《远大前程》主人公匹普的性格发展浅析 --毕业论文.doc

【标题】远大前程主人公匹普的性格发展浅析 【作者】肖 玲 【关键词】远大前程；性格发展；仁爱复苏；成熟 【指导老师】游 伟 【专业】英语 【正文】I. IntroductionGreat Expectations is written by English novelist Charles Dickens in the 19th century. It mainly describes the development of Pips grown-up and the disillusionment of his“great expectations”. Pip undergoes much experience. Educated by the reality, he comes to realize what he pursues in the Vanity Fair is not valuable at all. He recognizes the world and becomes mature. The change of Pips mind has just reflected the situation of that time. Charles Dickens writes the novel to criticize the corruption of the capitalism society.A. The Life of Charles DickensCharles Dickens is the greatest novelist in England and the most outstanding representative of critical realism in the 19th century. His novel does not reflect the life experience of a whole generation genuinely, but also discloses the social reality vividly in England in the middle 19th century. Its depth and width go beyond most of works of his contemporaries.1 He was born in England in 1812.He was the second of eight sons in a poor family. Much of what he writes is based on personal experience. When Dickenss father could not pay his bills, he was sent to prison. Dickenss mother and brother are forced to work hard at different jobs in order to pay off the debates. Charles Dickens knows the first hand about the misery and hunger of a poor life.B. The Plot of Great ExpectationsGreat Expectations is an excellent work written by English novelist Dickens. This novel is mainly written about the hero Pip. It describes the development of Pips grown-up and the disillusionment of his“great expectations”. In Pips childhood, he is a pure boy and wants to become a blacksmith which is his great expectation. In the second period, when Pip becomes the inheritor of a cryptic property, he is arrogant to others. However, his soul has not changed and he is also kind in fact. In the third period, Pip gets to know the benefactor of the cryptic property, who is a prisoner he helped in his childhood. He loses his great expectation, but he acquired morality. After plague suffered, at last Pip recognizes the world. He returns to reality. Although he gets a simple job, he feels satisfied. He becomes mature. It is written in the 19th century when many people are opposed by some bourgeois or great financier baron.II. Analysis of Pips Character DevelopmentIn this novel, the writer describes four process of Pips grown-up. At first, poverty makes him a pure boy. He just wants to be a black smith. After he inherits a large amount of cryptic property, he thinks since he is rich, he should be different from others. He feels superior. When Magwitch appears, Pip is informed that his benefactor is a prisoner, who gives him money to show his gravitation and wants to make him a man of upper class. After Magwitchs death, Pip loses his great expectations but he changes his idea. In the end, Pip lives in a simple life and finds the pleasure of the simple life. In this novel, according to Irving, John,“the hero undergoes purity, degrading, reorganization, maturing generally”. He recognizes the truth gradually. After all, he makes out what is important and what is subordinate. Because of the change of the environment, Pips character develops.A. The Childhood ExperienceIn Pips childhood, he lives a simple life. He just wants to work like Joe in future. Pip and Joe are true friends. They always help each other. Although his sister always blames him, he still lives a happy life. Pip is naive before he meets Estella. However, as soon as he meets her, he falls in love with her. He finds he is a low-class man and has no status. His peaceful life is broken then. He begins to hate his life. He changes his mind and wants to be a gentleman. To be equal with Estella and marry her, he strongly aspires for enhancing his social position. Just at this time, a cryptic benefactor is willing to support him for his education in England. Therefore, Pip loses his original purity. At last, Pip gives up his dream in his childhood. With the benefactors help, he lives a self-reliant life in London. He doesnt want to be a blacksmith like his brother-in-law any longer. In reality, he finds himself and becomes mature.1. Before Meeting Miss Havisham and EstellaAt the beginning of the novel, Pip is isolated, nervous, frightened when he meets a prisoner at the grave. Although Pip is extremely frightened, he feels sympathy with the prisoner. He steals food and a file from his sisters home for him. He keeps his promise. Moreover, he worries about his safe when he hears that the policeman is searching for him.From his action, we can infer that Pip is kind and honest. His sister adopts him and always blames him. However, his brother-in law treats him as a friend. They understand each other. At this period, like Joe, being a black smith is his great expectation. He also leaves us an immature impression. He worries about the secret that he steals things to the prisoner. He even thinks that people all over the world want to find his secret and the policeman waits him in the kitchen. Generally speaking, he is pure in this period.2. After Meeting Miss Havisham and EstellaWith the appearance of Miss Havisham and Estella, Pip falls in love with her and rethinks himself. He is attracted by Estella, a beautiful and arrogant girl. He studies as hard as he could to educate himself for her. He begins to hate his pure life. He just wants to be a rich man to be equal with Estella and marry her, although she doesnt treat him well. 2 Because he loves her, he leaves his home and his friends. His desire, enhancing his social position, becomes more and more intensified. On the other hand, Miss Havisham, who is a victim of love, wants to revenge. She adopts Estella. She says to Pip, who is deeply in love with her,“Love her, and love her! If she likes you, love her! If she hurts you, love her! If she tears your heart to pieces, love her!” But she doesnt want Estella to marry Pip. She is hurt by a person, so she wants to hurt other men. Although there is no good for her, she also does. It is revenge that makes the world full of hatreds. Therefore, Miss Havisham and Estella help Pip develop his character. From then on, he doesnt want to live as before and drops the dream of a blacksmith. He is not as pure as before. Being a superior man has become his great expectation.B. Being the Inheritor of a Cryptic PropertyAs soon as Pip becomes the inheritor of a cryptic property, he realizes his great expectation. At this period, although Pip becomes a gentleman from a common person, he becomes more and more unconfident and upset. He begins to be enlightened.In fact, he just degrades temporarily. Extravagance makes him arrogant and selfish. Although he is extravagant, he is also kind-hearted. He is so generous that he helps his friend Herbert do some business. Although he is lucky and becomes rich, he does not satisfy his life. He is also not very happy. Therefore he is still kind. He just degrades immorality for a short time.1. The Cryptic PropertyWhen Pip is told to inherit a cryptic property, his great expectation comes true. A named person entrusted a lawyer to make Pip be a gentleman. He even shows his superior before Joe and Biddy. He thinks he is a gentleman from then on and he is satisfied with his fortune. He becomes arrogant and looks down upon others. He thinks Joe should be qualified for a rise in station. Even to his best friend Joe and Biddy, Pip thinks that there is a great gap between them. Although Pip thinks like that, he also shows his kindness to others. He promises himself that he would do something for them one of these days and forms a plan in outline for bestowing a dinner of roast beef and plum-pudding, a pint of ale, and a gallon of condescension, upon everybody in the village. He thinks that he will be equal with Estella. Even he considers the question whether Miss Havisham intends him for Estella. He mistakes Miss Havisham for his benefactor. No more low wet grounds, no more dykes and sluices, no more of these grazing cattle-though they seemed, in their dull manner, to wear a more respectful air now, and to face round, in order that they might stare as long as possible at the possessor of such great expectations-farewell, monotonous acquaintances of my childhood, henceforth I was for London and greatness: not for smiths work in general and for you! From this description, Pips character can be inferred, which is arrogance and kindness. He changes his mind to treat others and has a new great expectation. He is tired of the life, but there is a chance that changes his situation greatly.2. The Life in London with the PropertyPip lives as a man of upper class in London. Extravagance makes him arrogant and selfish. He treats people indifferently. Generally speaking, he is arrogant to others at this period. When Pip hears his brother-in-law who is an uneducated and coarse man comes to visit him, he doesnt know with what kind of feeling he looks forward to Joes arrival. He does not feel pleasant with considerable disturbance, some mortification, and a keen sense of incongruity. Whats more,“If I could have kept him away by paying money, I certainly would have paid money”5, he says to himself.Facing Pips indifferent attitude, Joe gets embarrassed and is at a loss. When Pip asks Joe to sit down, he looks all around the room for a suitable spot on which to deposit his hat. Ultimately he puts it on an extreme corner of the chimney piece, from which it ever afterwards falls off at intervals. Joe picks it up and fits it to the same exact spot for several times. Moreover, Joe calls Pip“Sir”, which also shows their gap. He does not feel comfortable from head to foot. The hat symbolizes the gap between Pip and Joe. It reveals the loyalty of Joe and betray of Pip. Since Pip is in a higher position, there is no bridge for them to comminute. He doesnt treat Joe as well as before. 3Pip is also attracted by Estella that he always pays a visit on her while he never go back to see Joe. Because of his unpractical dream, he changes his value, which brings him some negative attitudes. He believes that his benefactor is Miss Havisham. He thinks that Miss Havisham helps him to marry Estella. He feels humiliated for his early life. He indulges his position and in living an upper-class life.C. Knowing the Benefactor of the Large Amount of PropertyWhen Pip is around 23 years of age, a rough voyager goes into Pips room. He recognizes the man. He is the prison whom Pip helps in his childhood. In the marshes ashore, he meets young Pip at a graveyard. He tricks the seven years old boy into believing that he has an accomplice who is a terrible young man and who would tear out and eat Pips heart and liver if Pip didnt help him. Pip, terrified, steals a savory pork pie, brandy and a file from his house and brings them to Magwitch the next morning. However, the man stands before him again. He doesnt feel gratitude towards Magwitch when he discovers where his money comes from. His feeling is thinly veiled. Magwitch doesnt forget his kindness to him and decides to do something for the boy.His benefactor is the prison he has helped before instead of Miss Havisham. He knows that she does not want to marry Estella to him in fact. He feels sad. He is attracted to the voyager by the strongest admiration and affection instead of the strangest repugnance. Pip is aware that Miss Havishams intentions towards him are a mere dream. Estella is not designed for him. Thinking that, Pip is stunned. He suffers the sharpest and deepest pain of all. He feels disappointed. Knowing the benefactor becomes the milestone of Pips maturity.His noble position is just based on a rough prisoner. A low person helps him realize his dream. Magwitch is gratuitous, although he looks uneducated. Pip helps him to escape. At the same time, he grows up. The coward boy has become a confident man. He protects him from the prison. Although he tries his best to give him a hand, he also fails.“My repugnance to him had all melted away, and in the hunted wounded shackled creature who held my hand in his, I only saw a man who had meant to be my benefactor, and who had felt affectionately, gratefully, and generously, towards me with great constancy through a series of years. I only saw him in a much better man than I had been to Joe.”4 From these sentences, his gravitation can be proved. He overcomes many difficulties. He insists on seeing Magwitch everyday and gives him comfort. Although he fails to help him escape from England and he gets no property at last after Magwitchs death, he never shakes to help him.Pip makes frequent visits to the ailing Magwitch and holds his hand throughout Madwitch new trial, where Magwitch receives a death sentence. Magwitch is declining in health and is being held in the infirmary when Pip at last tells him that his child, Estella, is alive. Thanks to Pips care, Magwitch lives a peaceful life in his last days. Pip changes his mind and his dream is also changed. Although he loses his great expectations, his morality which is more precious than his expectations returns.D. Returning to RealityAfter Magwitchs death, Pip is also seriously ill. Pip goes through the bitter experience from the illusion to the disillusion. Pip loves Estella, who looks like a cruel princess living in a witch castle. She humiliates Pip and hurts his heart. She often laughed at his poor born and worn clothes. But Pip loves her for ever and dreams of marring her. What makes him suffer badly is that Estella married a vile, foolish man. This is the process of the praise of virtue and coming to realize the life with the self-abuse and confess of his mistakes.5 It can also say that the growth of the young Pip is a painful transformation. His mind is transferred from the state of degeneration to the state of perfection. After experiencing common in childhood, prospect in juvenile, he has recognized the real world. He has learned many things. He can make out what is right and what is wrong because he becomes mature.At last, it is just the poor born Joe gives him a warm hand when he is in trouble. Joe is also embarrassed as he pays a visit to him several years ago. However, Pip feels that he never leaves Joe. After he has turned the worst point of his illness, he begins to notice that while all its other features have changed, this one consistent feature does not change. Whoever came about him, still settled down into Joe. He opens his eyes in the night, and he sees in the great chair at the bedside, Joe. He opens his eyes in the day, sitting on the window-seat, and smokes his pipe in the shaded open windows, however, still he saw Joe. He asks for cooling drink, and the dear hand that gives it him is Joes. He sinks back on his pillow. After drinking, the face which looks so hopefully and tenderly upon him is the face of Joe. Finally Pip says something to God in a regretful mood,“God, bless him! Ah, God, bless this sincere and kind-hearted man!” Pips frank and true words show that he is deeply moved by Joes behavior. In fact, he has realized his mistake and decides to correct. He asks Joe to forgive him.After he leaves London for his home silently, Pip also returns to the countryside. Pip never feels arrogant. He works as hard as he can. He lives a simple and pure life as before, but he feels happy. He changes from an innocent child into a selfish gentleman then back to the original place. He is still pure. Therefore, he is easy to be affected by the environment of the society. He feels satisfied with his business. He said,“I worked pretty hard for a sufficient living, and therefore-Yes, I do well.” To realize Pips unpractical great expectations, he changes from a pure boy into a selfish gentleman. However, when all the dreams and expectations disappear, he overcomes his bad behavior and becomes a kind man again. He is civilized and becomes moral.III. The Factors that Influence the Revival of Pips Benevolence The revival of Pips benevolence results from many reasons. However, the main factors are the environment, Magwitch and Joe. Different environment cultivates Pips different character. Because of the change of environment, Pips benevolence revives. His benefactor Magwitch also plays a role on his character. It is Magwitch who makes Pip a rich man. He helps his benevolence revive. At the last part of the novel, Pip goes through the bitter experience from the illusion to the disillusion. It is Joe who helps him when he is in trouble. He feels gratuitous towards Joe. Therefore Joe becomes one of the important factors of the revival of Pips benevolence.A. The Influence from EnvironmentIt is the environment that makes Pips character develop. The growth of Pip is a painful transformation. His mind is transferred from the state of degeneration to the state of perfection. Pip goes through the bitter experience from the illusion to the disillusion. He changes from an innocent child into a selfish and biased gentleman. At last, he returns to the original place and becomes a pure child again. With the changing of the environment, Pip becomes mature step by step. He is influenced by the environment constantly.At beginning, Pip lives with his sister and brother-in law. He just wants to be a blacksmith like Joe when he is poor and pure. He knows nothing and he is just a coward boy. As soon as the prisoner asks him to bring him food and a file to him, Pip follows his words. Since he is poor, he does not look down upon Joe. Being a blacksmith is his great expectation. However, after he meets Estella, he changes his mind. He wants to be an Upper-class man to marry her. If he does not meet her, maybe he is still a pure boy. From then on, he becomes