Comment on the development of the character of Pip Essay

We are acquainted with Pip from the outset of the novel, the opening lines telling of his unfortunate name and of the untimely deaths of his parents. To the reader, Pip appears to be a perceptive young boy- his visions about his parents were very lurid and imaginative, considering they were only taken from the font and style of his parent’s tombstones. Pip talks in a very matter of fact manner, i.e. he has no feelings of sadness or guilt when he talks about both his parents and his brothers. His encounter with the convict is a catalyst for change in Pips character, we can see that he changes from being quite confident and sure of himself, to being paranoid and afraid. When Pip hears the guns of the prison-ships, he begins to worry quite spontaneously, and links the fact that a convict has escaped with his encounter in the graveyard. This makes Pip even more fearful, seeing as now he has no doubt that the convict will carry out the necessary incisions to take out his heart and liver, unless of course Pip delivers the food. After the drop off has been made, Pip’s character takes another turn, this time into the realms of paranoia. Straight after Pip came back to his house in chapter four, Pip’s first words were ‘I fully expected to find a constable in the kitchen, waiting to take me up.’ All the way through the Christmas dinner when Pip’s relatives were present, Pip was constantly on the edge of his seat- ready to hide under the table every time Mrs. Gargery left the room, his fears about the missing food and drink riding high in his hyper-paranoid state. When Pumblechook informed Pip of his imminent visit to Miss Havisham’s, Pip is filled with questions to do with the purpose of his visit, and we see the deeply inquisitive side of Pip. His visit and time there bred mixed feelings within Pip: feelings of shame, ungratefulness, jealousy and a very prominent inadequacy within himself. He wishes he had Estella for himself, he wishes he had Miss Havisham’s fortune and he wishes he was someone else. He wishes he was someone uncommon, and someone well educated, gentlemanly and with fair hands. These wishes and strong feelings awakened his inadequacy and thus inadvertently his expectations. Estella sets an inner turmoil into motion within Pip. He feels strong feelings of love, jealousy, dislike for her (and himself) and an intuition which says leave her well alone, while his reckless love for her is in direct conflict with this. His love for her is a mystery to even himself, he analyses scrupulously his interactions with her, and the cold and heartless things she does to him, and he himself cannot explain the feelings he has towards her. Pip’s expectations change the way Pip thinks. He no longer looks upon himself as common and due to a few hints here and there from Miss Havisham, is convinced that she is his secret benefactor and that she has set him and Estella up for each other. This knowledge that Pip thinks he has leads to a change in Pip’s character, whereas before he was thinking of ways to improve himself so that Estella would look more kindly upon him, he now thinks that he just has to sit back, relax and wait. The truth was a shock to Pip, in his own words: ‘The abhorrence in which I held the man, the dread I had of him, the repugnance with which I shrank from him, could not have been exceeded if he had been some terrible beast.’ His foolishness with which he had treated Estella became apparent and inwardly Pip wished he had done more. He became both guilty and ashamed, and he came to almost resent his good fortunes, close to but not.