Great Expectations
Charles Dickens
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Character Analysis: Minor characters
Startop
Startop is a loyal friend of Pip who is also tutored by Mr Matthew Pocket. He is an intelligent and kind young man who eventually assists Pip and Herbert in their scheme for Magwitch’s escape demonstrating loyalty and friendship.
Mr Wopsle
Mr Wopsle is the church clerk in Pip’s village who moves to London in pursuit of becoming an actor. This provides an ironic similarity between Wopsle’s elaborate caricature-like performances of characters in a play and Pip’s superficial façade of becoming a gentleman.
Mr Wopsle’s great-aunt
She is the incompetent and slothful teacher at the village evening school which Pip attends in his youth. Her lazy manner of educating differs greatly to the upper-class education of social etiquette and bourgeois ideals that Pip receives in his hierarchical ascent.
Matthew Pocket
Matthew Pocket, also referred to as Mr Pocket, is Herbert’s father, Miss Havisham’s cousin, and Pip’s tutor. He is an intelligent man yet is incompetent in controlling his home life with his wife and many children. Throughout the narrative he is kind to Pip and Pip repays this kindness by commending Matthew Pocket’s support to Miss Havisham, resulting in her leaving a sum of money to him in her will.
Mrs Pocket
Mrs Pocket is Herbert’s mother and embodies the typical figure of a bourgeoise wife. She ignores her maternal duties, allowing her servants to run the household and raise her children whilst she spends her time dwelling on her distant noble lineage and thinking about the prestige of upper-class society life.
Molly
Molly is a reformed criminal who becomes Mr Jaggers’ housekeeper and is eventually revealed to be Estella’s biological mother. Through the revelation of Molly being Estella’s mother (and Magwitch being her father), Dickens uproots Pip’s simplistic understanding of social class, challenging his acquired, rgid bourgeoisie perceptions that being born of low origins is shameful and implies a sense of impurity.
Arthur Havisham
Arthur is Miss Havisham’s resentful half-brother who became a partner to Compeyson, contributing to the scheme that betrayed her on her wedding day.
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Great Expectations
Sample Essay
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is an epic novel that trenchantly explores themes of identity, social class, ambition, and morality. Set in 19th century England, the narrative follows the life of an impoverished orphan named Pip, who comes into a “handsome” fortune at the hands of an anonymous benefactor.
The novel begins with a young Pip living with his stern sister and her kind- hearted, blacksmith husband Mr Joe Gargery. Whilst visiting the graves of his parents, Pip encounters a frightening escaped convict, later discovered to be Able Magwitch, who terrifies Pip into helping him. This primary encounter instigates a chain of events that subsequently shape Pip’s future.
Pip is then invited by Miss Havisham to visit her estate, Satis House, to play. Miss Havisham is an immensely wealthy, grim lady who lives a peculiar life of seclusion as she is transfixed by the tragic moment of her wedding day, in which she was betrayed by her fiancé.
Here Pip is introduced to Estella, a young, beautiful girl who was adopted by Miss Havisham and raised to be cold and heartless in Miss Havisham’s vicarious desire to wreak revenge on the male sex. Nonetheless, Pip begins to fall in love with Estella despite her capricious and insulting nature.
After visiting Miss Havisham at Satis House over an extensive period of time, Pip receives news that he has come into a “handsome” fortune at the hands of an anonymous benefactor and must depart his proletarian upbringing on the marshes to be educated as a gentleman in London.
Driven by his rapacious desire to earn Estella’s affection and ascend in the 19th century social hierarchy, Pip abandons his honest home life. He becomes ashamed of his origins and instead endeavours to become an affluent and reputable gentleman. However, his insatiable ambition and burgeoning arrogance eventually lead to his downfall.
Contrary to his beliefs throughout the entirety of the narrative, Pip discovers that his anonymous “liberal benefactor” had not been Miss Havisham but rather Magwitch, the convict who he had helped at the beginning of the novel. The revelation of his benefactor’s identity provokes Pip to confront his own prejudices and biases, realising the power of empathy and forgiveness, as well as understanding that genuine value lies in the integrity of one’s character rather than their social status or affluence. As such, Pip comes to possess a newfound appreciation for Joe’s unwavering affection and friendship.
When Pip’s great expectations eventually send him into debt and perpetual dissatisfaction, he finally realises the genuine value of camaraderie, loyalty, and kindness. Pip learns of Estella’s suffering under the authority of Miss Havisham and it is revealed that Estella had also learned formative lessons about compassion and love. When reunited, Pip and Estella seek consolation in each other’s company.
The novel concludes with a bittersweet yet optimistic inference, as the older version of Pip narrates the story of his life with a newly acquired maturity and wisdom having experienced the tumultuous journey of the expectations and damaging ideals associated with social class
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