Key Themes
- Created by: eleanorj8311
- Created on: 19-02-18 21:10
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- Key Themes
- Self Knowledge
- Pip rejects his working-class origins at the forge and wants to become a gentleman
- when apprenticed to Joe, he realised his time spent at the Satis House had changed his opinions
- ‘had a strong conviction on me that I should never like Joe’s trade’ Ch. 13, p. 103
- when apprenticed to Joe, he realised his time spent at the Satis House had changed his opinions
- Pip is given wealth, taught table manners and how to speak in a different way
- he loses his kindness and humanity in the process
- through hardship, loss and Joe’s kindness, Pip realises the emptiness of his ambitions
- Joe is a character who does not change
- Estella goes on a journey of self-knowledge, but she is aware of what she is doing
- she makes the mistake of thinking that she cannot be hurt by such a destructive way of life
- Estella’s experiences with Drummle make her realise what she lost by rejecting Pip’s love
- she makes the mistake of thinking that she cannot be hurt by such a destructive way of life
- Pip rejects his working-class origins at the forge and wants to become a gentleman
- Class/Wealth and Power
- Class/Wealth
- peasants
- Joe and Biddy
- middle class
- Pumblechook
- criminals
- Magwitch
- very rich
- Miss Havisham
- Moral theme of the book
- Pip’s realization that wealth and class are less important than affection, loyalty, and inner worth
- he finally understands that social status is not someone's real character
- even though Magwitch is a convict, he has a deep inner worth
- Pip’s realization that wealth and class are less important than affection, loyalty, and inner worth
- based on the post-Industrial Revolution model of Victorian England
- Dickens ignored nobility and hereditary aristocracy where characters fortunes had been earned
- Miss Havisham’s family fortune was made
- Miss Havisham is brought up as a ‘spoilt child’ whose ‘father denied her nothing’ (Ch. 22, p. 174)
- Compeyson plotted against her with her half-brother to take the proceeds from the sale of the brewery
- peasants
- Power
- Miss Havisham uses her wealth as a tool to upset her grasping relatives and Estella to get her revenge on the men
- Drummle has wealth but is a brutal and ignorant bully, as his aristocratic background gives him the freedom to behave as he does
- Jaggers has great power in the legal world but is unmarried and is feared by those around him
- love and kindness shown by Herbert, Clara, Wemmick and Joe, bring happiness in the novel
- Class/Wealth
- Pride and Revenge
- Miss Havisham feeds the destructive forces by keeping the reminders of her humiliation and betrayal around her
- being deserted by Compeyson is tied up with her pride, and leads to the ‘wild resentment’ that takes over her life (Ch. 49, p. 390)
- ‘Mr Havisham was very rich and very proud. So was his daughter’ (Ch. 22, p. 174)
- Orlick vows to take revenge for what he sees as injustices
- he attacks Mrs Joe in revenge for Pip being made an apprentice
- his pride is hurt because he sees Pip being given a lifetime trade
- Orlick joins with Compeyson and attempts to murder Pip
- he attacks Mrs Joe in revenge for Pip being made an apprentice
- Magwitch is driven by pride and the need for revenge on Compeyson who used his wealthy background to avoid punishment
- readers may find Magwitch’s desire for revenge easy to understand, even though it leads him to desperate acts
- Miss Havisham feeds the destructive forces by keeping the reminders of her humiliation and betrayal around her
- Self Knowledge
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