Pip’s changing perceptions of himself, the world, and the people he interacts with are affected by various characters throughout Stage One of the book Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. In this section of the story, Pip’s life is centered upon the Forge and the Satis House. The characters in these settings alter and shape his developing character and paradigms of the world by either nurturing and caring for him, treating him without regard to his feelings, or by exposing him to how different people perceive contentment.
The characters that most directly affect his perceptions are Joe and Biddy, Mrs. Joe and his Uncle Pumblechook, and Miss Havisham and Estella. Joe and Biddy shape Pip’s perceptions by nurturing him in an environment of kindness and instilling the mindset that contentment can be achieved as a common person to make sure he would understand at a young age to not define someone by the initial prejudice you have for them and have the greater character to perceive contentment as not one with material things, but one without. Joe Gargery is Pip’s father figure whose kindness and generosity heavily influence Pip’s actions towards other people.
In Chapter 3, Pip is able to understand that convicts are humans oo and should be treated as such, “Pitying his desolation.. I made bold to say, ‘l am glad you enjoy it”(14). Joe’s kindness can be seen here, through how Pip sympathises with the convict. Pip is able to see people not by their past or initial demeanor, but by who they present themselves as after showing them kindness and trying to understand them. Along with Joe, Biddy expresses that the life she lives is complete and whole without the need of extensive or lavish things.
Later in the book, after his perceptions have been tarnished and common was no longer good enough, Pip asks, “How do you manage, Biddy, to earn everything that I learn, and always keep up with me?. She managed her whole domestic life, and wonderfully too” (97). Although Pip says this after he stops thinking that being common is fine, it shows that he admires the fact that she lives a domestic, common life, but is still happy and smart. Earlier in the book, seeing Biddy content, happy, and smart helps prove to him that a common life is anything he would ever need.
Both of these examples show how Pip’s perceptions are affected by how they treat him with kindness as a young child and through characters like Biddy, who are happy, intellectual, and content ithout an abundance of material things. Through their nurturing and encouragement, they createthe perceptions in Pip’s mind that he should first seek to understand people and overcome his initial prejudices of them by treating them with kindness and that a common lifestyle will satisfy all of his wants and needs. But, Pip’s close relations aren’t all good influences because along with Joe and Biddy’s kindness, Mrs.
Joe and Uncle Pumblechook try their best to destroy Pip’s confidence in himself. Mrs. Joe and Uncle Pumblechook’s characters influence the way Pip feels about himself by treating him without respect or regard to his thoughts. The way Mrs. Joe establishes her dominance within the family, by constantly beating and dragging down both Joe and Pip, makes Pip lose confidence in his ability to speak and stick up for himself: “… nor because I was not allowed to speak (I didn’t want to speak)… No; I should not have minded that if they would only have left me alone” (19).
Pip ponders these things during the Christmas dinner while he is constantly bombarded with a barrage of mean, ruthless, and unfounded accusations throughout the night, but is too intimidated by Mrs. Joe and the other elders to oppose and expose the faults in their comments about him. The perception f worthlessness is engraved into his personality, through this constant downsizing and unfounded scolding, so deeply that he himself doesn’t believe in his words and thinks they would mean nothing if he spoke up.
Uncle Pumblechook does much of the same as Mrs. Joe and uses questions along with these comments to make Pip see himself as inferior and comparatively worthless. During a visit with Uncle Pumblechook, he asks Pip some arithmetic questions: “On my politely bidding him Good morning, he said, pompously, ‘Seven times nine, boy? And how should I be able to answer, dodged in that way, in a strange place, on an empty stomach! ” (41). Uncle Pumblechook asks Pip right away because he knew Pip wouldn’t be able to solve it.
Pumblechook humiliates Pip and puts himself at a higher level by utilizing the knowledge he has over Pip and performs his sick, sly methods of putting people down, always acting as the catalyst for Mrs. Joe to scold Pip. This creates the perception inside of Pip that he is worthless and stupid, further decreasing his confidence in himself. Both of these characters actions toward Pip create the perceptions of inferiority and worthlessness, as if nothing he says matters.
At the Christmas dinner, Mrs. Joe and Uncle Pumblechook treat him horrendously y constantly accusing Pip of falsehoods, but Pip is too scared and does not have the confidence to stick up for himself and his true morals. They create the perception that he is below them and that he is not good enough to make a sufficient argument against what people say about him. These characters’ influences create the perfect child to be abused by Mrs. Havisham and Estella, an honest child who believes that people have good intentions and does not have the self-confidence to stick up for what he truly believes in.
Miss Havisham and Estella show Pip what it is like to be very wealthy in their upper class society with enormous amounts of aterialistic property and wealth. Both of these characters use their higher class to influence Pip’s idea of success and how he perceives contentment and achievement. Miss Havisham affects Pip’s idea of contentment by always alluding to the prospect of marrying Estella when she talks to him, “Does she grow prettier Pip? ‘ And when I said Yes (for indeed she did), would seem to enjoy it greedily” (73).
Miss Havisham uses Pip as Estella’s test subject for breaking men’s hearts and by doing so, she creates an environment where Pip begins to want more and longs to match the quality of an upper class gentleman that Estella upposedly deserves. She continually aids Estella in telling Pip how low and embarrassing his lifestyle is, making Pip feel that he is not good enough, that he needs to be rich and wealthy to succeed in life and meet the requirements of what Miss Havisham and Estella considers worthy.
Estella acts in conjunction with Miss Havisham as the inducement for Pip’s wanting and longing for a wealthier, “better” life. She makes fun of Pip’s common language frequently, “He calls the knaves, Jacks, this boy! said Estella with disdain, before our first game was out. ‘ And what coarse hands he has! And what thick boots! (46). She constantly makes Pip feel insecure about his common ways, which he originally thought was completely fine. When Pip meets Estella, he seems to believe what she says and takes everything she says very seriously.
This forces him into thinking that being a common boy is worthless and wishes to be a wealthy gentleman that is worthy of Estella’s hand. Miss Havisham and Estella both force Pip into the perspective that being a low class, blacksmith worker is embarrassing and frankly “low” and that he must have enormous amounts of material wealth to be considered normal and content with his life. He egins to see people like Joe and Biddy in Estella’s perspective: that people like them are not good enough and that their lives amount to nothing compared to their upper class lives.
All of these characters have contributed to Pip’s perception of his life moving forward in the book. Pip feels that contentedness can only be achieved through materialistic wealth. He still tries see the best in people, but wants much more than Biddy or Joe ever do. His needs have become those of Mrs. Joe, Uncle Pumblechook, Miss Havisham, and Estella-he wants to become a gentleman of insurmountable wealth and property. Joe, Biddy, Mrs. Joe, Uncle