Pip’s family Essay

In chapter one of the story we discover that Pip’s family is deceased, well apart from his sister. They all died from common diseases like flu and measles and other illnesses which some were treatable but, medicine was not affordable for the poor. The social conditions in the nineteenth century were unfortunate. There wasn’t much medicine and there were no cure for common diseases and there was a lot of poverty, poor people had to work which includes children working in factories, there wasn’t in the least of education for the poor. This all tells us that life was hard to live in Britain in the nineteenth century if you were poor. Today in Britain it is greatly different, there is less poverty, more education, affordable prices for medicine, children don’t need to work to support there family, also there is the NHS health service and there is child benefit along with income support. Pip encounters an escaped convict when he goes to see his mother’s grave. Pip was petrified when he saw this convict; he was an enormous man and was chained up to his legs. In those days all convicts were known as murders so when Pip met him he was horrified. Then the convict forces Pip to bring food to eat and a filer to break lose from the chains on his hands and legs. In Pip’s village the standard of education was important but the poor often couldn’t afford it. Only the rich and wealthy families were able to afford education. Poor people weren’t expected to get educated in Pip’s village. Pip was expected to work and support his family when he was older. Pip wanted to become a black smith like Joe. Charles Dickens wants to create a miserable impression about education among the working classes. He wants to show how unfortunate children were in the working classes as they can not get any education and had to support there families. The children of wealthier families received different standard of education from the poorer families. They weren’t amongst the working classes, they didn’t need to work to support there families they could afford education as well as medicine, which means that life wasn’t bad for rich and wealthy families. Joe and Pip are extraordinarily good friends Because Joe is a fully grown man and Pip is a youngster and there relationship is very secure and close, they can talk to each other in confidence, can keep secrets from each other and support each other in any way. Joe had an extremely dreadful childhood he suffered from a lot of violence from his dad as he gave a great deal of pain to Joe and his mother by beating them. Joe’s dad was constantly drunk also, they were suffering from poverty. Joe explains his father and childhood to Pip. He tells him about the violence he suffered from his father this makes Pip feel uncomfortable and sorry about Joe. â€Å"†¦I was not at all at my ease†¦Ã¢â‚¬  this is how Pip felt, he felt anxious and confused when the time was up to go to Miss Havisham’s house for the arrangement. At the gates of the Satis house Pip met Estella. Estella treated Pip awfully bad. She kept on calling him â€Å"†¦boy†¦Ã¢â‚¬  at the end of her every sentence, this was very impolite and rude. By Estella’s words and actions it made Pip feel like someone not to be complimented at even for this Pip had feelings for Estella. Estella knows that pip comes from a poor social background. She feels that he is someone that has no education and manners so she speaks to him very rudely by calling him not by his name but by â€Å"†¦boy†¦Ã¢â‚¬  at the end of every sentence. When Pip left the Satis house he felt like a â€Å"†¦common labouring-boy†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and felt more ignorant because he cried in front of Estella at the gates of the Satis. Pip was very irritated by the way Joe was dressed, which it was in his Sunday clothes and he also was irritated when Joe’s behaviour was very embarrassing during their meeting with Miss Havisham. Joe was trying to act smart and act like a gentleman but he made things worse by tying to say big words like â€Å"Astonishing† but he said it all wrong he said it like â€Å"†¦as-TON-ishing†¦Ã¢â‚¬  this made Pip feel more irritated and Nervous. When Joe was speaking to Miss Havisham he was addressing to Pip, Pip was trying to give him a clue to stop Joe from looking at him and to look at Miss Havisham when speaking to her but Joe was to dense to notice. This all is showing us that Pip’s attitude changes towards Joe; he starts feeling ashamed about Joe because he showed out Pip’s social and financial life at the meeting with Miss Havisham by the way he speaks and dresses. I don’t think Pip should have felt this way because Joe is his close friend and he should not change his feelings and actions towards Joe just because he gets irritated at him. Now we can see that Pip’s social life and poverty is affecting his own character.