Figure 1.--This still shows Pip when he first Miss Haversham. It is from the David Lean version. Anthony Wagner played Pip in his first screen role.
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Figure 1.--This still shows Pip when he first Miss Haversham. It is from the David Lean version. Anthony Wagner played Pip in his first screen role. |
Pip is both the central character and narrarator of Dicken's masterpiece Great Expectations. No author has created more classic boy characters as Dickens. He narriates the book through the eyes of the adult Pip, even though Pip is a young boy at the beginning of the book. As a boy, Pip was strongly influenced by his guardians, Joe Gargery and his wife, Mrs. Joe. Joe instills a sense of honesty, industry, and friendliness in Pip, while Mrs. Joe does a great deal to contribute to his desires and ambitions through her constant emphasis on pomp and property. Pip is a good-natured and thoughtful, and very imaginative. His false values, which are bolstered by his love of the unapproachable Estella, decrease the respect that he has for Joe, who is uneducated and has none of the social graces. His alienation from Joe and Joe's values builds through the second part of the novel, as Pip who is educated as a gentleman becomes selfish, greedy, and foolish. During the period when his expectations are intact, his only morally positive act was to secretly help Herbert Pocket into a good position. Upon discovering that the frigtening Magwitch is his misterious benefactor, a new phase begins in Pip's moral evolution. At first, Pip no longer feels the same human compassion for Magwitch that he did the first time he saw him out on the marshes. Gradually, Pip changes his perception of Magwitch, unlearning what he has learned. Pip becomes concerned with the man, and not the expectations that he could provide. When Jaggers presents the thought that there may be a way for Pip to get his hands on Magwitch's property, the idea sounds hollow and utterly empty to Pip. Pip learns about Estella's parentage through Magwitch, and that his aspirations were falsely based. When Pip is arrested for his debts and becomes too ill to go to prison, Joe tends to him. Thus, the positive values which Joe had shown Pip as a child are reinforced. After the ruination of Pip's expectations, the only good he
experiences comes directly from the only good he did for others while his expectations where intact. From the beginning to the end of the novel, Pip loses and then rediscovers the importance of human relationships and virtue over wealth and position.
Philip Pirrip, better known as "Pip", is both the central character and narrarator of Dicken's masterpiece Great Expectations. The first line of the novel tells us about Philip Pirrip. "My father's family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip."
Charles Dickens is one of the graet English novelists. He was born on February 7, 1812 in Landport, Portsmouth. His father was John Dickens who was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office. The Navy in 1814 transferred his father to Somerset House in London. John Dickens in 1917 moved the family to Chatham where he worked in the naval dockyard. It was at Chatham that Charles has his earliest memories. He remembers a very happy childhood. His father was transferred back to the Naby's London payroll office in 1822 and moved the family to Camden Town. John was not a frugal man. He was completely dependant on his salary which was not high. He persisted in living beyond his means and he and his wife were eventually in 1824 imprisoned for debt at the Marshalsea debtor's prison in Southwark near London. He was incarcerated there for over a year. This was a disaster for Charles who at the time was 12 year old. Charles had to leave school and support himself. He worked at a dye warehouse with boot-blacking earning six shillings. (This appears in David Copperfied.) The family was desperate and some of his meager earnings went to support the family. The change in circumstance was a shock to Charles. Throughout his life he remembered this time to be the darkest period of his life. The theme would reappaer in the lives of his class ic boy heros, especially David Copperfield and Oliver Twist. A legacy in a rather Dickensian turn of events changed the fortunes of the family and Charles was able to return to school for 2 more years (1824-26). Afterwards he worked as a clerk in a solicitor's office where he learned shorthand, panning to become a newspaper reporter. He worked for several news[a[ers. He also began contributing essays to magazibes and in 1834 began signing them Boz. Dickens' publication of Oliver Twist in 1838 firmly established the literary eminence of the young Dickens. It was, according to Edgar Johnson, "a clarion peal announcing to the world that in Charles Dickens the rejected and forgotten and misused of the world had a champion." He traveled to America in 1842 to lecture against slavery. He was not at all impressed with what he saw in Ameriuca. He wrote David Copperfield in 1849-50) and Tale of Two Cities in 1859. It was at this time that he wrote Great Expectations, 1860-61. It was the last of his wideky known books and easily the darkerst in tone. His early life experiences were not known to his Victorian readers and only made public after his death. They of course help creat a strong belief in social reform. Dickens wrote 15 major novels and countless short stories and articles. He died in 1870. The inscription on his tombstone in Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey reads: "He was a sympathiser to the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world".
No author has created more classic boy characters as Charles Dickens. The two most famous of course are Oliver Twist and David Copperfield. Of the three major boy characters, Pip is the least known. Everyone knows David's and Oliver's lasr name. Only scholars can come up with Pip's last mame. This may be because that Great Expectations is the darkest of the Dickens' novels. The humerous characters in the other books are almost completely lacking in Great Expectations. Many literary scholars, however, consider Great Expectations to be his masterpiece. Before writing Great Expectations, Dicken reread David Copperfield to make sure he would no repeat plot lines and characters.
Dickens narriates the book through the eyes of the adult Pip, even though Pip is a young boy at the beginning of the book. As a boy, Pip was strongly influenced by his guardians, Joe Gargery and his wife, Mrs. Joe. Joe instills a sense of honesty, industry, and friendliness in Pip, while Mrs. Joe does a great deal to contribute to his desires and ambitions through her constant emphasis on pomp and property. Pip is a good-natured and thoughtful, and very imaginative. His false values, which are bolstered by his love of the unapproachable Estella, decrease the respect that he has for Joe, who is uneducated and has none of the social graces. His alienation from Joe and Joe's values builds through the second part of the novel, as Pip who is educated as a gentleman becomes selfish, greedy, and foolish. During the period when his expectations are intact, his only morally positive act was to secretly help Herbert Pocket into a good position. Upon discovering that the frigtening Magwitch is his misterious benefactor, a new phase begins in Pip's moral evolution. At first, Pip no longer feels the same human compassion for Magwitch that he did the first time he saw him out on the marshes. Gradually, Pip changes his perception of Magwitch, unlearning what he has learned. Pip becomes concerned with the man, and not the expectations that he could provide. When Jaggers presents the thought that there may be a way for Pip to get his hands on Magwitch's property, the idea sounds hollow and utterly empty to Pip. Pip learns about Estella's parentage through Magwitch, and that his aspirations were falsely based. When Pip is arrested for his debts and becomes too ill to go to prison, Joe tends to him. Thus, the positive values which Joe had shown Pip as a child are reinforced. After the ruination of Pip's expectations, the only good he
experiences comes directly from the only good he did for others while his expectations where intact. From the beginning to the end of the novel, Pip loses and then rediscovers the importance of human relationships and virtue over wealth and position.
We know of four film versions of Great Expectations. The first was made in Hollywood and stared Jackie Searl. The classic film version of Great Expectations David Lean English version in 1946. English child actor Anthony Wager playing Pip. He beautifully plays Pip as a sweet, innocent boy. Many film critics consider this to be not only the best adaptation of Great Expectations, but one iof the fiest films of all time. There was another American version in 1974, but I have not seen it. A modern American remake was made in 1998 with a contemporay setting, a Florida fishing village. It was reasonably done with Robert De Niro as Magwich. These updates always pail in comparison to the real story, but the costuming in the early Alabama scenes was reasonably done and the boy playing Finn (Pip) performed quite nicely. Jeremy James Kissner plays the main character as a child and wears realistic cut-offs and short tube socks as well as slacks. A lousy film overall, but the Jeremy did a good job as Kip in the first part of the film. Like most modern updates, the modern setting seems out of place for the historic novels.
Great Expectations has been read by generations of British and American school children. In the 1950s we read ut in the 10th grade as part of our studies of literature. I'm not sure if that is still the common practice, but it is still commonly read. A group of American students wrote HBC, "We are high school students. We are reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and this Thursday our group has a project due for English class on England's clothing during the late 1800s. We am creating a PowerPoint composed
of pictures and information about this time. The pictures will be of men, women, and children's clothing, as well as the information describing what they wore. We were wondering, if it was possible, for you to give us some helpful links or
any other information that you might think of that might help us out and we can use in the project. We also wanted to as your personal advice on how we can maybe make the project more interesting and entertaining for the students of our classroom. We were thinking along the lines of maybe giving the students a carton doll each, with a set of pants
and a shirt and have them mix up the attire for their carton cut out. We are having a little bit of trouble finding information on this time period, your help will be greatly appreciated." [Carla, Chris, Danny, and Dale]
HBC replied, "Sounds like an interesting project. First of all are you sure you are researching the right period? Great Expectations is not set in the late 19th century, but rasther the mid-19th century. The fashions in this period were very different. We can't help you much with links, but there is a great deal of information on our site on both perioods. Here are just a few sections of HBC that you might want to peruse?
We do not have any ideas about teaching devices. Your idea sounds interesting. Good luck with it. I think, however, there are some intersting questions to consider. Of course this depends a bit on the time period.
One important question for both periods is: Why did English boys' fashion have such an important influemce on boys fashions in other countries, especially America but also
Continental Europe. This should lead to a follow up discussion of how fashion (and other social trends) can be used to study larger historical developments and international relationships and influences.
In refernce to the early/mid 19th century: Why did destinctive clothing for children develop in the late 18th and early 19th century. Earlier boys essentially wore scaled down
versions of their father's clothing. A follow up question here is why did destinctive boys' clothing develop before destinctive girls'
clothing?
In reference to the late mid-19th century: Why were sailor suits so popular?
Why did such fancy styles like Fauntleroy suits become so popular?
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