Goli 1 Ram Goli Ms.

Gardner English 10H 2 11 March 2014 A Womans Helping Hand Charles Dickens boldly reverses the gender roles of nineteenth century women in his coming-of-age novel, Great Expectations. In Victorian England, women lacked independence from male rule, and simple forms of authority; in Dickenss story, women hold power over the main character, Pip, and oversee his progression from an apprentice in a forge, to a pretentious gentleman, to kind-hearted, mature man who shows true affection for his family. The women in Great Expectations Mrs. Joe, Miss Havisham, Estella, and Biddy -- play a crucial role in Pips transfiguration by utilizing three distinct forms of authority: motherly assertiveness, grief-driven aggressiveness, and altruistic guidance. On the dark marshes of Kent, Mrs. Joe oversaw the upbringing of Pip, having brought [him] up by hand (Dickens 5). In doing so, Dickens constructs a brick wall, separating his story from the Victorian time period; rather than asserting his male influence over his wife, Joe and his good-natured, sweet-tempered, easy-going (5) personality succumb to the brash and unconventional behavior of Mrs. Joe. She bumped. . . and ignominiously shoved (50) Pip with her bare hands, hammering him into a young boy who only awaits his blacksmith apprenticeship. Under the care of Mrs. Joe, Pip only seeks to learn the art of reading and writing from Biddys patient teachings. It is Mrs. Joe who keeps Pip adhered to the path of a blacksmith, but it is also Mrs. Joe who demands that Pip play, play, play! (45) with Miss Havishams daughter, creating Pips long chain of iron or gold, of thorn or flowers (55) that alters his expectations.

Goli 2 A forged romance, a broken and fragmented heart, a blind devotion, unquestioning selfhumiliation, utter submission (188) turned Miss Havisham into a revenge-seeking adversary (parallel phrases). From her wretched emotions and ideals rises a plan to ruin Pips expectations and respect for his family. By introducing Pip to her daughter, Estella, she introduces Pip to the life of wealth, status, and also humiliation. Like Mrs. Joe, Miss Havisham utilizes her hands shrunk to skin and bone (44) to twist and mold Pip into a boy concerned only with his persona (modifier mid-sentence with dashes). She weds Pip to the idea that wealth and selfrespect are intertwined, refusing to let him realize what being a gentleman entails for himself. Pip becomes disillusioned, cast away from reality from the day he is introduced to Estella, bombarded with deceptive characteristics of being a gentleman, and has never since looked upon the light of day (141) his family left behind in Kent. Estella is the idol of Pips maturing mind, the glowing-hot star that constantly envelops Pips emotions and obscures them from actuality. He is overcome with her splendor, for she is more beautiful than anybody ever was, and [he] admire[s] her dreadfully (100). Prior to meeting Estella, Pips coarse hands and thick boots never troubled [him] before (47). Laying his eyes on Estella distort them into something new: vulgar appendages (47) (independent clause: one-phrase appositive). Estellas beauty, joined with her arrogant and aggressive personality, is what transforms Pip. He only wishes to be a gentleman on her account (100), even if it means enduring her taunting remarks. Although Pip is aware that Estella was only brought up by Miss Havisham to wreak revenge on all the male sex (137), he adopts an unwavering devotion to be with her forever, and loses touch with Joe and the forge.

Goli 3 While Estella may be the dark star guiding Pip along his path to becoming a bitter gentleman, it is Biddy who unselfishly guides Pip in the hopes of breaking through his fence of twisted aspirations. Because Biddy was never as beautiful as Estella, her hair always wanted brushing, her hands always wanted washing, and her shoes always wanted mending (33), Pip never heeded her words. Yet, Biddy offers Pip wise advice: to care nothing for Estellas dead words, words only meant to devastate. Pip chooses to thrust Biddy further away from himself, since to him, she is envious and grudging and dissatisfied on account of my rise in fortune (116). However, Pip begins to realize in London that instead of becoming a gentleman, he has become a kind of servant (281) to Miss Havishams bidding, just as Biddy warned. In London, Pip comes to the realization that his rise in fortune has only caused him a great deal of suffering and debt, and that Miss Havisham and Estella have been toying with his emotions after all. However, both Miss Havisham and Estella undergo emotional amendments after witnessing the extent of their actions. Miss Havisham and Estella seek not to ruin Pips life, but to convince him that they are not all stone (310). Pip no longer fantasizes about money and wealth, smooth hands and fine shoes. Instead, he longs to see the women who once toyed with him like a puppet, happy. Pip is suddenly a new gentleman: he cares for the welfare of his companion, Herbert, and he expresses guilt and regret for the way he has treated Joe (general : specific statement). Reminded of his own childhood, being raised by hand, he extends his own hand to Magwitch and offers him comfort and protection, and to Herbert, who he helps to finance his career. Biddys words echo through his mind, and he yearns to show her how humbled and repentant (370) he had become. Yet, when he returns to Kent to amend the ties with her that he had severed, and to ask for her hand, always wanting washing, in marriage, he is too late.