this case because she refuses to leave Sati House ever since her fiancé abandoned her. Then, there is Mrs. Joe Gargery, Pip’s sister who enforces this belief through her constant complaints: “Perhaps if I warn't a blacksmith's wife, and (what's the same thing) a slave with her apron never off, I should have been to hear the Carols" (Dickens, 23). And last but not least, Estella is the character that although travels more than the other women is still subjected to a narrow space of movement (between the foreign school, Satis House and Mrs. Bradley’s house).
On the other hand, the male characters present in Dickens’ work know a wide degree of freedom. They can go wherever they please without being constrained to respect certain rules or moral obligations imposed by society. While it is true that Joe the Blacksmith is coordinated by his wife, he still has the liberty to visit Three Jolly Bargemen or go take care of business in town without having to explain himself to anybody. Similar to this, Pip, who is also subjected to Mrs. Joe Gargery’s terror benefits from a certain type of freedom when it comes to attending night school, playing upon the marshes or visiting Miss Havisham’s house.
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In many situations, Dickens creates his female characters as antithesis to the Victorian ideals that were promoted at the time (the angelic role of femininity) and his male protagonists as characters who undergo a sort of gender subversion. The case of Pip is a good example. All throughout the novel he is constantly affected by the confusion brought by gender identity and he is always surprised by the contradictions between feminine vulnerability and masculine strength when interacting with the female