What Impression do you have of Pip by the end of Chapter Fourteen? Has your attitude towards him changed since he described to us his meeting with the convict? My attitude towards Pip changed dramatically between his description of the meeting with the convict and chapter fourteen. My impression of him by the end of chapter fourteen reflects this. When Pip is described to us when he meets the convict the first feeling towards him is of sympathy, he is alone and visiting the graves of his parents and siblings, and as a reader I naturally warmed to this obviously vulnerable character as he was bullied by the convict.
Pip helped the convict and is kind to him and the difference in size between Pip and the convict is apparent when Pip is hoisted up into the air, once again showing him to be vulnerable. Pip also is immediately guilty after stealing for the convict but is too cowardly to tell Joe what he has done, although this doesn’t make a reader dismiss him as a coward because he didn’t tell Joe for the right reasons. The reader does not think any less of him for not telling Joe and feels even sorrier for him because of his predicament.
Pips background and home life also generate sympathies from readers. Pip is between by his sister and treated badly by her. Pip is treated with little love by Mrs. Joe Gargery and is given little freedom. Pip works as an apprentice to Joe Gargery and his attitude changes towards that reflect his overall attitude change towards his background and home. Pip is heavily restricted at home and, although he has a good relationship with Joe, both men are under the strict control of the red-faced Mrs. Joe Gargery.
This endears both Pip and Joe to a reader. Pip becomes closer to Joe as the book progresses, probably because they both need support due to the way Mrs. Joe Gargery runs her household, until he visits Miss Havisham and becomes besotted by Estella. After this (around chapter eight) Pip becomes ashamed of him when Pip learns to read and write as well as being heavily criticized by Estella when he is at Miss Havishams. He is also ashamed of Joe’s lack of education and the profession that he is entering.
By the end of chapter fourteen Pip is ashamed of Joe and also ashamed of himself for thinking this way about Joe. This is the start of a readers change in attitude towards Pip. A reader could quite possibly be dismayed at Pips disregard for his background and Joe’s upbringing. Pip attempts to admonish himself looking back on his embarrassment of Joe but cannot be fully excused as it was a conscious decision and even as a young adult Pip could have had a lot more respect for his background and upbringing.
After Pip visits Miss Havisham he changes. He is in love with Estella and is desperate not to be shown up by or in front of her; he is terrified that she may appear at the window while he is doing his work as an apprentice. He becomes ashamed of his background and wishes to become a gentleman. He begins to question the way he has been brought up and his background in the way that he alienates himself from Joe and feels he can do better for himself then Joe has.
By the end of chapter fourteen I sensed a certain snobbery implanted in Pip and although at heart Pip is a well-meant his disrespect, towards Joe especially, means the reader begins to dislike certain aspects of Pips character. Other impressions are that he is head over heels in love with Estella who seems determined to put him down at every opportunity. I feel that Pip wanted to do more with his life, to move into the upper class and become a gentleman and to not become an apprentice. Pip feels by the end of chapter fourteen that he has to get out of his then current situation quickly in order to fully fulfill himself.
My attitude towards Pip changes as the book progresses. At the beginning of the book I was sympathetic towards Pip because he was at his family’s grave and the convict took advantage of his frailties. I stayed sympathetic towards him and thought that although he sometimes did wrong he meant well, for example the way he didn’t tell Joe that he’d stolen his things, until after he had visited Miss Havisham and then I became wary of Pips disdain for his apprentiship and to a bigger extent his background and rearing.
Pip changes throughout the book and these changes effect his decisions and his life in a variety of ways. At the end of chapter fourteen we don’t know what will happen to Pip but we do know that he is determined to get out of his apprentiship and to become a gentleman, but these attitude changes come at a cost as his rapport with Joe is possibly irreparably damaged.
