Great Expectations Pip's Changes

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Pip goes through many changes throughout Great Expectations due to the changes in his social class. Dickens explores the class system of Victorian England, ranging from the most despicable criminals (Magwitch) to the poor peasants (Joe and Biddy) to the middle class (Pumblechook) to the very rich (Miss Havisham). P ip originally believed that the higher your class the better you were treated and the more love and amenities were given to you, this is why he was frustrated at Joe for raising him the way he did. “I wished Joe had been rather more genteelly brought up, and then I should have been so too.” (1.8.92) Pip is irritated that Joe was raised in the lower class and as a result so was he. Joe was Pip’s father figure and because of that Pip was never taught well manners or how to behave gentleman like around other people. Once he is introduce to Miss Havisham, Pip realizes what he has missed out on and he wants a better life. Pip knows he is a common peasant “I took the opportunity of being alone in the court-yard, to look at my coarse hands and my common boots.” (1.8.92) Pip is acknowledging the fact that he is common because he is in Miss Havisham’s garden and is comparing himself to her and Estella. His coarse hands represent the fact that Pip is a dirty working man and his common boots signify that he can’t afford fancier apparel. Pip becomes self-aware and realizes the differences in classes and knows he wants to move up the social web. Pip has moved to London and fulfilled his dream of becoming a gentleman when Joe notifies him that he is coming to visit. “Whatever I acquired, I tried to impart to Joe. This statement sounds so well, that I cannot in my conscience let it pass unexplained. I wanted to make Joe less ignorant and common, that he might be worthier of my society and less open to Estella's reproach.” (1.15.2) When Joe
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