Pip and Joe's Regression

Blog Post #2
Topic C
April 24th, 2015

Within the first 23 chapters, Joe and Pip's relationship goes through a significant change. In the very beginning of the novel, Joe is the person Pip goes to for everything. Joe is one of the only people Pip has a good relationship with. Topic C says to address “conflicts or growth” of significant character relationships. The relationship between the two has not grown in a good way, the two have grown apart from each other and their relationship has weakened.

In the discussion, we all agreed that Joe and Pip’s relationship was weakening, most likely at the fault of Pip’s desire for a different lifestyle. This desire for change becomes very evident when Miss Havisham requests to meet Joe and they have a less than perfect encounter. Pip is confused and embarrassed as to why Havisham wants to see Joe. Pip considers Joe “ignorant and common” and claims he doesn’t fit in with “his lifestyle” that he has since acquired from Miss Havisham and Estella (105). Pip’s embarrassment of Joe’s ways and lifestyle is something that is a major change from the first few chapters.

As we also discussed, Pip is trying so hard to impress Estella because he thinks he has a chance with her; this is another major reason for Pip and Joe’s relationship regression. Because Pip believes that he now lives a formal and elegant lifestyle, Joe’s common ways (which are technically still his too) are something he wants to hide from Estella. This embarrassment is not only extremely degrading to Joe, but also shows how Pip has become very snobby because of this “new” lifestyle that he doesn’t even truly have.

A New Perspective

A New Perspective

~Blog Post #2~

Topic B

April 24, 2015

By Debra Dunham

In Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Pip begins as an orphaned boy content with his life and future. He loves Joe and cares about him, yet after he visits Miss Havisham, he begins to “feel ashamed of home,” (112). Instead of following Joe in being content with all he has, Pip begins to morph into the mindset of Mrs. Joe who always complains how she is a blacksmith’s wife.

When Pip visits Miss Havisham, he gets his first idea of how the wealthy live, and is called “a common labouring-boy” by Estella, whom he seems to fall in love with (63). After meeting her, Pip attempts to change his life from his own education, to the manners of his beloved Joe. In fact, he asks Biddy if she would help Joe with his manners as the way he acts “would not do him justice” in a higher social class (157). Pip expects and desires a luxurious life for himself with the opportunity he was handed.

He begins to think more like his sister as he spends more time with Miss Havisham and Estella. Pip finds himself looking down on everything in his life and believes his life to be to common. Mrs. Joe is discontent with her simple life just as Pip grows to desire an uncommon lifestyle. There is little information on Mrs. Joe’s early life, so it is a mystery as to how she acted when she was younger. She may even be more like Pip than first expected. Pip grew up contently and poor, but after encountering Miss Havisham he longs for a more lavish life. Similarly, Mrs. Joe longs to be wealthier, but is not given the chance. Perhaps she was influenced by someone comparable to Miss Havisham when she was Pip’s age.

Pip goes from an innocent young boy to a brat after he meets the depressed and insane Miss Havisham. Though his journey is not yet complete, it seems as though his life may not turn back around.

Pip's Snobby Attitude

Pip’s Snobby Attitude

~ Blog Post #2 ~

Topic B

April 24, 2015

By Anna Hoffman

In chapters twelve through twenty-four, we see a side of Pip that is different from the first few chapters. Pip continues to go to Miss Havisham’s home and begins to suspect that she is trying to help him become of a higher class. Eventually Pip finds out that that is not her intention and he becomes Joe’s apprentice. Because of this Pip is very upset and he doesn’t like the life his is living. He is constantly complaining to Biddy about how he wants more and it is easy to understand that Biddy is tired of hearing it.

Unexpectedly, Pip learns that he is to receive a large fortune from an unknown benefactor. Pip adopts a snobby attitude and thinks he is too good for the people he loves and his home. He even is cold to Biddy. When she asks him what was going on, Pip answered with, “I had come into great expectations from a mysterious patron” (Dickens138). Now because of these “great expectations” Pip is losing his good natured side and becoming an entirely new person. I believe that it is important to explore this because it is the first major change in Pip. I think Pip is acting snobby and selfish because he does not think he is good enough. Pip questions this himself, he knows that he is not disappointed in his fortune, rather he is, “dissatisfied with myself” (139). In order to make himself feel as though he belongs in the upper class, Pip tries to change his attitude to something more like Estella’s. Estella, other than Miss Havisham, is a woman of high class, and the only example Pip has seen, so it is not surprising to see Pip act like her.

This change in Pip’s attitude is a major event. Proceeding into the next chapters, it can be assumed that Pip’s new attitude will get him into trouble, and the Pip will eventually want to go back to his home in the marsh.

The Dreamer in Pip

Charles Dickens uses the title, Great Expectations, in response to the dreams of the main character, Pip. When he visits the home of Miss Havisham for the first time, he is opened to the life of the upper class in 19^th century London and meets Estella. Pip can never go back to the way life was before his first experience in the high life. This inspired his dreams and expectations.

Pip realizes that he could do much more in his life than to be a blacksmith when he returns from the Havisham household. He desires to become a gentleman, and his wish magically comes true after receiving the message that his ‘“Great Expectations’” caught the eye of a lawyer who wants to make Pip his apprentice (133). Joe and Pip are overjoyed and for once “[his] wild fancy was surpassed by sober reality’” (133). This marks the first of his expectations occurring in real life.

At the same time as he realizes what he desires for his future occupation, Pip also discovers who he wants to marry, Estella. Although he is a young boy when he first meets her, he knows that she is special even if she doesn’t give him the time of day. This plot is not resolved by chapter twenty-three, but after reading the book summary, it can be assumed that his fancy for Estella will give him the chance that most never receive. Dickens names his novel after Pip’s great expectations to reveal that the impossible is sometimes possible and to reveal the themes of being hopeful and never giving up on your dreams.

Blog Prompts

Blog Post Topics (Respond to 1 of the prompts below each week):

A.            Select a significant quotation from your reading; explore the significance of that quotation to the development of characters, conflict, theme, etc.

B.            Explore a significant change in an important character.

C.           Explore a significant relationship’s conflicts or growth.

D.           Write about a motif you see developing--where have you noticed it? What does it seem to be revealing about characters or themes?

E.            Explore the significance of a particular setting (not of the whole novel--pick a specific scene).

F.            Explore the significance of a passage with a lot of imagery or description.

G.           Write about a symbol--how does it exist both literally and figuratively? What does it represent?

H.           Explore connections between your book and something you’ve read previously in English class.

I.              Explore connections between the text and your own life.

J.            What is the significance of the book’s title? What