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   pmiranda2857 Teacher
   High School - 10th Grade

   eNotes Editor

   Although Pip comes from crude people, like Joe and Mrs. Joe, his sister, Pip is turned into a gentleman, not by Miss Havisham, as he suspects, but by the money of a convict.  

   The source of Pip's money and rise to the status of gentleman comes from Magwitch, a man who has spent most of his life in prison.  He is not a model member of society, instead, he is a fearful man, who lives on the wrong side of the law. Magwitch, at times, seems more like a victim of the brutal English criminal justice system, than a real criminal. 

   Magwitch is really a good man. It is ironic that Pip, who comes to love and appreciate Magwitch, is turned into a gentleman, and does not become a snob, and is able to have the best of both worlds.  His status as a gentleman and a kind and tender heart, which he learned from Magwitch.

   It is also ironic, that Estella, the girl that Pip falls in love with, and who treats him with great condescension, is the daughter of a convict, Magwitch, and a murderer, Molly.  Yet she puts on airs as if she were too good for Pip.  She has learned this behavior from Miss Havisham.  She marries a man of means, and turns out to be terribly unhappy.  In the end, she comes back looking for Pip. 

   Sources:

   http://www.enotes.com/expectations/characters

   http://www.enotes.com/expectations/one-page-summary

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   Posted by pmiranda2857 on Tuesday May 27, 2008 at 3:01 PM