How Is Pip Presented In Chapter 1

In Great Expectations, the characters’ actions and emotions are the heart of the story. You don’t read papers about how well Pip courted Estella throughout the book; you read papers investigating how Pip felt about his relationship with Estella throughout the book. You don’t read about how well Wopsle portrays Hamlet in chapter 31, you read about how Wopsle’s career in acting impacts Pip, or how Pip feels about the situation. And sometimes, the emotions in the story can be difficult to understand, or they come from left field and you don’t expect them. Because of this, and being the brilliant author he was, Charles Dickens showed how Pip felt through his own observations of his surroundings and situations. The examples of contrasting light
and dark in great expectations symbolize Pip's state of mind, and help to portray the tone of the section.

Pip is a very opinionated person, and combined with his naivete early on in the story, we can see how Pip feels very easily.
The most obvious target is Estella, the (then) little girl that, unbeknownst to Pip, never had any intention of giving Pip any attention. But Pip only saw what he believed to be a treasure that can be attained. She was “dressed in non materials, satins, and lace, and silks - all of white”(7,5,1), contrasting the darkness that Pip saw in his sister, “with [her] black hair and eyes”(3,2,1). Because the way Pip feels about his abusive sister contrasts so much with what he believes Estella to be, Dickens colors them opposites as well. He wants you to be in a pseudo-dark mood when you hear about Mrs. Joe, and you to feel hope, but with the inevitability of sadness when you hear of Estella. Dickens again uses the same feeling of darkness in Pip’s childhood when Pip stalks off into the night with the file and food for Magwitch. As he makes his way back to where the convict is hiding, he notices that his view is obscured by dark mists and fog that “[were] so thick, that the wooden finger on the post directing people to our village was invisible to me”(3,1,5). This lack of perception gives to unease to the tone, and shows that Pip is unsettled about both the stealing and the
convict.

As Pip matures, his views on many things change, as do most peoples’ opinions do as they mature. However, Pip finally seems to see what Estella really is, claiming that “[she] has been in every prospect I have ever seen, - in the clouds in the light, in the dark…”(44,73,4). Pip always saw the light of Estella, even when it wasn’t always truly there. However, now Pip sees both sides of her. Estella was truly a source of darkness in Pip’s life for some time. While Pip was in love with her, she had made him feel unimportant, or beneath her. She wasn’t a kind individual and seemed to have no positive impact on Pip’s life, making it seem as if Estella wasn’t a source of light at all. But, were it not for Estella, Pip would have never have gone to London, met Herbert, and gone through quite a maturing journey, finally learning what mattered most in life. In this aspect, Estella was his light, for she guided him toward this. We also see a motif throughout the final part of the book that while Pip’s life has taken a turn into a dark corner, there’s always a little ray of light that is calling him, telling him that he can come out with a bit of effort. We hear descriptions like, “the moon rose, and passed out upon the marshes. [But] beyond their dark line was a ribbon of dear sky”(53,1,1)