Great Expectations: An Independent Analysis

There is also a part of Pip that is unknown to him about himself that is a important part of his character, his good-heart. Pip is at heart a very generous and sympathetic young man, a fact that can be witnessed in his numerous acts of kindness throughout the book, (helping Magwitch, secretly buying Herbert's way into business, etc.), and his essential love for all those who love him. This is the theme in the novel that depicts his innate sense of kindness and conscience above his immature idea's of obtaining social class.

From the beginning, in 1 Pip's true character as a boy shines in his heartfelt longing to know his parents while staring at their tombstones in the village churchyard. His character at this point reveals a lost child searching for a way to display his goodness and his true heart of spirit.

Although, his sister, whom Pip calls Mrs. Joe, is a stern and overbearing cold woman throughout the novel to both Pip and his Uncle Joe, Pip still shows her the utmost respect. Because he knows “she brought me up by hand,” he says of his upbringing. At this point, it would have been easy for Pip to run to his sister, Joe, or to the police for help rather than stealing the food and the file, but Pip honors his promise to the convict. Pip, goes back to the marshes where the convict stays with the items he has stolen. He finds a different convict, who tries to strike Pip and then flees. When Pip finally comes upon the original convict, he finds him suffering, cold, wet, and hungry. Pip is kind to the man, by seeming concerned for him and saying, “It's bad about here," I told him. "You've been lying out on the meshes, and they're dreadful anguish. Rheumatic too." However, the convict becomes violent again when Pip mentions the other escapee he encountered in the marsh. Here again shows the heart of Pip that in spite of evil and contemptuousness, he can still be kind.

Pip's character is also expressed in his love and devotion for his Uncle Joe throughout the novel. Pip is feeling guilty and frightened of what he did in stealing and he hates to lie. He ponders within himself whether or not to tell his Uncle the whole truth. But out of fear of losing his Uncle's respect and honor he doesn't mention it.

When Pip learns that the police are searching for him, he doesn't divulge where he saw the convicts. Instead it says when the police asked if anyone had seen any of the convicts that, “Everybody, myself excepted, said no, with confidence.” Pip learns that the police are searching for a pair of escaped convicts, and the manhunt is on with Uncle Joe and Pip participating in it. Upon seeing the policemen, Pip feels a strange surge of worry for “his” convict. He was compassionate over the convict even though he wasn't compassionate over him at that time. Until the convicts get captured and then the one convict that Pip helps protects him, by claiming to have stolen the food and file himself.

Pip continues to feel powerfully guilty about the incident, not on his sister's account, but because he has not told the whole truth to Joe.

Estella, rude and cold is asked to play with Pip with an attitude of being better than him, however because of his good heart, Pip is unaffected by this and only notices her beauty and plays cards with her anyway. Pip in the end of this chapter has compassion even for Estella by crying when it's time to leave Sati's House. He accepts her cruelty when she says, “Why, he is a common laboring boy!” He doesn't defend himself because he sorrowfully believes her to be right instead of judging her.

When Pip returns home, he lies to Joe, Mrs. Joe, and Pumblechook about his experience at Sati's House. He invents a story and feels guilty for lying to Joe and tells him the truth later that day. Joe was upset and told Pip never to lie. Pip remembers Joe's words and takes them to heart. When he thinks of his life, he thinks of it in a lower class than what Estella would agree to. He changes his outlook and desires to have a higher social class because of her. His feelings for the “very pretty and very proud” young lady, combined with the deep impression made on him by Sati's House raise his consciousness of his own lower social class. But inside he remains a good-natured boy.

After having a fight with the mysterious boy in the garden at Miss Havisham's, Pip returns home and is again overwhelmed with guilt over the fight. He says, “My mind grew very uneasy on the subject of the pale young gentleman. The more I thought of the fight, and recalled the pale young gentleman on his back in various stages of puffy and incrimsoned countenance, the more certain it appeared that something would be done to me. I felt that the pale young gentleman's blood was on my head, and that the Law would avenge it.” He feels guilt over fighting the boy because of his good nature and must be punished for such a “incrimsoned countenance.”