Great Expectations

One of Charles Dickens' greatest novels, Great Expectations, describes a lower class boy becoming a gentleman. Three different places played important roles in Pip's life. Pip lost his parents when he was young and lived with his older sister in a marsh area. His sister was about twenty years older than he, so she was able to take care of him. Then he went to Miss Havisham's house, which was called Satis House. He wanted to become a rich man because of his experiences at Satis House. One day, an unknown benefactor gave him money and told him to go to London to become a gentleman, so he went to London. Pip learned and changed a lot from his experiences in the three places. However, Dickens is not only trying to show changes in Pip's character, but also trying to express the mutual relationship between humans and the effect of the surrounding environments.

Pip was an innocent boy who would not do anything wrong, but the environment and the circumstances around Pip made him a stealer. The story begins in a marsh area where Pip was living with his sister and her husband, Joe. They were not poor, but not rich. Pip's house was a normal "wooden house, as many of the dwellings in our country were - most of them, at that time" (Dickens, 8). Pip was only a seven-year-old boy, but one day, he met a convict who was hurt and starving. The convict first threatened Pip, and then ate the bread that Pip brought with him. After eating it, he demanded more food, so Pip promised to get food for him and went home. Pip tried hard to steal food for the convict. He did not even sleep at night because "[he] knew that at the first faint dawn of morning [he] must rob the pantry" (15). Right after he stole the food, he ran to the place where the convict was waiting for him. Most children would not give food to a convict; they would be more likely to tell their parents and ask for help. However, the environment around Pip did not allow him to get any help from adults. Pip was living with his sister who often beat him and would not listen to him, and the convict was too scary. He said in his mind, "I was in mortal terror of the young man who wanted my heart and liver; I was in mortal terror of my interlocutor with the ironed leg; I was in mortal terror of myself, from whom an awful promise had been extracted" (15). Therefore, Pip ended up helping the convict.

Going to Satis House had a colossal influence and made the first significant change on Pip's life. With Mr. Pumblechook, Pip went to Miss Havisham's house, Satis House. The outward appearance of Satis House was somewhat heartless and restricted. The house "was of old brick, and dismal, and had a great many iron bars to it. Some of the windows had been walled up; of those that remained, all the lower were rustily barred. There was a courtyard in front, and that was barred ... No brewing was going on in it, and none seemed to have gone on for a long long time" (55). Miss Havisham was a rich but crazy lady because she had been shocked by being rejected from her fiancй on her wedding day. She had been wearing her wedding dress for over thirty years, and the house was also kept as it was on the wedding day. Miss Havisham showed Pip a room that was "covered with dust and mould, and dropping to pieces" (84). It was the room that had the Miss Havisham's wedding cake, which was also rotten and covered with "cobwebs" (85). Everything Pip saw in Satis House was odd, rotten, and nonhuman.

At Satis House, an arrogant girl, named Estella, gave him a great sense of shame. When Miss Havisham told Estella to play with Pip, she called Pip a "common labouring-boy" and indicated that she did not want to play with him (60). She mocked and disdained Pip every time she speaks a word. Pip had a hard time at Satis House, and he said in his mind, "her contempt was so strong, that it became infectious, and I caught it" (60). After he came back home, Pip described the day as a "memorable day," and thought "it made a great changes in" him (72). The change was truly big, and Pip was not a boy who was ashamed of himself or his surroundings before he visited Satis House. However, he was now ashamed of everything around him because he was afraid of Estella or Miss Havisham seeing his and his surrounding's common or poor quality. Therefore, Pip tried to change his surroundings as much as possible. At that time, Joe could not write, so Pip decided to teach him. Pip said "[he] wanted to make Joe less ignorant and common, that he might be worthier of [his] society and less open to Estella's reproach" (109). The seven-year-old boy who was once pure and used to help other people, especially the convict, was now corrupted and turned into an evil boy who was ashamed of his family and his home.

However, Pip's change did not stop here. Dickens created an unknown benefactor who provided money for Pip to go to London and be a gentleman. A week before Pip went to London, he could not even sleep on his own bed because he already felt he was a rich gentleman and too good for his current surroundings. He described his emotional change by saying that "it was an uneasy bed now, and I never slept the old sound sleep in it any more" (146). This quotation indicates that Pip's attitude had already changed, and he is not Pip, who he was before, any more.

Then Pip went to London, and his first impression of London was that it was dirty and horrible. At the time Pip arrived at London, his guardian, Mr. Jaggers, was not there yet, so Pip decided to walk around. He came into Smithfield and thought it was "the shameful place, being all asmear with filth and fat and blood foam, seemed to stick to" him (165). He ran out of that dirty place and ended up at Newgate Prison. He met a stranger there who showed gallows and told him