The Virtual Coffeehouse

I believe that the first 19 chapters can be somewhat divided into 4 different situations that all come to be a significant part of Pip's identity. The first being the early years of Pip living with his sister and Joe, he values his education by wanting to develop his reading and writing skills yet he is still heavily impact by Mrs. Joe and Pumblechook's hope that Miss. Havisham will bring Pip fortune. As soon he visits Miss. Havisham there is a huge in what he values and now hopes that she will make him a gentleman. It is evident what is truly important to him when he finds out that Miss. Havisham has made him Joe's apprentice. He is dissappointed because he wants to move up the social ladder and no longer wants to be tied down by his home, sister, and Joe. Chapter 18 marks the turning point when he finds out he will be moving to London to become a gentleman. He acts ungrateful and snobbish towards the people who love him most because he is now "better" than them.

Social class is also brought into the picture by the contrasting characters of Biddy and Estella. Biddy is pure and good and is content with her station in life while Estella is cruel towards Pip and at the other end of the social spectrum as Biddy.

I like Lauren's dividing of the first Volume into 4 different sections. I think Pip is heavily influenced by Joe and his environment. One incident that stood out to me was when Joe talks about his wife as going on "a rampage" when she obsessively cleans the house. Joe shows no affection for his wife, until after she was assaulted. This portrayl of husband-wife relations relates to social class because it depicts how working class women act. Specifically, "...she asked Joe why he hadn't married a Negress Slave at once? Joe offered no answer...looking dejectedly at me, as if he thought it really might have been a better speculation" (99). This incident could contribute to why Pip shys away from working class women like Biddy and idolizes Estella and the upper class. Because of his experiences with Joe and interaction with his wife, Pip rejects the lower social class in favor of a more idyllic, upper class life.

I agree with Elise's connection between the injustices Pip faced at the hands of his "working class" sister and his subsequent idolization of the upper-class lifestyle. It seems natural for Pip to have developed negative connotations with working class people because the majority of his experiences were negative, his relationship with Joe being one of the few exceptions. It seems probable, if not exactly justifiable, for Pip to reject his past working-class experience and embrace the potential of a future free from menial toil.