Pips Shadow Parents in Charles Dickens Great Expectations Essay

Pips Shadow P atomic number 18nts in Charles Dickens Great Expectations Both unload Havisham and Magwitch are right on influences on Pips breeding, in a psychological, and to some extent physical, manner. In this essay, I hope to explore these influences, and investigate what affects they have on Pips development. Naturally, the circumstance that Pip is an orphan, and never knew his mentions, means there is space for characters to come in and exact a definite, parental control. The novel echoes galore(postnominal) of Dickenss own life experiences- he had a strained relationship with his parents when they were condemned to imprisonment for debt difficulties. The sense of forsaking and sudden awareness of the fragility of class distinctions he experienced during this clock time was to haunt him for the rest of his life, and this is mirrored by the great contrast in, rear end parents. On the one hand we have the wealthy little girl Havisham, inhabitin g a decaying yet grand mansion, and on the other we have a inured criminal emerging from the gloomy marshes. The opening chapter gives the reader a powerful idea of how Pip is suffering from having no identity, as Pip seeks to risk his role in an inhospitable world. The windswept, barren place of mud, mist and wet provides the perfect setting for a frantic convict to emerge. In his lookup for his origins, Pip seems to have created a second father in Magwitch, who turns him superlative down metaphorically as well as literally, and places him on his parents tombstone. In the short term, the introduction of Magwitch gives Pip a sudden responsibility, which makes him confront the bowelless methods of discipline worked by Mrs Joe as h... ... criminal, violent attributes, and return to imperil Pip, and Miss Havisham to be his saviour and helper in his quest to compose a gentleman. In a journal format, Dickens needed to employ many plot twists, as Ma gwitch turns out to be the mysterious benefactor, and Miss Havisham the manipulative monster who psychologically hurts and confuses Pip in so many ways. It is difficult to say who is the best shadow parent, because although Magwitch supplies the money which sees Pip through and through becoming a gentleman, in his own mind Pip is move by Miss Havisham and has visions of achieving great wealth and wedding Estella. If we look at the novel in hindsight, we can conclude that Magwitch is the superior shadow parent as he is clearly dedicated to helping Pip, where as Miss Havisham does nothing but psychologically twist him.