The development of Pip in Great Expectations

Philip Pirrip, who is popularly known as Pip, is the central character of the novel Great Expectations written by Charles Dickens. It can be said that all the incidents of this novel took place around him. We can see child Pip, and from there, we can see teenage Pip. Great Expectations is based on events that took place in the life of young Pip. It is considered one of the best and most popular novels by Charles Dickens. Few days after its publication, it received good responses all over England, and many copies were sold. 

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If we look at the development of Pip, we can see two types of development taken place. On the one hand, Pip becomes a teenager from a child, and on the other hand, he becomes matured from immature. He spends many years dreaming, and having suffered a lot of pain and misery, he comes to realize the real significance of life and becomes matured. He can realize that the meaning of life does not mean being a gentleman and does not mean mingle with aristocratic people after being rich. 

Life has its deep meaning and finding out that meaning is the success of life. For this reason, from an incompetent and immature boy, he turns matured and responsible and starts facing life with courage. 

At the beginning of the novel, we can see that Pip is a young orphan boy. At the age of six, he meets a convict who has escaped from jail, and Pip gives him some food, stealing from his home. This experience put an immense impact on Pip’s mind. However, later we come to know that it has even a larger impact on the convicted boy. 

Miss Havisham is a rich woman of that village who did not get married in her whole life. Miss Havisham summoned Pip to her home to play. She had an adopted daughter named Estella. Pip did not know about the identity of Estella and her parents. Miss Havisham encouraged Pip to play with Estella and fall in love with her after being matured. Whether it is the encouragement of Miss Havisham or the beauty of Estella, Pip deeply falls in love with her, and although this affection was so much from Pip’s side, Estella did not like him that much. 

The relationship between Pip and Estella was not that much complicated. Pip liked Estella because she was beautiful and attractive. On the other hand, to Estella, Pip was a village boy, and she did not like him that much. As days go by, he firmly starts believing that Miss Havisham wants Estella to marry him. But Miss Havisham did not have that kind of intention in her mind. On the other hand, Estella moved forward in her way and did not give importance to Pip’s love. 

As a result, Estella also falls into deep trouble. The person she married was rich but did not love her that much. As a result, Estella was not happy in her married life. The only reason she did not marry Pip was that he was not that attractive or important person to her. For this reason, she denied Pip, while Pip had a great expectation about Estella. Because of the conflict between the two, both Pip and Estella become unhappy in their lives. 

Pip’s attitude changes when he becomes a teenager. On the one hand, he sees a dream to become a gentleman. On the other hand, he neglects Joe, who loves him very much. Pip has become more spoilt by associating with rich boys. More importantly, he thinks that becoming a gentleman means wasting money and hanging up with boys of aristocratic background. At his young age, Pip made two mistakes. Firstly, he did not work hard despite getting the opportunity to study. Secondly, he tried to forget his past, which made him even more immature and spoilt. 

Joe loves Pip with all his heart, and as he has no children, Joe has formed a parental affection for Pip. Whenever Pip falls into trouble, Joe comes to his rescue, and when Pip gets into huge debt, Joe takes responsibility for all his debts and repays them. But Pip has done one good thing. After losing everything in his life, he could realize that Joe is a good man, and he promises to Joe that he would repay all the money. He goes to Egypt, taking responsibility for his own life, and works there as a clerk for eleven years with full conviction and gets back to his normal life. 

Pip’s relationship with fellow convict Magwitch at the prison was somewhat different. At a very young age, Pip met Magwitch and he tried to change Pip’s life in a positive way. But Pip misunderstands him, and thus, he gets into deeper problems in life. Magwitch really loved Pip from his heart, and out of sheer kindness, he remembers him and spends a large portion of his asset for Pip. 

The development of Pip is really nice. Actually, this novel makes us realize that life is difficult, and we should not dream too much. There is nothing wrong with having a dream, but going over life with dreams does not bring any good to anyone. Pip has done some mistakes in his life and the biggest of them is to try to become a gentleman. Dreaming about Estella was another big mistake of Pip. On the one hand, if he tried to get educated and marry an educated girl of a middle-class family who may not be rich like Estella but would have loved him, his life could have been filled with happiness. 

But he has made both mistakes. He wastes a lot of money and gets into severe trouble in life. However, the good side of Pip’s character is that he could realize his mistakes at one stage, and even though it was some late, he finally tried to correct those mistakes and come back to the normal course of life. Taking responsibility for making mistakes is the best side of Pip in the novel. The readers perhaps did not like Pip initially, but later on, having seen his effort to overturn what he did in the past, readers must have felt sympathy and formed some respect for Pip.