Great Expectations

Some critics have described Pip's fever in Chapter 57 as a symbolic death and rebirth. Explain how Pip is reborn at the end of the novel. What parts of Pip have died away?

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Chapter 57, when Pip is arrested for an unpaid debt, and when he becomes deathly sick, is describes by various critics around the world, as an important symbolic death and rebirth, because; during pip's sickness, his affectionate love toward Estella meets its demise. Likewise, after feelings for Estella is somewhat removed away from Pip, his longings for his former life as a simple blacksmith and a commodious living with biddy back home on the peaceful marshes return. Pip also wishes for a nice period of time with Joe. "As I lay in bed looking at him, it made me, in my weak state, cry again with pleasure to see...him." Pip, in this quote, is explaining his yearning to be with Joe.

His precedent aches for his childhood companion, Biddy, have also been changed for the better after he is, as some call it, reborn from his state of poor and naive to poor but with a wisdom that can only come from disappointment and worldly experience. It is almost as if Pip's fever is the coming out of a dream, an illusion where happiness equaled status. Pip now understands what is important in life.

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http://www.bookrags.com/essay-2003/4/14/12650/7879