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'How does Dickens portray pips moral journey throughout Great Expectations?'

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Great expectations coursework- 'How does Dickens portray pips moral journey throughout Great Expectations?' The novel 'Great expectations' was written in 1861 as part of a journal called 'All year round'. The Great expectations storyline is based on an orphan and his moral journey to becoming a gentleman. There are many different views on what a gentleman is. To be a gentleman in the 1800s, you would either have to be born with the status or you would have to move on up and become one through your own means. Some people become gentleman with the help of a benefactor, a benefactor provides someone with the necessary things needed to become a gentleman or successful in life e.g. giving them money. Some people are seen as moral gentleman, this is where you are kind hearted, loving and gentle naturally without being taught it. Usually gentlemen are seen as people who dress smartly, have good manners, are often wealthy and have been given the status through birth. ...read more.


In the second part of pips moral journey is where he meets Estella and miss. Haversham. Miss Haversham invited Pip over to play with and accompany estella. Miss Haversham saw it as an opportunity to break Pip's heart by allowing him to allocate feelings for Estella and then sending Estella away to france to allow her to become a lady. After seeing all this happen to him, Pip decided he wanted to become a gentleman so that he would be at the same status as Estella and he thought that she may even like him for it. At one point Estella called pip 'common and coarse' she also commented on his labourers hand and thick boots. All of this made Pip want to become a gentleman even more and it made him think of other people like himself as lower than him. Later on in the story, Pip becomes Jo's apprentice as a Blacksmith. He worked there for a fair few years until he was contacted by someone from London. ...read more.


He also found out that Estella was Magwitch's child and was therefore no better than him all along. This is the point where Pip becomes a true gentleman as he realises that all people are equal and that you don't need to be smartly dressed or have lots of money to be a gentleman 'A true gentleman in manners must be a true gentleman at heart.' To conclude this essay I would like to point out the likeness between Pips life being like a fairy tale. He starts out life poor, meets Miss Haversham who he sees as a fairy Godmother and things start becoming clearer to him as the story moves along until he realises what everything is really about (happy ending) e.g. 'what a true gentleman is'. From the start the story is read in 1st person narrative as an adult, even when he is speaking about his childhood which means the novel is more of an account than a story. As the novel is written in 1st person, you get the thoughts and feelings with the overviews of the older Pip. Scott Emmett ...read more.

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