Table of Contents
Inspiration
Shifting expectations
Pip’s failure in his dreams
Dreams that Reinforce Pip’s Misery & Fear
Last Thoughts
Works cited
E.R. wrote: “Tell me about your dreams for a while, and I’ll tell you who you really are.” This proverb was written by E.R. Two conclusions are drawn from it: 1) Dreams can be a very accurate indicator of character 2) An outsider can interpret a person’s dreams more than he/she can about the individual.
This proverb says that dreams are more telling than actual life events. It is also more accurate than conversations with friends and family. The contents, themes, longings and recurring themes of a person’s dreams are more accurate indicators of who they really are than any other method of judging their character. The proverb was written eight years before E.R. Great Expectations, Pfaff’s proverb is filled with the characters’ meaningful dreams and reflects the social change Charles Dickens was trying to make. Dickens creates Pip, a flawed protagonist with the goal to break down Victorian-era “great expectations” about wealth and class. However, his dreams reveal his guilt as well as the social problems that underlie these expectations.
MotivationDickens is motivated by the differences in lifestyles of the “lower classes”, the middle and upper classes, as well as the aristocracy. Richard Altick, author Victorian People and Ideas, writes that the differences in lifestyles between classes are a reason to be unhappy. The wealthy built lavish sham-Gothic mansions and added wings to their wealth at a moment when many of their compatriots were dying. Owners exploited workers to make huge fortunes, using political policies that made it very affordable for them.
The exploitation of farm workers was evident. However, literary attempts at questioning the exploitation started with the rise of factory work. Atlick says, “Wretched though they were [agrarian labor circumstances], it wasn’t their condition that aroused early Victorian social consciousness. Great Expectations was written in late nineteenth century when the farm-based economy had moved toward industrialization.” This led to prominent exploitation of factory workers.
But, perhaps even more important than the tangible differences in lifestyle were the feelings of loss and emotional grief felt by those who were born into lower classes. Pip, a member of the lower-middle classes, is Dickens’ social guinea. Pip is the character who experiences the events that Dickens wrote about. He dreams of becoming a gentleman. To do this, he believes he must become wealthy. However, his pursuit to obtain riches eventually teaches him Dickens’s lesson. Pip has the “great expectation” that he will be able to remove social barriers, marry Estella, accumulate wealth, climb the ranks and become a gentleman. This fairy-tale, happily-ever-after path is not possible.
Shifting ExpectationsDickens’s dynamic characterization of Pip serves as a vehicle to promote a change in societal expectations. Dickens’s initial description of Pip matches the Victorian Era’s aspirations for nobility. He wants to be wealthy and a gentleman. These are two seemingly inseparable ideas. Despite Pip choosing gentility, Dickens uses Pip’s highly critical, confused first-person narrative to suggest that something is wrong with Pip and society’s ideas of gentility. Biddy and Joe return home to find Pip saying:
Without experience, it was impossible for me to believe it, but Joe and Biddy seemed more joyful, and I felt quite depressed. Unsatisfied by my fortune? Of course not. But, it’s possible that I was, and didn’t realize it, unsatisfied myself.
Pip’s uncertainty over his social status and society’s ideas of gentility is paralleled by Dickens’s. Dickens’s passage makes it clear that wealth and happiness do not necessarily correlate. Pip is “gloomy” despite appearing to be on the right track to a large fortune. Joe and Biddy also belong to the lower middle classes society. So, what is the ultimate goal, happiness or wealth? Dickens believes wealth is just a way to happiness. However, as Joe and Biddy show, it is not necessary for happiness. Dickens suggests that these societal assumptions can often be proven incorrect by experience. Pip holds that wealth is the condition for gentility.
Dickens’s use of hindsight to illustrate that Pip and society are wrong is Dickens. Pip says that it is possible for him to be dissatisfied with himself. Dickens, a mature and more experienced Pip, portrays his regret as a way to show that society’s expectations are not so great. Pip’s unexperienced and immature aspirations are mirrored in society’s distorted view on gentility. Pip can be considered to have represented the Victorian model, which was directly tied to wealth and social class. Dickens disagreed with this view of Pip. Pip’s older years however show that gentility is possible without wealth. This realization Dickens later tries to share with society.
Pip’s Failure in His Dreams Pip’s dreams and life choices are often in conflict. While his choices tend to conform to the societal ideals of gentility, his dreams promote Dickens’s new expectations for gentlemen.
Dickens conveys the feeling of Pip being highly critical and the sense that there are looming, ominous circumstances in Pip’s first dream.
If I ever slept that night, it was just to think of myself drifting downriver on a strong Spring tide to the Hulks. (15)
This passage is when Pip plans on stealing from Mrs. Joe the next morning. Pip’s inability to fall asleep is a sign that his conscience troubles him. Dickens makes use of Pip’s critical conscience to convey the sense that he is wrong-doing throughout the novel, especially in this section. Claire Slagter (author of “Pip’s Dreams in Great Expectations”) writes that the passage is a representation of Pip’s social conscience about gentility. As Pip feels something is wrong with his “great hopes”, society must also see the injustice and impropriety of their expectations for gentlemen. Pip’s nightmare is quite morose. Pip dreamt of being hanged even as a child. Pip is Dickens’s social guineapig. He feels the guilt Dickens expects society will feel because it holds that only rich men can be gentlemen.
Pip’s “great expectations” are reflected in his dreams throughout the novel. Dickens uses Pip’s dreams throughout the novel to contrast with his “great expectations” of gentility. Radestock, Sigmund Fréud’s famous psychologist, says that dreams can reveal things we do not want to admit. This is consistent with Pip’s situation. Pip’s goal is to be a gentleman and rich. Dickens injects Pip’s dreams of what Pip “doesn’t want to admit”: that he could have been more successful and effective as a gentleman if he had maintained his relationship to Joe and Biddy, behaved kindly, developed a noble character, and stopped his misguided pursuit for wealth.
Pip has a strange dream in which Dickens gives it to him. This is to warn of the errors in his judgment. Pip recalls that he dreamed of coaches taking him to London in his broken sleep. He was also accompanied by pigs, cats, dogs and horses. Incredible failures of travels occupied my mind until the morning dawned, when the birds started singing.” (159) This dream is Pip’s last night home. It foreshadows his future trip. First, his disturbed sleep shows that he isn’t at ease with the upcoming trip. Second, it also indicates that he is nervous about leaving Joe or Biddy for gentility. The next thing Dickens says is that Pip cannot control the destination of his trip. Although Pip plans to go to London in the end, the coach, which is nothing more than an object with no rational mind or purposeful guidance, can dictate his route. Dickens’ purpose in denigrating Pip’s control over his mission was to suggest that Pip’s dream, to become wealthy after having been born into lower-middle-class society, is unlikely and ultimately uncontrollable.
Dickens also suggests Pip may not be in control of his own journey. Dickens mentions that Pip can have many animals, but no horses. Dickens’s illustrations of these animals highlight the struggle. It is impossible to imagine a cat, dog, pig, or man driving a coach like one. Dickens’ illustration of struggle may be a hint at the difficulty that Pip is likely to face during his quest. Dickens warns Pip that his journey will be fraught with failures.
This bizarre dream of Pip’s is a good example of Freud’s theory that dreams are a form of wish fulfillment. Freud said that dreams cannot be compared with the random resonance of a musical instrument struck by an external force. (98). Freud continued to say that every night he dreams of drinking a drink to quench his thirst until he wakes. The dream of Pip could also be seen as wish fulfillment in a similar way. The coach does not reach London in his dream. Pip appears to want to live up to society’s high expectations of gentility. However, he also seems reluctant to leave his home and the familiarity of Joe and Biddy. You could argue that Dickens wanted to create in Pip the character that feels compelled in his subconscious to stay with Joe or Biddy in the lower class, but that consciously wants wealth, high society, and gentility. Pip’s inner desire-fulfillment manifests in his dream, but eventually his conscious state is influenced heavily by society’s expectations and he pursues society’s desires for wealth, social approval and finally gentility.
Dreams that Reinforce Pip’s Fear and Misery Pip tells Herbert Pocket that he returned from the theater and that he went to bed thinking about Estella. (258). Dickens used dreams to foreshadow the events that would befall Pip before he arrived in London. Dickens reinforces Pip’s idea of misery by reliving his dreams. However, this is no longer a threat to him but a fact. Pip’s persistent despair can be seen in Dickens’ repeated infliction of misery on him both before and after sleep. Pip can’t help but dwell on the misery in his situation, both in conscious waking and unconscious sleep moments.
Dickens portrays Pip as a gentleman, but he avoids bringing out Pip’s subconscious doubts and conscious notions of gentility. Pip realizes he’s miserable before he falls asleep and that Estella’s prospect of him marrying is diminishing. Pip dreams that all his expectations have been cancelled. This is a significant social event. Pip is Dickens’s cultural Guinea Pig. Because he experiences gentility, Pip realizes that his “expectations are all cancelled”. This realization can only happen subconsciously in a nightmare. Dickens suggests to society that it may subconsciously be able to see that a gentleman is not necessarily wealthy. This new concept is not easy for Pip or society.
Subconsciously, Pip has no hope and no future for society. His dream does not suggest any signs of hope. He fears that his “expectations”, which he so desperately wanted to achieve, will “be cancelled”. Pip’s mental state is also depressing and seems hopeless. Dickens gives him a false sense to hope with Estella’s letter. Pip wrote that the letter did not have a beginning. (258) This shows the urgency and lack of care Estella showed. Dickens wants Estella clear that they are not in love. This is more apparent in the tone of Dickens’ letter.
I will be arriving in London tomorrow morning by the coach at mid-day. You should come to London, I believe you have made it clear. This impression was made by Miss Havisham, which I follow. She will send her regards.
The letter is direct, short and impersonal. Estella states clearly that she did nothing to arrange a meeting with Pip. Estella claims that she believed the situation was resolved by someone else. Estella also says that she only meets with Pip because she obeys Miss Havisham’s wishes. Pip is so excited to hear from Estella that he overlooks the fact she doesn’t intend to marry him. Dickens creates conditions in which Pip’s dreams reflect his emotional condition. He is more likely to experience regret and misery than a life event. Pip’s conscious waking hours seem to offer hope, while his subconscious, involuntary dreams provide little or no hope.
Dickens used the dreams Pip has about London to show society’s plight. Pip may appear to be moving in a positive direction with his life events, such as London. But the misery, fear and anguish that pervade the dreams of Pip serve to remind him that he’s not heading in the right way, that his quest after gentility is wrong. Pip’s conscious world may show glimpses to hope. But the overwhelming doom he sees in his dreams is a sign that his aspirations are unlikely to be fulfilled. Pip is used by Dickens as a social guineapig for his evolving expectations about gentility. It becomes obvious that Dickens uses Pip’s life as an example, of a young, aspiring, lower-middle-class boy who wants to progress in society and live up to “great expectations.” However, it’s clear that Dickens uses dreams to suggest that there is something wrong with Pip’s vision of gentility, considering the pessimistic thoughts expressed in Pip’s dreams.
Pip’s guiltridden, naivety-ridden mind is further evidenced in his dreams. In chapter 40, he tries and hide Magwitch. In chapter 41, Herbert Pocket and he plot to drive Magwitch out. Pip’s chapter 40 recounts:
I expected Herbert to expect me all the way, so I refused to go out. After dinner was done, I fell into a deep sleep, exhausted from the fear of my dreams. I was awakened by the footsteps on the stairs one night. (339)
Pip’s vision in chapter 41 is similarly disturbing. I had nightmares about him, and I woke up with no energy. I woke up, too, to regain the fear of him being returned to transport. Waking up, I didn’t lose that fear.” (344).
Pip’s dream world is filled with anxiety and fear. These dreams can bring you full-circle. Pip’s dreams still contain the same fear he had as a boy: the desire to be hanged. Dickens makes it clear that Pip might not have realized what he was missing. He cannot turn back, forget the “great hopes” he had, and accept that a gentleman does not just need to be wealthy. Dickens’s fans have still plenty of time. Still, it is possible for gentility to evolve.
Final Thoughts “Tell me about your dreams for awhile and I’ll tell you how you really are like,” which Charles Dickens used to describe Pip resonates well with Dickens’s portrayal of Pip. This helps Dickens accomplish his social work goals. Pip seems to be immersed in society’s “great expectation” at times. It is possible to accept Freud’s wish fulfillment concept and psychological idea that dreams are real and significant in determining character. However, it is also possible to accept that Dickens used Pip’s dreams as a means of creating in Pip a fallible protagonist, who learns from experience that a gentleman is not only a wealthy man.
Works citées
Altick Richard D. Victorian Peoples & Ideas. W.W. Norton & Company, located in New York City, published the book. 1973.
Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. The book was published by Penguin Books in London. 1996.
Domhoff William G. Dream Science. Washington, DC. The American Psychological Association (APA) 2003.
Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams is a book by Sigmund Freud in which he argues that dreams can be analyzed as a means of better understanding the unconscious mind. Trans. Joyce Crick was a prominent figure. Oxford, New York
Academic publisher. 1999.
Slagter, Claire. “Pip’s Dreams in Great Expectations.” Dickensian. Vol. 83. p. 180-3. Autumn, 1987.
Bert O. States The Rhetoric Of Dreams. Cornell University Press, Ithaca. 1988.
