In the second stage, Pip learns the details of being a gentleman. He was always engaged in honest labor when he was younger, whereas he now is supported by a generous allowance, so he learns to fit in this new milieu, and experiences not only friendship but rivalry as he finds himself in the same circle as Estella, who is also pursued by Bentley Drummle. As Joe comes to visit Pip and his friend Herbert to deliver an important message, Pip is embarrassed to the point of hostility by Joe’s unlearned ways, despite his protestations of love and friendship for Joe. At the end of this stage, Pip encounters his benefactor, thus changing his fate.
The third stage of Pip’s expectations alters Pip’s life from the artificially supported world and introduces him to realities that he realizes he must deal with, facing moral physical and financial challenges. He learns truth that once he embraces something so eagerly, he can not regain other important things. This novel explores the journey of an innocent common boy whose initial dreams result in disappointment and eventually lead him to become a real gentleman.
Great Expectations has attracted a lot of attention after its appearance. From social and historical perspective, in 1859, Goldie Morgentaler points out that Charles Dickens’ view of personality changed from genetic determinism to environmental determinism as in A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations. In the text criticism, in 1950, Marie Mcallister believes Pip’s nature to be consistent from the beginning to the end. In the domestic research, Zhao Yanqiu mentions the book in many chapters in his Research on Dickens’s Novels, especially in the theme of social criticism and revenge.
Great Expectations is written by Charles Dickens, which strongly expresses the author’s perspective of life and humanity. So Great Expectations is deserved to be researched. Especially, Dickens points out the fact that Social environments influence Pip’s consciousness and behavior. In fact, what kind of social environments we are subjected to determines what kind of life we pursue. In Great Expectations, we may taste the bitters and sweets through Pip’s experience of growth, and we may find that his tragedy is mainly the result of social environments. Meanwhile, to research it can lead to a result that one can recognize and highlight himself in the changing environments, and then realize his value of life. What’s more, the study of the impact of social environments can help young people who are blind in the process of growth find their ways to position themselves, which has the great educational significance to today’s teenagers. 《远大前程》中社会环境对皮普的意识与行为的影响(2):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_14316.html