Bildungsroman In Charles Dickens Great Expectations

While young adults often dream of a future full of opportunities and success, their dreams are not always followed in the way they imagined. The main character Pip learns the lesson of getting lost in one’s expectations. The novel is a bildungsroman divided into three parts focused on Pip’s journey into adulthood. The first is his childhood and his desire to become a gentleman, especially when he was introduced to the world of the upper class. The second is when he inherits a fortune, rises to the status of a gentleman in London, and rejects the past. The final part is when he becomes more mature and begins to realize who he wants to be and that money isn’t everything in life. Pip grows from a caring yet dissatisfied boy of the lower class

For example, when he used to live with Mrs. Joe and Joe, he used to appreciate Joe and treated him as a father. However, now he gets scared that he would be humiliated if anyone would find out that Joe is his father. “I received this letter by the post on Monday morning, and therefore its appointment was for next day. Let me confess exactly with what feelings I looked forward to Joe's coming. Not with pleasure, though I was bound to him by so many ties; no; with considerable disturbance, some mortification, and a keen sense of incongruity. If I could have kept him away by paying money, I certainly would have paid money (231). Earlier in Pip’s childhood he used to respect Joe and appreciate how kind he was. Now that he is in the “upper class” he thinks that Joe is in a much lower class than him. The thought that Pip would pay money to keep Joe away from him shows how much of a snob he has become ever since he has entered the “upper class”. Pip has also become more arrogant and picky to others. For example, “The supper was excellent; and though the Castle was rather subject to dry-rot insomuch that it tasted like a bad nut, and though the pig might have been farther off, I was heartily pleased with my whole entertainment” (222). Now that Pip is living in a

Pip grows from a caring yet dissatisfied boy of the lower class to a wealthy gentleman trying to win the love of Estella and please everyone around him. Later, he learns that he never belong in the upper class and realizes who he truly is. It was broken into 3 stages. The first being him dissatisfied with his childhood and his desire to be in the “upper class”. The second part was when he obtains a fortune from his benefactor and becomes part of the “upper class”. The third and final part was when he realizes that he will never fit in the “upper class”. A warning against desiring too much in life when you already had happiness to being with. Sometimes dreams come at a price of our