Summary:
Phillip Pirrip is a young small boy in Great Expectations. He lives with his sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery and her husband, Joe Gargery, as both his parents and all of his five brothers had died.
Phillip Pirrip is a young small boy. He lives with his sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery and her husband, Joe Gargery, as both his parents and all of his five brothers had died. He had never before seen any of his family, other than his sister, so he tries to imagine what his family looks like by judging the decorations and writing on their tombstones. He is always called Pip, because at his young age his "infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip" (Page 1) He lives in Marsh Country, twenty miles from the sea, near a river. He is very small and weak, as the convict was able to lift him right off the ground.
Pip is very small, even for his age and is neither strong nor heavy. He has fat cheeks, meaning he is fed well. '"What fat cheeks you ha' got"' (Page 2) It is not known very well by us how he looks, as the book is written from a first person perspective, meaning he does not reveal much about himself, other than the fact that he is small, which is written directly, at the beginning of the book "I was at that time undersized and for my years, not strong." (Page 2)
Pip is more than twenty years younger than his sister, and older than his five dead brothers as it was written that they were "infant children of the aforesaid" (Page 2). Pip is scared of his sister as she spanks and beats him a lot with her cane, as she is very harsh. Pip is not very educated and mistakes and confuses things, as well as taking things the wrong way. He is confused, for example, over the fact that his sister 'had established a reputation with herself and her neighbors because she had brought me up "by hand"' (Page 5) Pip thinks this meant to punish people corporally as his sister was tough and had rough hands. Pip is easily influenced, as he is so young, so when he is told to bring fool and a file for the convict, he feels obliged to do it, yet he feels guilty for stealing those items, as he is terrified of his sister and what she might do to him is she found out.
Pip is generally gullible and easy to fool, as he does not know much about anything. He was easily tricked by the convict who said that there was a "young man" who hid with him, but in actual fact, there wasn't. Fear of this also makes Pip fell like he has to take the file and the food, because the convict said that he is much more violent and harsh than himself. As he steals the food and goes to give it to the convict at the place where they were supposed to meet, he becomes more and more scared, starts to feel more guilty every second, and starts to suffer from slight psychological issues, as he starts to think that the animals talk to him, telling him that he is guilty and will be caught. As Pip is gullible and prone to tricks and lies, he believes what the convict had told him beforehand '"Now I ain't alone, as you may think I am. There's a young man hid with me, in comparison, with which I am an angel."' (Page 4) pip then believes that the other convict he sees is the young man, and then gets terrified of him in an instant.
Pip is mistreated by his living family including Uncle Pumblechook, whom he has to call "Mr." and not "uncle." The friends of his sister and uncle, who join them for Christmas dinner, like to insult and offend him, along with his uncle and sister, calling him a pig. He does not get severely offended as he is most probably used to it, but Joe, who is a kind person, tries to find ways to comfort Pip, yet the only way he finds is to dish out more gravy for Pip, which results in Pips food floating in gravy. Pip does not fond this comforting, but he at least recognizes this as Joe trying to comfort him. Pip is kind at heart, as he feels sorry when the convict gets taken away, even though he was threatened by him to kill and eat him. He also later feels very grateful that the convict covers up for him stealing the food. Generally, Pip is intuitive and asks a lot of questions about many different things. '"Answer him one question and he'll ask you a dozen directly"' (Page 12)
Pip is very Naïve and kind. He does not get along well with his sister, as she does no allow him to do many things, but Pip wants to find out things he is not allowed. His sister particularly dislikes the fact that Pip asks many questions. Joe is kind and gets along well with Pip, protecting him from his sister. They have a sort of a bond, in which they protect each other from the evils that his sister does. Pip's naivete shows itself when he brings food to the convict. '"I was glad you enjoyed it"' (Page 16) Pip shows politeness to the convict and calls him "sir" even though he was threatened with death. He and the convict did not get along at the start, but progressively they became more and more secure with each other, which eventually led to the convict protecting Pip from stealing food, meaning he is a decent person who committed a crime and not a psychotic lunatic. In the novel Pip was chosen to be the narrator as he is young and would tell things from a child's perspective and as a child, is prone to have many troubles.
This is the complete article, containing 969 words
(approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page).
