House (which foreshadows the somewhat glum ending of the novel), where everything “had lost its lustre and was faded and yellow”, he is captivated by the “decaying” and “corpse-like” Mrs Havisham and begins to convince himself that she is his benefactor and Estella his destiny. Secondly, as Pip leaves the forge, the symbolism of “the mists … solemnly rising” indicates that Pip’s journey to London, the setting of Pip’s “great expectations”, is also a journey from childhood and into the realities of adulthood. Pip’s descriptions of London create an image of a corrupted and oppressive place, “the shameful place, being all asmear with filth and fat and blood and foam, seemed to stick to me.” In particular, the motif of crime is developed through Pip’s descriptions of “Newgate Prison” and Mr Jaggers’ office which “was a most dismal place” with Mr Jaggers’ “high-backed chair was of deadly black horsehair, with rows of brass nails round it, like a coffin’, the simile connoting a sense of death and oppression. This dark and dirty atmosphere is not what Pip expected, and in fact it makes Pip feel, “oppressed by the hot exhausted air, and by the dust and grit that lay thick on everything”. Through the change in setting from the warmth of the forge to the griminess of London, Dickens reflects the development of Pip’s own character as he pursues his great expectations. In particular, Pip’s initial reaction to London once again foreshadows his own unhappy end and the forge becomes a symbol of simplicity and familial warmth, and in turn true happiness. [Thirdly, Dickens also uses the setting of the river Thames River as a symbol of progress which connects the two major settings in the novel. The imagery of busy “steam-traffic on the Thames” conveys progress and represents the pre-industrial setting of the novel, but perhaps the most important aspect of this setting is that it symbolises the opportunities for Pip’s education in life and the importance of earning one’s place in life through hard work and moral growth, which is reflective of Victorian values of this time. ]

c) Dickens’ use of character in his bildungsroman develops our understanding of an individuals’ development through life as well as our understanding of what marks a good character.