Chen 1 Tiffany Chen Ms. Gardner English 10 Honors 11 March 2014 Overshadowing of Virtues The Bildungsroman novel Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is centered around the protagonist Pip who grows up in the Kent marshlands and gradually rises in society to encounter a bustling nineteenth-century London. When exposed to the materialistic upper class of society, he develops an infatuation to rid himself of his “low-lived” (Dickens 63) life for the purpose of embodying a gentleman. While struggling to achieve an artificial standard of living he experiences a sequence of both gains and losses such as physical wealth, moral values, and relationships. Pip’s irreversible development is highlighted thoroughly by the significant factors of light and dark. The transitions between lighting convey the altering of Pip’s nature as momentous encounters with Miss Havisham, Estella, and Magwitch gradually result in his acquisitive perception towards life, pulling Pip into the darkness of a rigid social hierarchy. In the exposition, Pip is brought to the Satis House—a dreary estate with limited exposure to natural light—where he is introduced to Miss Havisham and Estella who instill inferiority in him, causing his persistent “disturbed and unthankful state” (70). Before Pip’s meeting with Miss Havisham and Estella, he viewed Joe’s forge “as the glowing road to manhood and independence” (106), largely connotating Joe’s radiant influence on him. This notion of light in Pip’s life is abandoned however, after his admiration for Joe’s virtuous character is replaced with embarrassment in regards to his low social status. The masking of Pip’s past ethics is emphasized after his first visit when he leaves Miss Havisham’s dismal room
Chen 2 and recalls his perplexion towards the presence of natural light. “Until she opened the side entrance, I had fancied, without thinking about it, that it must necessarily be night-time. The rush of the daylight quite confounded me, and made me feel as if I had been in the candlelight of the strange room many hours.” (60). Pip’s confusion of day and night signify the overshadowing of his upright principles by an ambition fostered by inferiority acquired upon meeting Estella and Miss Havisham. As they continue utilizing their social status to manipulate Pip, his ability to comprehend the importance of moral values is obscured. As transitions of light and darkness signify the weakening of Pip’s honest judgement, they also foreshadow the effects of his harmful mindset and its role in skewing his progression in life. The night Magwitch reveals his identity as the benefactor to Pip’s fortunes, a gloomy atmosphere envelopes Pip’s room, “the candles were wasted out, the fire was dead, and the wind and rain intensified the thick black darkness.” (325). Dickens associates the sudden transition of darkness with Magwitch’s arrival in order to signify the obliteration of Pip’s connections to his optimistic past after the abrupt obtainment of wealth and social status. Pip further states that his life at the forge would have been “far from contented, yet, by comparison, happy!” (322), depicting the artificial appeal of materialism in social stratification that cloaked Pip’s radiant integrity. When Pip reflects on all his abandonments, a unification of darkness and light is described: the establishment of balance in his revival of moral judgement, previously clouded by the manipulation of social inequality is revealed. This mature comprehension attained through the hardships of loss is distinct after one righteous man disregarded for years by Pip, cares for him when he becomes gravely ill: Joe. Towards this, Pip reflects on the ambience, “when I looked on the loveliness around me, and thought how it had grown and changed, . . . . by day and
Chen 3 by night, under the sun and under the stars,” (472). The statement “by day and by night” depicts his experiences which acted as either a radiant glow or a gloomy darkness in his life. Through the misery of an insatiable love and loss of an invaluable relationship with Joe his perception towards happiness is broadened and Pip develops an appreciation of genuineness in life. By utilizing light and darkness, Dickens emphasizes the negativity and positivity surrounding Pip’s experiences in a venture to grasp the true meaning of “great expectations” (144). On the marshes, in the Satis House, within the bustling streets of London, Pip’s experiences associated with light and darkness ultimately reflect on the detrimental effects of a socially stratified environment and the crucial worth of morality. Great Expectations exemplifies the insignificance of social class in the attainment of happiness and the means of embodying true qualities of a “gentleman” (128).
