Large Pip, Medium Pip, and Small Pip

            Role-models to some are viewed as people that are amazing people. Some commit philanthropic deeds to communities, while others provide ideals that are viewed as inspirational. In Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Pip is an orphaned boy that tries out a variety of people as role models to make up for the lack of guidance he had as a young boy. His lack of directions shows the various sides to Pip. Pip encounters people that make up the different sides of Pip. Characters like Joe, Jaggers, and Magwitch each are very different but when their characteristics are morphed together, there is Pip.

            Magwitch, although a living being, is an apostrophe to society. Magwitch is a criminal, constantly scaring Pip and bullying him. After the story rolls forward, Magwitch opens up to Pip and we see that Magwitch had the same feeling of being orphaned. This is the first connection to Pip that we see. From first glance the audience sees Magwitch as a dark person with little significance, until Dickens characterizes Magwitch. At this point the audience can visualize the connections between Pip and this beast of a person.

            Mr. Joe Gargery also is part of the composition of Pip. Pip’s dreams and aspirations show the child within him. Joe has this aura to him as he is a romanticist; he trusts others and thinks via emotion like Pip.  Joe is also a blacksmith with an abusive wife. His character is not financially sound and with an overbearing wife there is quite a connection to Pip. As a boy Pip was not wealthy at all constantly struggling as an orphan, this connection to Joe is pretty blatant, but the connection between Mrs. Joe and Estella is hidden. Joe stays with his abusive wife and oddly never leaves her; Pip replicates the same principle with Estella. Estella is cruel and heartless to Pip but Pip can never seem to get away. This little Easter Egg placed by Dickens shows that Joe is also a piece of Pip.

            Lastly Jagger, the dark-side of Pip, also makes up the protagonist in this book. Jagger is the foil of Joe but nonetheless has some correlations to Pip. The difference between Jagger, Joe, and Magwitch is that Jagger is more like the older version of Pip. Jagger is cold and calculated, untrusting of others, and wealthy; all of these characteristics become “Older-Pip.” Toward the end of the story Pip cuts himself off from everyone and becomes a snob. Pip as an adult is somewhat wealthy up until Magwitch’s death.

            After analyzing Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, I firmly believe that dickens wrote this novel to use an extended metaphor to analyze an individual and the characteristics between an individual. Throughout the story there are conflicting characteristics within Pip and on top of that he tries to find himself.