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Marxist Essay

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Pip demonstrates Marxist values through his character in Great Expectations. He believes in classism and desires to rise from his low social class to become a gentleman. Pip also shows rugged individualism by prioritizing his own goals and rejecting his family when he gains status. Capitalism further motivates Pip, as he wants to achieve wealth and power to impress Estella and fulfill his expectations. These Marxist qualities of classism, individualism, and capitalism influence Pip's character development and drive him to change his social position throughout the novel.

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Marxist Essay

Uploaded by

Adel
144 views4 pages
Pip demonstrates Marxist values through his character in Great Expectations. He believes in classism and desires to rise from his low social class to become a gentleman. Pip also shows rugged individualism by prioritizing his own goals and rejecting his family when he gains status. Capitalism further motivates Pip, as he wants to achieve wealth and power to impress Estella and fulfill his expectations. These Marxist qualities of classism, individualism, and capitalism influence Pip's character development and drive him to change his social position throughout the novel.

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Pip demonstrates Marxist values through his character in Great Expectations. He believes in classism and desires to rise from his low social class to become a gentleman. Pip also shows rugged individualism by prioritizing his own goals and rejecting his family when he gains status. Capitalism further motivates Pip, as he wants to achieve wealth and power to impress Estella and fulfill his expectations. These Marxist qualities of classism, individualism, and capitalism influence Pip's character development and drive him to change his social position throughout the novel.

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© All Rights Reserved
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
Download as docx, pdf, or txt
144 views4 pages

Marxist Essay

Uploaded by

Adel
Pip demonstrates Marxist values through his character in Great Expectations. He believes in classism and desires to rise from his low social class to become a gentleman. Pip also shows rugged individualism by prioritizing his own goals and rejecting his family when he gains status. Capitalism further motivates Pip, as he wants to achieve wealth and power to impress Estella and fulfill his expectations. These Marxist qualities of classism, individualism, and capitalism influence Pip's character development and drive him to change his social position throughout the novel.

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Dillee 1

Melody Dillee

Mrs. Martin

Honors Classics in Literature

7 February 2012

Marxism in Great Expectations

The characters in Great Expectations are influenced greatly by Marxism. In Charles

Dickens’ novel, Great Expectations, Marxism is shown through Pip’s character. Pip has many

Marxist values including: classism, rugged individualism, and capitalism. Pip’s expectations of

being a gentleman, marrying Estella, and living a noble life are all caused by these Marxist

qualities.

Classism is demonstrated throughout the novel, Great Expectations. In classism people of

higher class are superior to other people of lower class; Pip believes this to be true. In this novel

classism is portrayed through Pip; he is born into a low social class and he longs for a higher

place in the class system. Pip has great dreams of becoming a gentleman:

And then I told Joe that I felt miserable, and that I hadn’t been able to explain

myself to Mrs. Joe and Pumblechook, who were so rude to me, and that there had

been a beautiful young lady at Miss Havisham’s who was dreadfully proud, and

that she had said I was common, and that I knew I was common, and that I wished

I was not common, and that the lies had come of it somehow, though I didn’t

know how. (Dickens 694)

Pip feels depressed because he is told that he is only a common boy and that he will not be

anything more. Pip desires to have a position of power and superiority over people and he

believes that the only way he can do this is by becoming a gentleman.


Dillee 2

In Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens, Pip also shows rugged individualism. Pip

puts himself before the rest of his family and does what is good for him and not the rest of his

family. Pip is troubled by his family’s social status, “They had never troubled me before, but

they troubled me now. I wished Joe had been more genteelly brought up, and then I should have

been so too” (Dickens 691). Pip did not care about Joe’s social status until he realized that it was

what hindered him. Pip also shows rugged individualism because after he achieves his

expectations he no longer cares about his family. Pip becomes embarrassed by his family, “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” (Dickens 729). Pip tries to avoid Joe in order to keep

him from embarrassing him but, Joe would not let himself be avoided by Pip. His rugged

individualism causes him to be more focused on himself and to reject his family.

Capitalism is shown predominately throughout Great Expectations and forces Pip to

compare himself to others. Capitalism is the reason behind why he wants to become a gentleman;

he wants to impress Estella by being of higher class. Pip realizes that to achieve his expectations

of becoming a gentleman and marrying Estella he needs an education, “I mentioned to Biddy,

when I went to Mr. Wopsle’s great aunt’s at night, that I had a particular reason for wishing to

get on in life and that I should feel very much obliged to her if she would impart all her learning

to me” (Dickens 694). He asks Biddy to help teach him so he can have hope in reaching his

goals. Capitalism caused Pip’s insecurity of being a common laboring boy and motivated him

into becoming a gentleman, “… And she denounced me for a stupid, clumsy laboring-boy”

(Dickens 691). Estella’s criticism towards Pip only motivated him more into having great

expectations. Capitalism caused him to embrace this criticism and have higher expectations for
Dillee 3

himself. Classism, rugged individualism, and capitalism all are portrayed in Great Expectations

and give reason behind all of Pip’s motives and expectations.


Dillee 4

Works Cited

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Patterns in Literature. By Edmund J. Farrell, Ouida H.

Clapp, and Karen J. Kuehner. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman, 1991. 675-785. Print.

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