Goethe’s novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, where this quotation is taken from, is unanimously regarded as the prototype of the Bildungsroman by literary scholars. In the following paper I am going to concentrate on the English Bildungsroman exclusively by analysing Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, a representative novel of the Victorian Bildungsroman.
A Bildungsroman in general describes the life of the protagonist “as a process of movement and adjustment from childhood to early maturity” and “as a growing up and gradual self-discovery in the school-without-walls that is experience.” The plot of a typical English Bildungsroman can usually be divided into three stages in the hero’s development: childhood, youth and maturity. During his first stage of development the protagonist, often an orphaned child, grows up contentedly in the country or in a provincial town. The experience of his first schooling, however, makes him unsatisfied with his lot. Driven by deficiencies and lack of options he sets out to seek his fortune in a cosmopolitan city which in almost all cases is London. This applies to the Victorian age in particular, when the British Empire was at the height of its political and colonial power with its centre in London. The journey from rural environment to the city initiates the second stage, where the hero’s real education begins. He often is increasingly alienated from his childhood friends and persons of trust and experiences urban life. There he is involved in exalting and debasing love affairs. An additional typical theme of the Victorian Bildungsroman is the making of a gentleman. Only by reappraising his values can he enter upon his final stage of maturity. He then returns home to his place of origin to demonstrate the degree of his success or failure. There are numerous facets to this general description of the hero’s life. A thorough analysis of Great Expectations will reveal the most important and most striking aspects of the genre.
I am not going to make this distinction, because in the context of English literature these categories are far less rigid.
Deriving its roots from Germany the Bildungsroman first came into being in England during the Age of Enlightenment. The victorious hero of the English Bildungsroman of the 18th century generally experienced a life “(…) of success, of obstacles overcome, of safety and prosperity reached.”
Table of Contents
1. Characteristic features and short history of the English Bildungsroman
2. Pip’s three stages
2.1. Nothing but disappointments?
2.1.1. Pip’s search for identity, a father and a family
2.1.2. Pip’s desire to be educated
2.1.3. Pip’s desire to rise in society and to become a gentleman
2.1.4. Pip’s mad obsession with and unreturned love of Estella
3. Hard-hearted Dickens or romantic Bulwer-Lytton?
Research Objectives and Topics
This paper examines Charles Dickens's "Great Expectations" as a quintessential example of the Victorian Bildungsroman. The study explores the protagonist's development through his childhood, youth, and maturity, analyzing how his pursuit of "great expectations"—identity, education, social status, and love—shapes his transformation from a vulnerable orphan into a morally refined individual, while evaluating the impact of the novel's various endings on this developmental arc.
- The evolution and characteristics of the English Bildungsroman genre.
- Pip’s search for identity and a surrogate father figure.
- The role of education and social aspiration in the Victorian context.
- The psychological impact of Pip’s obsessive love for Estella.
- A critical comparison of the novel's original and published endings.
Excerpt from the Book
2.1.1. Pip’s search for identity, a father and a family
Like many heroes in the English Bildungsroman, Pip is an orphan. This condition provides him with no conventional independence or self-assertion. His sister’s bringing up and her frequently doing him injustice have made him morally timid and very sensitive. Estella – although she is about his age – disparagingly calls him ‘boy’ incessantly and adds to Pip’s feeling of inferiority and uncertainty.
As I never saw my father or my mother, and never saw any likeness of either of them (for their days were long before the days of photographs), my first fancies regarding what they were like, were unreasonably derived from their tombstones.
Pip is an orphan who has to search for his identity and to find his place in society within a family embedded in a community of close friends and persons of trust. In his quest of disclosing to him his family’s roots he resorts to the nearest and only objects at hand, which are the tombstones on his family’s grave. As these monuments cannot communicate to him any clear knowledge either of his parentage or his position in the world, the conclusions he draws are highly equivocal.
Pip not only does not know his real family, but his present mother is his harsh sister Mrs Joe Gargery, who is more than twenty years older than him and who has a “hard and heavy hand.” His present father is his brother-in-law Mr Joe Gargery, “a mild, good-natured, sweet-tempered, easy-going, foolish, dear fellow – a sort of Hercules in strength, and also in weakness,” in other words the angelic and childlike opposite of Pip’s masculine sister. This leaves Pip with a relatively distorted family structure. Joe is not a father, but more like a friend and brother to Pip, his elder sibling: Pip treats him “as a larger species of child, and as nor more than (…) [his] equal.”
Summary of Chapters
1. Characteristic features and short history of the English Bildungsroman: This chapter defines the genre of the Bildungsroman within the English literary tradition and establishes the analytical framework for the rest of the paper.
2. Pip’s three stages: This section outlines the structural development of the protagonist, Pip, as he transitions through childhood, youth, and eventual maturity.
2.1. Nothing but disappointments?: This chapter analyzes the thematic core of the novel, focusing on how Pip’s failed expectations catalyze his personal growth.
2.1.1. Pip’s search for identity, a father and a family: The chapter explores Pip’s orphan status and his psychological need to establish roots and secure a surrogate father figure.
2.1.2. Pip’s desire to be educated: The focus here is on Pip’s intellectual curiosity and his attempts to bridge the gap between his common background and his aspirations.
2.1.3. Pip’s desire to rise in society and to become a gentleman: This part examines how Pip’s desire for social elevation and his distorted definition of a "gentleman" impact his moral development.
2.1.4. Pip’s mad obsession with and unreturned love of Estella: The chapter investigates the role of Pip’s irrational love for Estella as a driving force behind his most consequential and problematic life choices.
3. Hard-hearted Dickens or romantic Bulwer-Lytton?: The final chapter evaluates the significance of the novel's two competing endings and their implications for Pip’s ultimate development as a moral character.
Keywords
Bildungsroman, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, Pip, Victorian Literature, Identity, Gentleman, Social Class, Estella, Abel Magwitch, Maturity, Disillusionment, Self-Discovery, Narrative Structure, English Novel.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core focus of this academic paper?
The paper focuses on analyzing Charles Dickens’s "Great Expectations" as a traditional Victorian Bildungsroman, specifically examining the developmental arc of the protagonist, Pip.
Which thematic areas are central to the work?
The central themes include the search for identity, the conflict between social ambition and authentic personal values, the nature of education, and the psychological effects of unrequited love.
What is the primary research goal?
The goal is to determine how Pip’s series of failed "great expectations" contributes to his transformation from an insecure boy into a mature individual, essentially questioning whether he succeeds or fails as a hero.
Which methodology does the author apply?
The author applies literary analysis, specifically focusing on genre studies, structural examination of the novel's three volumes, and an investigation into the implications of the novel's varying endings.
What does the main body of the paper address?
The main body breaks down Pip's development into three distinct stages, examining his relationships with family figures, his pursuit of education, his class-based aspirations, and his obsession with Estella.
Which keywords define the work?
The work is defined by terms such as Bildungsroman, Pip, Victorian Literature, Identity, Social Class, and Great Expectations.
How does the author interpret the significance of the name "Handel"?
The author interprets the name as a metaphorical reflection of Pip's past and his status as a "handmade" gentleman, specifically linking it to his manual labor as an apprentice and his connection to Magwitch.
Why is the comparison of the two endings important?
The comparison is critical because the choice between the original and the published ending significantly alters the reader’s perception of Pip’s final state of maturity and whether his "great expectations" were ultimately fulfilled or abandoned.
- Quote paper
- Matthias Schmid (Author), 2005, Great Expectations as a Bildungsroman, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/73507
