Finding Happiness in Great Expectations :: Great Expectations Essays

Finding Happiness in not bad(p) Expectations Great Expectations is a coming of age novel. This novel is a story of snap and his initial dreams and resulting disappointments that eventually lead him to becoming a genuinely comfortably man. During his journey into adulthood, finish up comes to realize two diverse concepts of being a human race and he comes to find the real gentlemen in his life arnt the peck he had thought. Encouraged by Mrs. Joe and Pumblechook, as a child Pip entertains fantasies of becoming a gentleman. In the eyes of Pip a gentleman is to be wealthy, educated and have a high class, thus Pips desires. In his mind, Pip has connected the ideas of moral, hearty, and educational advancement so that each depends on the others. The coarse and cruel Drummle, a member of the upper class, provides Pip with verification that fond advancement has no inherent connection to intelligence or moral worth. Drummle is a lout who has inherited immense wealth , while Pips relay link and brother-in-law Joe is a good man who works hard for the little he earns. Significantly Pips life as a gentleman is no to a greater extent satisfying--and certainly no more moral--than his previous life as a blacksmiths apprentice. Pips desires for educational improvement have deep connections to his mixer ambition and disposition to marry Estella a full education is a requirement of being a gentleman so he thinks. As long as he is an ignorant country boy, he has no hope of social advancement. Pip understands this fact as a child, when he learns to read at Mr. Wopsles aunts school, and as a young man, when he takes lessons from Matthew Pocket. Ultimately, through the examples of Joe, Biddy, and Magwitch, Pip learns that social and educational improvement are irrelevant to ones real worth and that conscience and affection are to be valued above sophistication and social standing. This new understanding shows Pip who the real gentlemen ar e. As Pip grows in age he grows in wisdom and his true identity unfolds as he discovers what it means to be a gentleman. When Pip was young, he knew only if of the stereotypical figures of a gentleman. However, Pip comes to the realization that wealth and class are less important than affection, loyalty, and inner worth.