Monetary Corruption and the Consequences it has in Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Monetary Corruption and the Consequences it has in Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Charles Dickens examines how money can corrupt people and sometimes to a point beyond repair. In Great Expectations money is suppose to make people happier and to live easier lives but money will eventually corrupt people and ruin their life. Pip is introduced to a lot of money and becomes corrupt. When Pip becomes corrupt he looses former relationships that he had. The relationships that pip looses are completely ruined because Pip was corrupted by wealth and power. Pip looses Biddy because Pip wants to not be associated with the ordinary people, a group he once belonged to. The close ties Pip had with Joe are snapped because Pip decides that since Joe will not change Pip will just have to leave him. In Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Pip is corrupted by wealth that has unforeseen consequences on his personnel relationships and the relationship Pip has with himself. The motif of corruption is shown when Dickens has Pip chase after Estella and ruin his relationship with Biddy. Biddy is a perfect match for Pip because they are both orphans and Biddy is willing to listen to Pip’s whininess. Pip admits that Biddy is the perfect women but the lady who told him the lies said being a commoner is but, this is the first sign that Pip is becoming corrupt. The corruption in Pip forces him to leave Biddy and Joe. “Imperceptibly I became conscious of change in Biddy.....she was common, and could not be like Estella but she was pleasant and sweet tempered.” (pg. 97) Pip reveals that he thinks Biddy is someone that he could see in the future to be a possible spouse. Estella corrupts Pip’s mind by instilling the fact that being common is bad and people can not associate themselves with commoners. The dishonesty by Estella causes Pip to believe Estella is more than a commoner and Pip starts to chase Estella.The distraction makes Pip unhappy in the end because he destroys the relationship with Biddy, and Pip never realizes until it is to late that Estella never wanted a bond with Pip. Pip thinks that becoming a gentleman and gaining wealth are the only ways to make Estella want him back. That thought makes him fraudulent because the real way to get a women to like you is not through money and power but from a connection, like the one he had with Biddy."Biddy," said I, after binding her to secrecy, "I want to be a gentleman." (pg. 99)Pip’s goal of being a Gentlemen is ironic because in Pip’s life he is surrounded by people with societal titles like the blacksmith, but since Pip wants to be called the very vague title of Gentlemen it leaves room for people to tell Pip what this title includes. The vagueness is perfect because if Pip cannot even define his own societal title then that means anyone else can. People having free reign to define who Pip is. This makes him extremely corrupt because anyone can tell him what to do and when to do it. Another downfall from the vagueness is Pip does not know when he has achieved becoming a Gentlemen, so society can cause him to never be able to fulfill becoming a Gentlemen and then Pip would realize how leaving Biddy was not a good idea since Estella made Pip strive to become a Gentlemen. Before money and other wealth, Pip respected Biddy now Pip finds being around her to be bad for him. Pip destroys his relationship with Joe because Pip’s unscrupulousness makes him believe that being around Joe makes him more of a commoner when instead Pip wants to be uncommon. Without the unknown benefactor Pip would have never left his house with Joe. Money causes people to become people who they are not which usually leads to corruption. In this case Pip lets the money get the best of him and makes him leave his comfortable and common life as an apprentice to become a Gentlemen.”Whatever I acquired, I tried to impart to Joe. This statement sounds so well, that I can't in my conscience let it pass unexplained. I wanted to make Joe less ignorant and common, that he might be worthier of my society and less open to Estella's reproach.” (pg. 84) Pip believes that like a disease becoming a Gentlemen can be caught. Pip desperately wants his Gentlemen knowledge that Pip acquired from Estella and Miss Havisham to rub off onto Joe so that Pip and Joe can still be friends. Pip thinks that the gentlemen knowledge is way more important and useful than any other information. Pip is corrupt in making this statement because Miss Havisham and Estella are both lying to Pip about what is important in this world. Before the money made him someone he is not, Pip would believe that the common man information, like running a forge, would be more important than any other information. The loss of the relationship makes Pip feel completely defeated inside especially when he finds out that Joe married Biddy and they had a kid that named Pip. “You must give Pip to me, or lend him, at all events.... You must marry” (pg. 378) At this point the relationship with Joe has long since been over but when Pip expresses interest in the kid he is shot down immediately because everyone knows how easily Pip is manipulated. The manipulation that Pip lets himself to shows how corrupt he was and how it destroyed him inside. Pip can never be trusted again by Joe or by anyone, ruining any form of relationships. Internally Pip is suffering from his corruption because now he is told he cannot borrow the child that is in every way possible a mini Pip. Pip is corrupted and it hurts his own personnel mind and will never fix it. Pip is hurt badly by himself because he is corrupted by wealth beyond a point of realistic proportions and it becomes unfixable. With the vagueness of being called a Gentlemen, Pip never finds his true identity and this makes him extremely depressed. Pip still can only dream about becoming a gentlemen."I am ashamed to say it," I returned, "and yet it's no worse to say it than to think it. You call me a lucky fellow. Of course, I am. I was a blacksmith's boy but yesterday; I am—what shall I say I am—to-day?" (pg. 194) Pip knows what he once was and that familiarity at one time made him seem like a commoner but now Pip begs to go back to that, to the time before he became monetarily corrupt. Pip’s fraudulent lifestyle causes him more pain when the reality that he will never have Estella because the whole relationship with Estella is fake because it was formed out of fraud money.”Miss Havisham's intentions towards me, all a mere dream; Estella not designed for me; I only suffered in Satis House as a convenience, a sting for the greedy relations, a model with a mechanical heart to practice on when no other practice was at hand; those were the first smarts I had.” (pg. 253)Pip's great expectations just led to suffering and growing up. Then Pip learns dreams may only bring suffering, but only suffering makes you a man. Pip takes that lesson and applies it to more things then reevaluates his life and realizes what suffering he went through for nothing. Pip represents humans in a way that all humans suffer but we all wind up dead anyway. In Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Pip is corrupted by wealth that has unforeseen consequences on his personnel relationships and the relationship Pip has with himself. Pip is a character that Dickens uses to show how all humans come under a microscope when people are exposed to large sums of money and are influenced by corrupt people. The consequences that Pip faced were very painful for Pip and experiences Pip did not want to be apart of. The relationship with himself eats away at him slowly but eventually catches up.