How Does Magwitch Change Throughout The Novel

From a distance Magwitch does not seem like the sweetest person, but as Pip get a closer look at him, his true colors start to show (473). Later on, during Magwitch's final days, “[Pip] noticed that more and more that [Magwitch] would lie placidly looking at the white ceiling, with an

The file that Pip gave the convict Magwitch symbolizes the naivety of a young child. Pip was around seven years old when Magwitch told him that “[he’ll] have his heart and liver out” if Pip failed to bring the file to him (Dickens 4). Pip’s obedience in going through with stealing the file from Joe and bringing it back to him is what changed Pip’s adult life. The convict feels that he owes Pip something because he was the reason Magwitch was able to escape the hulks. Magwitch becomes Pip’s benefactor and considers himself Pip’s “second father” because he has “put away money only for [Pip] to spend” in return to Pip’s kindness when he was a little boy (Dickens 298).

The second stage that is similar is the Resurrection. In Great Expectations after Orlick takes a swig of liquor, then picks up a stone hammer and advances menacingly toward Pip. Pip cries out, and suddenly Herbert bursts in with a group of men to save him. Herbert had found Orlick’s note asking Pip to meet him at the marshes. This shows Pip is willing to do anything to help Magwitch escape. The anonymous letter stated “If you are not afraid to come to the old marshes tonight or tomorrow night at nine, and to come to the little sluice-house by the limekiln,

Mysterious and misunderstood, always captured and imprisoned but never free. At first glance he was starved and chained, deprived of his freedom. When he gains freedom he runs off to chase Compeyson. His actions caused him to be captured once more. His backstory is quite unfair compared to the 21 century. In fact he was punished more heavily than Compeyson, enraged he seeks revenge. To carry out his plan he turns Pip into a snob with high rank. Lastly when he tries to obtain freedom he is imprisoned once more. Thus Magwitch was destined to be imprisoned even during his last

This quote from Chapter 5 is describing Pip’s limited reunion with Magwitch after he had been rounded up by the police. The general statement made by Charles Dickens in this quote, is that Pip is still an innocent young boy. More specifically, Dickens describes Pip to be still in touch with his innocence and guilt, just as any other child is. In this passage, Dickens is suggesting that Pip is always concerned with what other people think of his behavior. In this passage, the author is suggesting that PIp is very anxious to prove to Magwitch that he is innocent.Like the innocent young boy Pip is, Pip is always concerned with what other people think of his behavior. Which is the author's way of proving Pip's innocence. But as Magwitch looks

“ The eye is the lamp of the body. You draw light into your body through your eyes, and light shines out to the world through your eyes.” Mathew 6:22 closely ties to temptations and goals Pip has as he progresses in the novel. In the novel Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Pip learns the rigorousness of life and utilizes them to make him a true gentleman. At the start of the story Pip rebukes Magwitch for his appearance; his dirty rags, and how poverish he is. As the story progresses, he realizes Magwitch’s prodigious effect on his life and begins to transmute his views on him. Towards the conclusion of the novel, Magwitch has died and Pip has become an incipient person with a new flair of deference. As the story progresses, Pip finds his

Great Expectations opens to the scene of overgrown churchyard, introducing Magwitch as frightful and mysterious. Setting, dialogue and repetition characterise Magwitch as such, further developing through the binary opposition presented by his association with Pip. The setting displays “ a memorable raw afternoon towards evening” (p.3) where seven year old Pip stands amongst the graves of his parents and siblings. The narrator establishes the scene:

The following morning, Magwitch tells the men his story. He was an orphaned child and he lived a life of delinquency out of necessity. As a young gentleman he met a criminal named Compeyson and fell under his influence. Compeyson had already drove another partner, Arthur, into drunkenness and psychosis. Arthur, was driven to depression by the recollection of a wealthy woman he and Compeyson had once mistreated. He continues, saying that when they were caught, Compeyson turned on him, using his manners to get a light punishment at the trial. Magwitch wanted payback, and Compeyson was the man Pip saw him fighting with that night on the marsh. At this point, Herbert passes Pip a note that tangles the situation even further. The letter

Dickens emphasizes this with Magwitch's brutal behavior, his threats of death if Pip does not do his bidding, but, as is a recurring theme in the novel, we need only the proof of his appearance to pass judgment upon him. Pip in contrast is defenseless, for in the inverted position Magwitch holds him, Pip can be likened to a new-born; Pip is innocent, naked, and ignorant of the world. It is from this point Pip begins the long journey toward the "identity of things" (24; ch.1).

Pips fear of Magwitch grows when Magwitch says 'I ain't alone, as you may think I am'. Dickens does this to intimidate Pip even more and to make Pips experience with Magwitch as fearful and as memorable as possible. Magwitch then starts to go into great detail about what the other man can supposedly do. The description of the man kind of sounds like a ghost or horror story and Magwitch refers to himself as an 'Angel' compared to the other man. '

The proverb, “once a thief,always a thief” comes into my head when reading this quote. Even though Magwitch adds on linen clothing and he refines his name, he is still a criminal. You can’t turn a criminal into a gentleman. I also feel that even Pip won’t ever become a gentleman, because he doesn’t know the criteria to become one.

Throughout Dickens’ novel Great Expectations, the character, personality, and social beliefs of Pip undergo complete transformations as he interacts with an ever-changing pool of characters presented in the book. Pip’s moral values remain more or less constant at the beginning and the end; however, it is evident that in the time between, the years of his maturation and coming of adulthood, he is fledgling to find his place in society. Although Pip is influenced by many characters throughout the novel, his two most influential role models are: Estella, the object of Miss Havisham’s revenge against men, and Magwitch, the benevolent convict. Exposing himself to such diverse characters Pip has to learn to discern right from wrong and chose

Dickens frequently mentions the motif of being low, showing readers how Pip is constantly reminded that he too must rise above his actions and be kind, instead of hostile, aggressive, and revengeful. Lastly, Magwitch shows Pip what it means to truly love Joe and how he should take care of him. After Magwitch dies and Pip becomes extremely upset he exclaims, “I only saw in him a much better man that I had been to Joe” (Dickens 399), demonstrating how Pip finally realizes what he has done to Joe and how he should be treating him; he should treat him with the same love he had for Magwitch. Magwitch has helped teach Pip that every father deserves respect, leading Pip to his redemption home with

One of the most important and common tools that authors use to illustrate the themes of their works is a character that undergoes several major changes throughout the story. In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens introduces the reader to many intriguing and memorable characters, including the eccentric recluse, Miss Havisham, the shrewd and careful lawyer, Mr. Jaggers, and the benevolent convict, Abel Magwitch. However, Great Expectations is the story of Pip and his initial dreams and resulting disappointments that eventually lead to him becoming a genuinely good person. The significant changes in Pip's character are very important to one of the novel's many themes. Dickens uses Pip's

Beginning in the second stage, Pip goes off to London with his newfound fortune to become a gentleman, though all that he would truly become is a rich, wealthy snob. Upon arriving at Barnard’s Inn, Pip rudely talks about the shabby conditions of the place, even saying, “So imperfect was this realization of the first of my great expectations that I looked in dismay at Wemmick,” showing that now that he is rich, he feels he should be treated like a king (181). Wemmick even mistakes his look of contempt, demonstrating that already he is becoming a snob, but at this point others don’t take him to be one. Although this passage only talks about the ‘first’ of Pip’s expectations, one can see that they are already set too high. Pip accompanies Wemmick to Newgate prison, but afterwards says, “I wished Wemmick had not met me, or I had not yielded to him and gone with him,” because he feels he is too far above the prisoners there (279). This is very ironic, because the person who has made him ‘rise’ above all these people is a convict. Pip didn’t want Newgate to be ‘on’ him because he felt it would detour Estella, when in fact her father was a convict as well. When Pip finds out that Magwitch is his benefactor and not Miss Havisham he says, “The abhorrence in which I held the