The book Great Expectations by Charles Dickens takes places in
1860 and is about a boy, named Pip Phillips, who grew up through many
hardships. His dream is to be a gentleman but at his early age it seems
impossible. After suffering from a close person being hurt his dream becomes
reality, thanks to a mysterious benefactor. Soon he realizes that his guess on
whom his benefactor is wrong and his hopes of the future come crashing down.
Pip at the end realizes what it truly means to be a gentleman and not a rich
jerk. During most of his youth, however, Pip lives in a fantasy world, with a
view rather incorrect way, being only by the physical.
Pip looks at being rich by that of a
physical appearance rather than internally. He puts down people that are full
of goodness on the inside, but are not so attractive on the outside. This comes
up when he is rich and refers to Biddy, a childhood friend, by saying, “She
[is] not beautiful – she [is] common, and [cannot] be like Estella …” (pg. 125)
Estella is a rich girl who
Pip considers as beautiful, because she constantly wears fancy dresses. Biddy, on the other hand is rather
kind and intelligent, but not so rich. She cares for Pip and even likes Pip.
However she, as stated in the quote above, isn’t attractive enough for Pip. Pip
doesn’t even think about her. This injustice is constantly done by Pip not only
to Biddy, but to others, close to Pip, himself.
Pip also views being rich on physical
richness. Many can be rich in good characters or internal qualities, but if
they don’t have much money they aren’t rich in any way for Pip. This even
applies to Joe Gargery, Pip’s brother-in-law and “father”. On page 218, he says, “Not with
pleasure, though I [am] bound to him by so many ties; no with considerable
disturbance, some mortification, and a keen sense of incongruity. If I could
have kept him away by paying money, I certainly would have paid money.” It is a
long time since Joe has visited Pip for Pip is rich. Now he is coming to visit
him, but haughty Pip doesn’t even want to see him. Joe raises Pip and cares for
him but Pip acts ungratefully. He wants to do anything to avoid his visit, so
that he will not be embarrassed in front of all his “rich” friends, for Joe is
blacksmith and doesn’t win much money. Being with his poor, common “father” is
a “disturbance to Pip.
To sum things up, Pip has lived
fancying the meaning of richness. He thought it was only the material (the
physical) that determines if you are rich or not. He thought it was only the
appearance that determines if you are rich or not. He does later learn what it
really means to be rich, when he loses everything he cares about. His sister,
money, and a hope of living with Estella all lost. “…No man who was not a true
gentleman at heart, ever was, since the world began, a true gentleman in manner
. . . no varnish can hide the grain of the wood; and that the more varnish you
put on, the more the grain will express itself.” (pg. 181) Many times as teens
we will find ourselves in a position where we want to deny our true identity.
We must however stay true, and not be ashamed of others in the manner that Pip
was.
