Great Expectations

how have pip's expectations changed? what does he expect now?

Pips expectations changed from wanting to be apprenticed by Joe to wanting to be a gentleman. he expects and hopes for social advancement, a better education from biddy, and romantic success with Estella.he expects everything he desires but is expectations have changed again what are they????

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Since Chapter 8, Pip has been expecting (or rather hoping) to move up in life and become worthy of Estella. When he received his money from his unknown benefactor, Pip automatically assumed that this was Miss Havisham's way of helping him become a gentleman, and thus, marry Estella. In Chapter 39, Pip discovers that his benefactor is none other than the convict from the start of the book. It is at this point that Pip realizes that his expectation of someday being worthy of Estella will never come true. He has money, but it is ill-gotten money in his opinion. And his assumption that Miss Havisham wanted Pip with Estella has been proven wrong. It is at this point that Pip realizes that the one thing he has been working towards (Estella) will never be. Pip also realizes that in his pursuit of Estella he has trampled on his best friend Joe. Chapter 39 essentially crushes all of Pip's expectations of being a gentleman. It is after this chapter that Pip realizes that no matter how much money he has, he will never be worthy of someone like Estella. It is also at this point that Pip starts to realize that his expectations may have not been worth all he has sacrificed in life (friendships, home, his true self).

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http://www.enotes.com/great-expectations/q-and-a/chapter-39-how-have-pips-expectations-changed-277380

thank you but i haven't read that chapter yet i mean more around chpt 18 and 19 when pip goes to London what are his expectations and how did they change?

Pip’s desire to elevate his social standing never leaves him; he even seeks to better his surroundings by trying to teach Joe to read. When the ominous figure of the lawyer Jaggers appears with the message of Pip’s sudden fortune, the young man’s deepest wish comes true. But the exultant Pip is not content simply to enjoy his good fortune; rather, he reads more into it than he should, deciding that “Miss Havisham intended me for Estella” and that she must be his benefactor. His adolescent self-importance causes him to put on airs and act snobbishly toward Joe and Biddy, a character flaw that Pip will demonstrate throughout Great Expectations. In his career as a gentleman, he will cover up moments of uncertainty and fear by acting, as he says in Chapter 19, “virtuous and superior.”

In part, this poor behavior is caused by the same character trait that causes Pip to covet self-advancement. Pip has a deep-seated strain of romantic idealism, and as soon as he can imagine something better than his current condition (whether material, emotional, or moral), he immediately desires that improvement: when he sees Satis House, he longs for wealth; when he meets Estella, he longs for love and beauty; and when he acts poorly, he feels a powerful guilt that amounts to a longing to have acted more morally. This is the psychological center of the novel’s theme of self-improvement. But Pip’s romantic idealism is inherently unrealistic. Whatever he might wish, it is impossible to become a gentleman overnight and never again be a common boy, to immediately forget one’s old friends, family, and surroundings, and to abruptly change one’s inner self.

When Pip suddenly receives his fortune, he experiences a moment in which his romantic ideal seems to have come true. But the impediments remain, and Pip is forced to contend with the entanglements of his affection for his family and his home. Feeling his emotions clash, Pip is unsure how to behave, so he gives in fully to his romantic side and tries to act like a wealthy aristocrat—a person, he imagines, who would be snobbish to Joe and Biddy. Though he is at heart a very good person, Pip has not yet learned to value human affection and loyalty above his immature vision of how the world ought to be. In this section and throughout the novel, behaving snobbishly is a way for Pip to simplify the complicated emotional situations in which he finds himself as he attempts to impose his immature picture of the world on the real complexities of life.

When Pip moves to London, a new stage in his life begins. As we are told at the end of Chapter 19: “This is the end of the first stage of Pip’s expectations.”

Source(s)

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/greatex/section6.rhtml

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