Pip At The Beginning Of The Novel example essay topic

... are the powers that allow Dickens to create David Copperfield. He will extend those powers beyond the world of the novel to continue to address the evils of a social system that is oppressive and life denying. Dickens extended his capacity to address social issues and to provide entertainment by founding Household Words, a weekly magazine that first appeared on March 30, 1850, and continued until he replaced it with All the Year Round, which he founded and edited in 1859. In 1850 he also helped to establish the Guild of Literature and Art to create an endowment for struggling artists. Money was raised for the Guild through amateur theatrical performances that Dickens usually performed in, directed, and managed. Dickens was a brilliant actor and loved the stage, producing plays throughout his career as fund raisers for the many charitable concerns he worked tirelessly to support.

His love for the theater culminated in his captivating public readings from his own novels (World Book 153). Bleak House, appearing in twenty monthly installments from March, 1852, to September, 1853, is a scathing indictment of government, law, philanthropy, religion, and society in nineteenth century England. The organizing principle of the plot is the hopelessly entangled lawsuit of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, which destroys the lives of all who become enmeshed in the Court of Chancery through the suit. The legal system is exposed as itself a symptom of what is wrong with a society that is structurally flawed. The mud, ooze, slime, and fog that symbolically dominate the world of this novel suggest that this society cannot be redeemed through a simple restructuring. The spontaneous combustion of K rook, the counterpart of the Lord Chancellor, indicates that this society must be fundamentally altered or it will explode of its own internal corruption.

Jo, the crossing sweep, has neither the energy nor the tools to sweep away the mud and slime into which the slum of Tom-all-Alone's is crumbling. And Tom-all-Alone's is infecting all of London, just as surely as Jo's smallpox infects the novel's heroine, Esther Summerson. If this society is to be redeemed, Dickens insists, it will be through the values represented by Esther Summerson. Jo's broom cannot sweep away the mud of Tom-all-Alone's, but the clarity and warmth of Esther's sympathetic love may be capable, if it becomes contagious, of illuminating this world and dissipating the fog.

Esther and Allan Wood court, the physician who attends Jo at his death, marry, and we believe that their family can contain, in miniature, the order and love that must be transmitted to the larger society if it is to be saved. But Dickens is not sure, at this point, if what Esther and Allan represent can withstand the evils of London: they set up household in a country cottage, provided by the benevolent John Jarndyce, Esther's guardian (Ayer 79). The Crimean War, which broke out in March, 1854, prevented the government from addressing the domestic social ills Dickens had been railing against since at least as early as Oliver Twist. The inept government, which cannot seem to get beyond just muddling along, is captured brilliantly in the portrayal of the Circumlocution Office in Little Dorrit, published in monthly numbers from December, 1855, to June, 1857. The dominant symbol of the novel is imprisonment, and society itself becomes the prison of its inhabitants.

Dickens had begun the novel, significantly, with the title 'Nobody's Fault' in mind, but later entitled the work after its heroine, Amy Dorrit. Amy is the daughter of the 'Father of the Marshal sea,' who has been confined in debtors' prison for twenty five years. Arthur Clennam, whose gloomy childhood resembles what David Copperfield's would have been had he been raised by the Murdstones, is a middle-aged man looking for meaning in life. Clennam and Little Dorrit escape the imprisonment of this stultifying society by discovering their love for each other, a love that is difficult to discover since Arthur is so much older than Amy and she has the goodness, and physical resemblance, of a child. Importantly for Dickens, Arthur and Amy are willing to engage the fallen society of London and to attempt to change it. After their wedding Arthur and Amy 'went quietly down into the roaring streets, inseparable and blessed; and as they passed along in sunshine and shade, the noisy and the eager, and the arrogant and the froward and the vain, fretted, and chafed, and made their usual uproar.

' Unlike Esther Summerson and her husband, Arthur and Amy stay in London where they live 'a modest life of usefulness and happiness. ' (Kaplan 174) On April 30, 1859, Dickens launched the weekly journal, All the Year Round. To get the journal off to a good start, the first installment of A Tale of Two Cities appeared in the inaugural issue and continued in weekly installments until November 26, 1859. Set in the time of the French Revolution, this novel once again looks at the potential for revolutionary violence Dickens had explored in Barnaby Ridge.

If the ruling class in England does not take seriously the lesson of the French Revolution, Dickens appears to be saying, such a violent outburst is possible again. While Dickens deplores violence, his sympathies are clearly with the victims of oppression. Only the kind of sacrificial love represented by Sydney Carton's willing sacrifice of himself for his loved ones will be able to prevent such a revolution if society continues along its present course In an effort to pick up declining sales of All the Year Round, Dickens once again published a novel in weekly installments of the journal. Great Expectations ran from December 1, 1860, to August 3, 1861.

Dickens and Catherine had recently separated after over twenty years of marriage. Perhaps in an attempt to come to terms with his personal unhappiness, Dickens returns to the first person narrator in Great Expectations. To assure that he did not fall into 'unconscious repetition' as he wrote this story of a 'hero to be a boy-child, like David,' he reread David Copperfield (World Book CD-ROM) In Our Mutual Friend, published in twenty installments from May, 1864, to November, 1865, Dickens makes still another advance in his artistic vision. Dominated by the dust heaps and the spiritual wasteland they symbolize, the vision of this novel suggests that we must die to ourselves if we are to be redeemed, and society must forego material pursuits if it is to become spiritually and culturally whole. The recurrent theme of death and resurrection indicates Dickens's developing understanding of the meaning of personal fulfillment that he explores in earlier novels, particularly in David Copperfield and Great Expectations (Smith 193).

Our Mutual Friend ends with Mortimer Lightwood, who feels that, like Dickens, he has 'the eyes of Europe upon him' as he tells his stories at the Veneerings' dinner parties, seeking the true voice of society while he reports the story of Eugene and Lizzie. He discovers it in Twemlow, who knows what it means to act nobly. Dickens must himself have been wondering about the voice of society with regard to his personal situation, and probably with Mortimer's perspective. Neither Dickens nor Mortimer participates directly in the happiness of those they tell stories about. But they share the vision and take joy in seeing the results of the stories and the effects those stories have on their audiences (Ackroyd 195). Dickens died June 9, 1870, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

In a letter to Forster, Carlyle sends his condolences: 'I am profoundly sorry for you and indeed for myself and for us all. It is an event world-wide; a unique of talents suddenly extinct; and has 'eclipsed,' we too may say, 'the harmless gaiety of nations. ' No death since 1866 [the year of Carlyle's wife's death] has fallen on me with such a stroke. No literary man's hitherto ever did. The good, the gentle, high-gifted, ever-friendly, noble Dickens, -- every inch of him an Honest Man. ' (Ackroyd 215) One of the predominant themes in the novel Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is a comparison between a person's natural personality and code of ethics and the nurtured code instilled in the person through his or her experience with family or society.

This is a very important matter in that it profoundly affects a person's character. The strong effects of a person's upbringing are demonstrated by Estella. Estella is, by nature, a very caring person. She develops a relationship with Pip and, on more than one occasion, blatantly warns him of the danger of his pursuing her.

She, therefore, is obviously very concerned for Pip. However, there is another side to Estella. Miss Havisham took Estella in at a very young age and, still embittered by her experience with her former fiancee, determined that she would use Estella as her weapon against mankind. She, therefore, molded Estella into a cruel, cold, and unemotional person through years of training.

The contrast between Estella's kind and caring side and her cruel and heartless side, imposed upon her by Miss Havisham, provides the comparison of nature and nurture. The same type of contrasting personality develops in Pip as he works toward being a gentleman of London's high society. Pip, at the beginning of the novel, has a strong conscience and a good sense of right and wrong. However, as the novel progresses and Pip becomes educated and becomes the beneficiary of great wealth, the effects of the nurturing of society and the values of society begin to show in his personality. He who had once been so happy with Joe and Biddy was now ashamed to know them. Pip's experience in London taught him that the way to achieve personal happiness and satisfaction was to try to increase one's own wealth and status, regardless of how the actions he takes in attempting to ascertain this objective might affect others.

Therefore, selfishness and egotism are often characteristics that result from the nurture of society, as is the case with both Estella and Pip. To be sure, the evil characteristics of Estella's personality were a result of Miss Havisham's selfish desire to use Estella to serve as her weapon to get back at all men. As for Pip, he continually hurts Joe with no hesitation believing that he must do so in order to gain the respect of the elite of society. Again, the obvious contrast between Pip's original sense of morality and his self-centered personality during the time of his expectations provide a contrast between the effects of nature and nurture. The greatest difference between these two influences is their manner for gaining happiness. Nature teaches Pip and Estella to serve others.

It is clear at the end of the novel that neither one of these characters gained satisfaction by hurting others; furthermore, Pip's only true source of happiness for the duration of his expectations was his service to Herbert. Nature, however, teaches that happiness is achieved through serving one's self. This side advocates the use of deceit, manipulation, oppression, and back-stabbing in order to help one's self. Such is the attitude of Pumblechook and Miss Havisham (previous to her conversion). They often deceive and manipulate others in order to gain what they want.

Though they are both successful, it is apparent that neither one of them is happy. In this novel, Dickens demonstrates that the only way to successfully attain self-satisfaction and happiness is to follow the course of nature and help others. Pip, who was never happy during the time of his expectations though he had wealth, achieves his happiness at the end of the novel by reverting to his nature and becoming a moral, caring, and helpful person whose greatest concern was to make others happy. One of the most interesting and mysterious themes in Great Expectations is infatuation and how it compares and relates to love.

Infatuation, which is really nothing but a big crush or obsession, is often termed as 'false love. ' This is so because when a person has feelings of infatuation, he or she usually thinks they are in love. In all reality, he or she is only experiencing a new excitement of seeing what it is like to have feelings for another, even if those feelings are only of physical attraction. That is why infatuation tends to be much more frequent with younger people than for older people. Young people are experiencing feelings for the first time and really do not know what all of their feelings mean. They do not know how deep the feelings are, how long they will last, or if the feelings are for all of the right reasons.

Older people have feelings just like younger people, but they also have old feelings to compare their new feelings with. The feelings they experienced in the past can be used to compare the present feelings they have and therefore make it easier to determine if their present feelings are of love or infatuation. Younger people must experience feelings with many other people before they can conclude whether or not their feelings are of love. As Pip shows in the novel, a person can be infatuated with another and then later on fall in love with them. Pip felt infatuation towards Estella for most of the book. Towards the end however, he indicated his love for her when he expressed his concern over her marrying Drummle.

This act shows love because although Pip realized he could not marry Estella, he wanted someone to marry her who would treat her like a queen. This was out of his love. If he had still been infatuated, he still would have been against Estella marrying Drummle, but only out of jealousy. Overall, infatuation is really a good thing. It provides experience for people to grow and learn about what kind of qualities they cherish and what kind of people they like to spend time with. If a person is infatuated and then finds out that the person they were infatuated with has a quality they do not like, it could teach a moral lesson about how the inside of a person is frequently more important than the outside.

Infatuation is therefore a tool to the overall growth and development of a human being. It leads us to discover our feelings and ultimately, love. Bondage is one of the most significant themes within Great Expectations. Bondage is a state of slavery or servitude in which one's freedom to choose or act is limited by some force.

In the case of Great Expectations this binding force is both external and internal. Internal bondage is the state of being bound only by one's personal attitudes, beliefs, and ideals. External bondage, on the other hand, is a by something externally, usually another character. However, it can be said that characters are not bound specifically to other characters, but rather to their own self-delusions regarding the other characters and their environments.

In Great Expectations, Pip is the prime example of bondage. He is bound externally to Estella, Miss Havisham, and later Magwitch. Internally, he is bound by his shame, guilt, fear, pride, and his expectations. Remarkably, all of these forms of bondage are inter-related or are sources of each other. For example, Pip's bondage to Estella through his infatuation lead to both his heightened sense of shame and desire for expectations. His shame in turn leads him to seek gentility and fulfill his expectations to become a gentleman.

Ultimately, his expectations distilled a sense of pride within him that was the source of all further bondage. It was his pride that allowed him to envision Miss Havisham as his benefactor and all the other 'poor dreams. ' Thus, he became bound to Miss Havisham as the source of his wealth and expectations. Bondage, moreover, both internal and external, is the result of the same influences: fear, shame, guilt, and pride. Externally, for example, Pip's fear and guilt allowed him to become bound to Magwitch. He feared being responsible for the capture and subsequent death of Magwitch so much that he allowed himself to become bound to him as his protector.

Internally, Pip's shame and pride kept him from going back to the forge and to good, simple Joe. Pip demonstrated that bondage can only be lifted by the truth. The truth is not easy to come by, however, as reason alone and the logic of others cannot reveal it to the heart of an individual. Constantly, Biddy revealed the truth to an un accepting Pip.

Pride must be first eradicated before the truth can be accepted. In most cases, as was the case with Pip, pride can only be diminished through profound suffering. Only when Pip was naked of all pride could he realize the truth and, thus, free himself Dickens, our greatest storyteller, may not have discovered the personal happiness in his own marriage that Eugene and John Harmon, the Pip and David of his last completed novel, achieve, but in the end he achieves personal fulfillment through his art. David realizes, in the life of his novel, what Dickens saw represented in Mary Hogarth, and what was not attainable in his own life. That Dickens's own fulfillment is in creating the vision rather than attaining it here may be explained in part by the fact that Dickens is an artist and in part by the kind of artist he is. According to Forster, Not his genius only, but his whole nature, was too exclusively made up of sympathy for, and with, the real in its most intense form, to be sufficiently provided against failure in the realities around him.

There was for him no 'city of the mind' against outward ills, for inner consolation and shelter. It was in and from the actual he still stretched forward to find the freedom and satisfaction of an ideal, and by his very attempts to escape the world he was driven back into the thick of it. But what he would have sought there, it supplies to none; and to get the infinite out of anything so finite, has broken many a stout heart. Dickens has shown us how the real can more nearly approximate his vision of the ideal through his novels.

In his later years he told those stories in brilliant public readings from his novels in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and in America, where people stood all night in lines one half mile long to purchase tickets to see him perform..