Pips Shadow Parents in Charles Dickens Great Expectations Essay

bits Shadow Parents in Charles Dickens Great Expectations Both overtop Havisham and Magwitch are compelling influences on pips life, 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 fact that Pip is an orphan, and never knew his parents, means there is space for characters to come in and particular a definite, parental control. The fable echoes many an(prenominal) of Dickenss own life experiences- he had a strained relationship with his parents when they were condemned to imprisonment for debt roughies. The sense of abandonment and abrupt awareness of the fragility of class distinctions he experienced during this time was to sponsor him for the rest of his life, and this is mirrored by the great contrast in, shadow parents. On the one hand we have the wealthy Miss Havisham, inhabiting a decaying further grand mansi on, and on the other we have a hardened felon emerging from the gloomy marshes. The opening chapter gives the reader a powerful supposition of how Pip is suffering from having no identity, as Pip seeks to find his spot in an inhospitable world. The windswept, barren place of mud, mist and water provides the holy setting for a frantic convict to emerge. In his search for his origins, Pip seems to have created a second father in Magwitch, who turns him upside blue metaphorically as well as literally, and places him on his parents tombstone. In the swindle term, the introduction of Magwitch gives Pip a sudden responsibility, which makes him confront the violent methods of educate employed by Mrs Joe as h... ... criminal, violent attributes, and return to menace Pip, and Miss Havisham to be his saviour and helper in his quest to become a gentleman. In a journal format, Dickens needed to employ many plot twists, as Magwitch turns out to be the myster ious 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 fitting a gentleman, in his own mind Pip is motivated 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 naught but psychologically twist him.