What feelings or ideas does Pip express in Chapter 1 of Great Expectations?
The main feelings the central character, Pip, has in Chapter 1 are fear, and a sense of being small and helpless in the face of belligerent forces much stronger than him. Through his descriptions, he evokes the sympathy of the reader, describing himself initially as a "small bundle of shivers growing afraid...
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of it all and beginning to cry". An orphan, he has come to the graveyard to see the resting places of his parents and five young siblings. While he is there, he is accosted by "a fearful man", before whose menace he "plead(s) in terror", his own eyes looking up "most helplessly up into his".
In his interaction with the man, who is obviously an escaped convict, Pip's terror and comparative insignificance is emphasized over and over. The convict is "so sudden and strong" that he picks Pip up and flips him over with ease, making the world "go head over heels before (him)". He threatens Pip with gory consequences, noting what "fat cheeks" the boy has, and offering to eat them. Pip concedes that his cheeks probably are fat, even though the rest of him is "undersized, for (his) years, and not strong".
To increase the threat of terror and danger, the convict tells Pip "in fearful terms" that he is not alone, having with him another man, in comparison to whom the convict is "a Angel". The convict warns Pip that if he doesn't do as he is told, his "heart and liver shall be tore out, roasted and ate" by his sinister companion (Chapter 1).
In chapter 8 of Great Expectations, how does Estella's criticism reveal Pip's character?
In Chapter 8 of "Great Expectations" Pip arrives at Satis House after having been brought by Uncle Pumblechook at the request of Miss Havisham. He is there to play with Estella, who haughtily refuses,
'With this boy? Why, he's a common labouring boy!'
Estella ridicules him further:
'He calls the knaves jacks, this boy!...And what coarse hands he has! And what thick boots!'
For the first time in his life, Pip feels inferior and is ashamed of being "common" and now he is even ashamed of Joe. Pip remarks that his "coarse hands and common boots"
...had never troubled me before, but they troubled me now. I determined to ask Joe why he had ever taught me to call those picture cards jacks, which ought to be called knaves. I wished Joe had been rather more genteelly brought up, and I should have been so too.
Pip even cries afterwards, having been so easily affected by Estella's cruelty and his peremptory assumption that she is superior to him. This reaction demonstrates Pip's ingenuousness and foreshadows his desire to become a gentleman, hoping to, thereby, become a better person. Clearly, the motifs of the deception of appearances and false values are introduced in this early chapter of Dickens's novel.
What insight does chapter 14 of Great Expectations offer into Pip's character?
Now that he is apprenticed to Joe, Pip is a little older and his personality is beginning to show. He is an ungrateful young man. He regrets his lower social status and dreams of being a gentleman. He is ashamed of being a blacksmith.
An older Pip, looking back, begins the chapter with this comment.
IT IS A most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home. There may be black ingratitude in the thing, and the punishment may be retributive and well deserved; but, that it is a miserable thing, I can testify. (ch 14, enotes etxt p. 45)
Although Pip does love and care for Joe, he does not respect him. He is afraid that Estella will not see him as a potential love interest because he is going to be a lowly blacksmith. He describes himself as “quite as dejected” at this time in his life. Miss Havisham believes she is doing Pip a favor by giving him a trade, but Pip is ungrateful to both her and Joe.
I was haunted by the fear that she would, sooner or later, find me out, with a black face and hands, doing the coarsest part of my work, and would exult over me and despise me. (ch 14, enotes etxt p. 45)
The adult Pip looks on his depression and is ashamed of it. He describes his feelings as “ungracious” because as an adult he has the benefit of hindsight and experience to tell him he actually had things pretty good at this time. If he had not had wishes to live above his station, and if he had not tried to win the unwinnable Estella, he might have actually been happy.
Pip does not benefit from having money. At this time in his life, all he wants to be is a gentleman. Yet we can tell that even after his expectations things did not work out for Pip. Money did not buy him happiness. He is ashamed of his feelings toward his home. He should have appreciated what he had, but he does not realize this until later.