Great Expectations Thematic Essay on Abuse
After reading the novel, “Great Expectations”, written by Charles Dickens, I discovered a wide variety of themes that amused me such as abuse, desire, guilt, ambition, and good and bad. Abuse, being one of the major themes, manages to shape and change people from one thing to another.
Pip, being the protagonist of the novel, suffers much abuse. At the beginning of the novel, Pips mother, father, and five siblings are killed in a tragic accident and he is adopted by his sister Mrs.Gargery. She usually abuses pip by making him drink one of her concoctions called tar water and whipping him with a wax ended cane called The Tickler. At one occasion his sister said she does not remember why she took in pip and said “I don’t, and I’d never do it again!”(7) There is also a time where Pip describes the abuse from his sister: "I soon found myself getting heavily bumped from behind in the nape of the neck and the small of the back, and having my face ignominiously shoved against the wall, because I did not answer those questions at sufficient length.(64) Pip tells us that his sister had a “hard and heavy hand” and that she was "much in the habit of laying it upon her husband as well as upon me.” (6)Then there is Estella. She is the adopted daughter of Miss Havisham, and the girl that Pip is in love with. Estella verbally abuses Pip, calling him boy and mocks his boots and coarse hands and often says to him that he is common. Since Pip is habitually mistreated, he expects to be abused and is comfortable being abused. This does not mean he likes or wants to be abused; it means he has adapted to it. Therefore, Estella’s cruelty fits his expectation of abuse, his sense of powerlessness, and his low self-esteem makes him drawn to her.
Estella too, is abused, but emotionally. Miss Havisham influences her, teaches her and essentially controls her. Estella is passive, since she obeys Miss Havisham’s orders to lead men on. She sees herself as an object, since she only serves the
Pip, being the protagonist of the novel, suffers much abuse. At the beginning of the novel, Pips mother, father, and five siblings are killed in a tragic accident and he is adopted by his sister Mrs.Gargery. She usually abuses pip by making him drink one of her concoctions called tar water and whipping him with a wax ended cane called The Tickler. At one occasion his sister said she does not remember why she took in pip and said “I don’t, and I’d never do it again!”(7) There is also a time where Pip describes the abuse from his sister: "I soon found myself getting heavily bumped from behind in the nape of the neck and the small of the back, and having my face ignominiously shoved against the wall, because I did not answer those questions at sufficient length.(64) Pip tells us that his sister had a “hard and heavy hand” and that she was "much in the habit of laying it upon her husband as well as upon me.” (6)Then there is Estella. She is the adopted daughter of Miss Havisham, and the girl that Pip is in love with. Estella verbally abuses Pip, calling him boy and mocks his boots and coarse hands and often says to him that he is common. Since Pip is habitually mistreated, he expects to be abused and is comfortable being abused. This does not mean he likes or wants to be abused; it means he has adapted to it. Therefore, Estella’s cruelty fits his expectation of abuse, his sense of powerlessness, and his low self-esteem makes him drawn to her.
Estella too, is abused, but emotionally. Miss Havisham influences her, teaches her and essentially controls her. Estella is passive, since she obeys Miss Havisham’s orders to lead men on. She sees herself as an object, since she only serves the