Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens, narrates the life story of Pip, a blacksmith's apprentice, from his childhood to adulthood. Pip was born an orphan in a small village and cared for by his cruel sister, Mrs. Joe, and her husband Joe Gargery. One Christmas Eve, when meeting with the neighbors and relatives, such as Joe's Uncle Pumblechook, Pip had stolen and given food to an escaped convict out of fear. Pip later meets Miss Havisham, a wealthy but traumatized lady whose fiance tricked much of her fortune. After visiting her multiple times, Pip also meets Estella, Miss Havisham's adopted daughter, with whom he falls in love. One day, Pip suddenly gets informed by Mr. Jaggers, a lawyer, that a secret benefactor has supported him with a fortune. Supposing it is Miss Havisham who helped him, Pip goes to London where he enters high society and becomes a gentleman. In London, Pip goes into debt because of his large usage of money, which is later paid by his supportive brother-in-law, Joe. There, he realizes that his benefactor was actually the convict he helped when he was younger, who went by the name Provis. He and his friends in a failed attempt try to help Provis escape from the authorities. However, they do manage to get rid of Compeyson, Provis' rival and Miss Havisham's fiance. Provis later dies in prison, and Pip is welcomed by Joe and his new, better wife, Biddy when he goes back to his village. When Pip visits Miss Havisham's abandoned property once again, he reunites with Estella, and the two later marry.
In many novels, characters of close bloodlines or relationships may be opposite in exterior appearance and manners. People closely related are often different from each other in multiple ways, and appearance is only one of them. For instance, in Great Expectations, Joe Gargery and his uncle, Mr. Pumblechook are shown to be distinctly different in appearance and manners. At the beginning of the novel, Joe is described by the narrator, Pip, as a fair man, with “curls of flaxen hair on each side of his smooth face” and eyes of an “undecided” blue. Pip compared him to Hercules in both strength and weakness, and described Joe as an easy-going, sweet-tempered, and good-natured young man. On the other hand, Mr. Pumblechook is described as “a large hard-breathing middle-aged slow man, with a mouth like a fish, dull staring eyes, and sandy hair standing upright on his head so that he looked as if he had just been all but choked”. Besides being with Mrs. Joe, who considered him a good friend, Mr. Pumblechook was seen to be a bad-mannered and wretched company. For instance, since his relationship with Mrs. Joe was close, he listened to her and believed that Pip shouldn’t be given more than a crumb for breakfast. While he fed Pip a morsel of bread and butter and poured a large quantity of water into his milk, Mr. Pumblechook himself ate a large meal of bacon and hot rolls in a “gorging and gormandizing manner”. At the same time, Mr. Pumblechook expected Pip to reply to his arithmetic questions with an empty stomach. People such as Joe and Pumblechook are closely related in bloodline, but completely opposite in appearance and manners.
Similarly, people in close bloodlines or relationships may have completely different influences on other people, both good and bad. For instance, Joe Gargery and Mr. Pumblechook influence Pip in completely different ways, although both do in fact contribute to Pip’s success. Joe, for instance, teaches Pip when he was still a child to never lie and that lies are the descendants of the “father of lies”. This motivates Pip to be truthful all the time, which comes in handy in situations where he expresses his feelings for Estella and where he establishes a new lifestyle in London. Joe also taught Pip to have good manners, which is one of the key factors that brought Pip to become a young gentleman later in London. Moreover, later in the novel, while Pip thinks Joe is embarrassing because he is a lower-classed “commoner”, Joe welcomes Pip back to the village with open arms even though he knows Pip thinks lowly of him. Furthermore, Joe even secretly pays Pip’s debts that Pip got by wasting and spending money on parties and useless items. Differently, Mr. Pumblechook over-exaggerates his influence on Pip. Since he was the local seedsman, he introduced Pip to Miss Havisham, which did in fact contribute to Pip’s later life with Estella and his upcoming of being a gentleman indirectly. However, Mr. Pumblechook himself didn’t have much influence on Pip’s later success in London as a gentleman, but still brags about it all the time in front of neighbors. While Mr. Pumblechook often boasts about things he has never ever done, Joe silently helps Pip largely in many ways without ever talking about it.
The personality and behaviors of people often vary and can be very distinct and different from others who are closely related to them. In the novel, Mr. Pumblechook and Joe have extremely different personalities and attitudes towards certain things. For instance, Joe Gargery is depicted as a loyal, generous, good-natured man who always acts lovingly to Pip no matter what Pip thinks about him. When Pip was a young child, Joe protected him against his abusive and cruel sister, Mrs. Joe. Even though Joe had no formal education, he knew a lot about integrity and morals. For example, Joe teaches Pip that “lies is lies. Howsoever they come, they didn't ought to come, and they come from the father of lies, and work round to the same. Don't you tell no more of ‘em, Pip.” (Dickens, 71) Despite the fact he had no formal education, Joe understands about the sins and virtues in society and does everything to tell Pip about them. However, Joe’s uncle, Mr. Pumblechook is nearly the opposite of him: Mr. Pumblechook is selfish, pompous, and self-important. He does everything purely for himself and doesn’t really care about anyone else when his reputation increases. He arrogantly assumes he was the reason that Pip became a wealthy gentleman, and continuously brags about it, much to Pip’s annoyance. Despite their close bloodline and relation, people’s attitudes and personality can differ greatly from each other.
Great Expectations explores the life story of Pip as he continuously faces ups and downs throughout childhood and adulthood. Throughout the story, there is a large contrast between Joe Gargery and his uncle, Mr. Pumblechook. The two have completely opposite appearances: Joe is a fair, young man with curls on the side of his head and blue eyes, while Mr. Pumblechook is described as a large hard-breathing middle-aged slow man with dull eyes and sandy hair. Moreover, the two have distinct influences on Pip himself and different personalities and attitudes towards it. For instance, Joe taught Pip to have good manners, which is one of the key factors that brought Pip to become a young gentleman later in London. Moreover, later in the novel, while Pip thinks Joe is embarrassing because he is a lower-classed “commoner”, Joe welcomes Pip back to the village with open arms even though he knows Pip thinks lowly of him. On the other hand, Mr. Pumblechook himself didn’t have much influence on Pip’s later success in London as a gentleman but still brags about it all the time in front of neighbors.
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