Great Expectations 339even then,” and he notes the oppressive gloom of
the nearby old brewery. But at the end of the same
passage, he sees her “pass among the extinguished
fires, and ascend some light iron stairs, and go out
by a gallery high overhead, as if she were going out
into the sky.”
Pip believes that Miss Havisham is his secret
benefactor and that he is being groomed to be
the eventual husband of her ward Estella. Miss
Havisham feeds this false hope, knowing that Pip
has probably jumped to this conclusion. Estella,
however, actually warns Pip against thinking this
way, telling him, “You ridiculous boy, will you never
take warning? Or do you kiss my hand in the same
spirit in which I once let you kiss my cheek?” Even
Pip himself knows that his pursuit defies logic,
saying, “I knew to my sorrow, often and often, if
not always, that I loved her against reason, against
promise, against peace, against hope.” Despite this
knowledge, his hope lives on—Until, that is, Estella
is betrothed to Bentley Drummle, and Magwitch
returns to confirm he is the benefactor.
It is at this point in the novel that Dickens
champions the pure hope of Magwitch over the false
hope of Pip. Pip realizes that he is a grown man who
has responsibilities, to Magwitch and to himself, and
in the end, he does the right thing by trying to help
Magwitch escape. Magwitch dies in the attempt, but
he dies with the lifelong object of his hope attained.
Pip has become a gentleman, and Pip treats him as
only a son would.
Jennifer McClinton-Temple
reJectiOn in Great Expectations
The story of the orphaned Pip, Great Expectations
is peopled with characters who are rejected by their
country, by society, and by those they love. These
painful rejections have a variety of effects on the
characters, however, with some of them learning
and growing because of these experiences and others
remaining in a state of rejection their entire lives.
Pip begins the story as a rejected child. He
never knew his parents and has been brought up “by
hand” by his sister, Mrs. Joe, and her husband, Joe
Gargery, the blacksmith. Mrs. Joe is a hard woman,
almost comically so. Pip and Joe live their lives in
a constant state of fear that they might incur her
considerable wrath. Mrs. Joe makes sure Pip knows
how she feels about fate having delivered him to
her doorstep, telling him that with hindsight, she
would never have agreed to raise him. Feeling largely
unwanted as a child and rarely knowing what he has
done to engender his sister’s bad feelings have an
effect on Pip’s character. Not only does he become
quite sensitive to the rejection of others, but he is
also convinced, at a very young age, that the world
is inherently unfair. He says, “Within myself, I had
sustained, from my babyhood, a perpetual conflict
with injustice. I had known, from the time I could
speak, that my sister, in her capricious and violent
coercion, was unjust to me.” Thus, when Pip is
rejected by Estella and Miss Havisham, a part of
him feels the need to fight this injustice, to prove
that he is worthy of love and admiration.
It is this early rejection at such a young age from
these three women, two of whom might have acted
as surrogate mothers to Pip, which causes him, in
turn, to reject those who actually do love him: Joe,
Biddy, and later Magwitch. Pervasive rejection has
left Pip feeling as though he must constantly prove
his worthiness. Since Joe, Biddy, and Magwitch
already think him very worthy, their affection does
not seem worth his time. When Joe visits him in
London, he thinks of the visit with nothing but
embarrassment, saying, “If I could have kept him
away by paying money, I certainly would have paid
money.” His greatest fear is that Joe will cross paths
with Bentley Drummle, because he fears Drummle’s
scorn. Pip is conscious of the fact that he is being
“weak” and “mean” in his rejection of Joe, but his fear
of Drummle discovering his humble background
overpowers him.
Magwitch, especially, is a horror to Pip. When he
discovers that Magwitch has been his benefactor all
along, he does everything he can to hide from that
truth, even asking the lawyer Jaggers whether or not
there might be another benefactor in addition to the
convict. Discovering that Miss Havisham has never
been his supporter and that he was never intended
for Estella’s hand takes him back to his childish
state of rejection all over again. He has spent years
believing that despite their outward signs to him,
Miss Havisham and Estella secretly admired him.