1) Pip has already gained some of the snobbery associated with the upper class he is to be a part of. What things struck you as somewhat snobbish behavior on his part? What do you think of his behavior in this chapter?
2) How do people treat Pip differently now that he has expectations of "being a gentleman"? Look particularly at Mr Trabb, Trabb's boy, Pumblechook, and any others.
3) Why is it significant that Pip should always and forever keep the name of Pip?
Thus ends the first stage of Pip's Great Expectations!
3) I think Pip's name is significant because his name connects him to his life before his 'great expectation' and what he came from. Before his 'expectation' and before he met Miss Havisham, Pip's life was simple. He knew what he was going to do and had little worries (until he met the convict). Pip's name will always remind him of his life before his dream came true no matter how rich and how much of a gentleman Pip becomes. Because of his name he will always be connected to that simplistic life.
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ReplyDeletePip starts to see himself higher than his friends and believes that wealth defines your significance. Since he has become wealthier than most of his friends, he believes that he must be treated with more respect. For example Pip says, “I felt a sublime compassion for the poor creatures... I promised myself that I would do something for them one of these days”(145). Pip feels that he is much greater than the people of his town (the poor creatures) and he believes he should prepare a feast for them so that they might realize that he is of a greater class than them. Pip is also so caught up in thinking about himself, he fails to see the lesson that Biddy tries to teach him about pride. Instead he believes that Biddy is “dissatisfied on account of [his] rise in fortune and [she] cant help showing it”(150). Pip also says that his “clothes [are] rather a disappointment”(156) which shows how snobbish Pip has become considering he cannot be content with his new clothing even though they are much greater than his old clothes. This shows that we are always wanting more. We may think that once we have more money we will be completely satisfied, but it is our human nature to never be completely content and we will always want more.
1.) Pip begins to look down on others, even people like Joe who he had seen as an equal previously. It's not only people that he begins to look down upon, it is also the job he has, that he used to be so captivated by when he was younger-being a blacksmith. He sees the work dirty and unfit for someone like him. "I continued at heart to hate my trade and be ashamed of home." (Dickens, 125) Not only is he looking down on common folk life, he is ashamed of such a thing even more than when Estella commented on his calloused hands, and boots.
ReplyDeleteOnce you start to feel ashamed of things, you no longer associate yourself with them, and thus Pip does not fully see himself as common folk anymore. He even starts to see common folk dumber than him, "How do you manage, Biddy... To learn everything that I learn, and to always keep up with me?" (Dickens, 126) Obviously it was because Biddy was in school with.Pip, and that she took her own terms to learn when she was not caring for the household. It is also isn't impossible that by hearing conversations, and watching Pip and Joe work, that she's picked up a few tricks and quite possibly learned about blacksmithing instead of doing any actual blacksmithing.
A line later, it mentions that the future Pip acknowledges him of his vanity in terms of intellect. "I was beginning to be rather vain of my knowledge." (Dickens, 126)
The way Pip talks when he speaks to Biddy by the waterside after receiving news of his great expectations is laced with vanity. Pip has undoubtedly become full of himself and thinks himself superior to Biddy and Joe. "...said I, in a virtuous and superior tone..." (Dickens, 159) Pardon the language, but in less than a day Pip gets wind of his "great expectations" he has returned to being a self centred ass.
Good analysis here. An "exaggerated" sense of self importance is all Pip's expectations have brought him so far.
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