Pips guilt essays

Pips guilt essays Charles Dickens Great Expectations is a novel which addresses the many facets of guilt and the role in which guilt plays to lead the characters and readers towards a sense of moral redemption and maturity. Protagonist Pip perfectly embodies the novels representation of guilt as deep inadequacies in oneself and its eventual closure, as we see Pip overcome his inner trials and tribulations. As the reader, Dickens has forced us to develop an understanding of Pips guilt as to shape and enhance our perception of his character and his story. Pips feelings of guilt are seen through both his roles as the protagonist: his actions are the driving force behind the story, and as narrator: his views are the driving force behind the novel. We see Pip go through three main stages of guilt: shame, self satisfaction, and rebirth, as he journeys from a selfish and ungrateful boy into a caring and compassionate man as he heads towards and achieves his inner redemption. Understanding the above stages o f guilt are possibly the most important steps the reader must take towards embracing and understanding Great Expectations and its deeply flawed hero. Pips feelings of guilt are very strong and evident even from the beginning of the novel, where we see Pip in his first internal stage of guilt: shame. He has a deep sense of culpability and inadequacy for as long as he can remember. Pips conscience seems to be largely determined by Mrs. Joe; she has given Pip a very skewed vision as to his means of measuring his self-worth and feelings of guilt. Mrs. Joe instills in Pip the notion that his mere existence causes pure despondency to all, as we see when Mrs. Joe states, I didnt bring you up by hand to badger peoples lives out. It would be blame to me, and not praise, if I had. People are put in the Hulks because they murder, and because they rob, and forge, and do all sorts of bad; and they alway...