Notes on Great Expectations

Novel of childhood fantasy. Imaginings of what life could be like. He sees them but doesn't see what will come from him. This makes him pure, mysterious. He has a very strong sense of being unwanted. He feels the normal life of black smithery and his life is not enough. There is this question of am I a good question, or am I wicked. From him there really isn't an answer. Pip is fatherless so he turns to these male figures for fatherhood. Pip means seed. 

Magwich- he eats like an animal. Not governed by civilization. Passion for wickedness and brutality. Represents the abandonment. Magwich represents what pip could become. 

Havasham- play on words, symbolizes horrible decay and shining promise. What could be a fairy godmother. Everything in her house is left the way it was since she was left at the alter. 

Pip does not talk truthfully to any character about magwich or havasham because it reminds him of what he could become. Mrs. Havasham and magwich vanish. Pip needs to see what he can do in his life to make what he wants to happen. 

Dickens uses both joe and Jaggers for pip to see which one he could be like. Joe is blacksmith and has power and strength. He can use it but he doesn't. Joe has many feelings, he is almost romantic. He is not completely financially stable but is content. Joe comes across a child and mother. He adopts the child and takes him in.

Jaggers also has power. He knows stuff, but won't uses it against them. Logic and reasoning are used a lot in his life. He is not successfully emotionally or spiritually, but he has a lot of money. Jaggers comes across a child and mom and sells the child to the highest bidder. 

Wemick- plays off Jaggers. Two people, one at home and one at work. A foil from both places. 

Magwich- plays off joe. Comes to represent pip from worse circumstances. Sort of like wemick in that he has a double life. 

Painful realizations- havasham is not his godmother. Pips thoughts were planted there by someone's influences. Pip was secretly happy when orlack attacks mrs. Joe, but not when he attacks him. Although, pip is still a fantasist even though he wants to be like joe and Jaggers. Pip wants the benefits but doesn't want to pay the piper. He becomes a snob because he can't come to a conclusion of who he really is.