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Posted by student in Favela's english clss blk 5 on January 02, 19104 at 19:55:31:
In Reply to: not good deed goes unrewarded in great expations posted by Peter Wigin on April 17, 19102 at 22:54:43:
Great Expectations
In the novel, Great Expectations, written by Charles Dckens, several characters exhibit true goodness through their words and actions. Joe and Biddy clearly demonstrate their true moral goodness consistently in the story. On the other hand, the revengeful Miss Havisham proves that money and higher social positions often lack inner worth. Another person in the story, who shows the opposite of what true goodness means, is Estella. Estella, with the help of Miss Havisham’s teaching, is crude, impolite, and ill mannered to males. Which makes Estella think she is better than any common person, such as Pip, even when Pip becomes a gentleman. Joe and Biddy are guidance for Pip, always there for Pip when he needed to talk to someone most, even when Pip turned against him, being a gentleman and all, Joe and Biddy were still always willing to be friends with him. And on the other hand, Miss Havisham and Estella show no mercy, and are malicious beings to Pip, no matter how nice Miss Havisham and Estella pretend to be.
Joe shows goodness, though he is stubborn and seems a bit slow. Joe has always been there for Pip, and even though Mrs. Joe says that she raised Pip “by hand”, it was Joe who always stood by Pip through all the days of Pip’s life no matter what. That clearly shows someone who really cares and has a quality of goodness. For he truly brought up Pip and never mistreated him, like Mrs. Joe did, taking everything mostly out on Pip with her temperament, and not caring about him at all. Joe was the one who helped Pip when he was poor of health. Pip was so caught up with being a gentleman and having a high social status that he began realize that Joe is a good friend. Pip feels terrible for doing that to Joe. For Joe has done so much for Pip and he didn't even bother to notice it. But Joe wasn't just nice to Pip. Joe put up with Mrs. Joe’s temperament, and made it seem as if nothing was wrong. He cared for Mrs. Joe and Joe thinks that she is a fine figure of a woman, no matter what the real story might be. It’s not just how he acts that makes the quality of goodness spring about him, it’s also his moral beliefs. As a person, Joe strongly feels that money and owning property or having a high social position is not what makes the qualities of a person or a person's inner-worth. Joe believes in living a simple life, and being himself, unlike some of the characters in Great Expectations. Joe is more down to earth and is something more than money; he is the best example of a good person.
Biddy also shows goodness in what she does, just like Joe has, but in a more of a different manner. Biddy is the type of person who has a fine head on her shoulders. She is intelligent and very understanding. Even when Pip is rude to her, such as when Pip said that he could never marry Biddy with her status of being common, and that he had to marry someone like Estella. Though Biddy was hurt, she still holds her head up high, and doesn't say anything to upset him. Which that shows the goodness in her soul, for the courage she has when someone has pushed her down, she just gets up and moves on as if nothing happens, showing that words can't break someone's being. Biddy has been there for Pip many-a-time. She has helped Pip with his troubles that Estella puts upon him and just talks to him whenever he needs to talk, like a true good friend always does. But Biddy shows more than just that. At Pip’s school, Biddy has always been there to teach the students what they need to learn, because Mr. Wopsle’s great aunt sleeps all the time and doesn't teach the students. Biddy makes this her responsibility to have the students taught, and when things have gone wrong during Mr. Wopsle’s great aunt’s clss, she tries to fix the problems, such as when Mr. Wopsle's great aunt wakes up and starts making a fuss. Biddy in the end of the novel, marries Joe and they have a little boy named Pip. “Biddy marries Joe because he continued to be good to and love Mrs. Joe and Pip. Biddy saw his kindness and selflessness in this and loved him for it http://jollyroger.com/zz/yna3d/CharlesDckenshall/cas/15.html, Peter Wigin).” This clearly shows that both Biddy and Joe have some kind of equal goodness, though some of the things they do might be different, it all leads to helping Pip, and others before themselves. Which this clearly shows that they are not selfish, and the goodness in their hearts, is what makes them better people, unlike Miss Havisham and Estella.
Miss Havisham and Estella are very bitter and unpleasant women who care nothing more than for the pleasures of money, and high social status. Miss Havisham sits in her house, Satis House, and waits for the opportune moment for training Estella, her adopted daughter who is really Molly, Jagger's maid, and Magwitch’s, the convict Pip meets in the beginning of the first chapter, daughter. So one day, Pip was sent to the Satis House, completely unaware of his fate. The reasons for Miss Havisham’s teachings, is because she felt all alone, and heart-broken, when her love ran off on her wedding day. Miss Havisham sits, and watches Estella being malicious. Watching how Estella hurts Pip and making Pip feel just as Miss Havisham felt on her wedding day, that very same cold, depressing, and lonely feeling. Miss Havisham torments him, saying things such as “do you like her, is “she pretty”, while on the other hand Estella says things such as,” Am I pretty,” or, “am I insulting” (Great Expectations, p. 82, chapter 11). Well Estella was insulting indeed, for Pip belittled himself when he shouldn’t. “’Why he’s a common labouring boy’ exclaims Estella, the little girl up at the big house, when Pip is sent to play with her, mocking his clumsiness and the way he speaks. Pip is changed for ever by this new vulnerability – ‘I had never thought of being ashamed of my hands before.’ The woundedness Pip feels goes beyond words: it is ‘the smart without a name.’ Pip is ‘humiliated, hurt, spurned, offended, angry, sorry’ but nothing can describe the damage done to his self-esteem.” With all the torment that Pip has gone through, he doesn’t know what to say, he is just hurt by them, and he tries to not cry. Everything seems wrong to Pip, and he knows what Miss Havisham is trying to do to him. And he knows that his love Estella only sees him as a low common boy, and treats him like dirt, and as if didn’t feel hurt or upset. She is so mean, that she has made Pip cry on some occasions. Estella has only learned pain and torment, and that is how she treated others. In the end of the book, Estella is mistreated and abused by her husband Drummle, who dies later on. And through it all, this keeps coming back to one person, who made everything miserable for both her and Estella, Miss Havisham.
Charles Dckens made this story have different turns of the meaning of the word “good” and what demonstrates a malicious person. There’s a good moral to this and it involves these characters. Joe and Biddy together demonstrate that, no matter what happens in life, there are always people to stand by you, and that goodness is the true key of inner worth. That money and social status mean nothing to the kind of person who you become. And though Miss Havisham and Estella seem that they couldn’t have shown moral in the story, they actually did. The moral is, it’s enough to feel pain, but when you hurt others, you are just hurting yourself even more than before. Which this moral is kind of like the one, what you do to someone else, comes right back at you, for the good or the bad. Life is full of surprises and those surprises can lead to good things. Pip never really realized the good in some people and the bad, until he saw their behavior and lived his life with great expectations. He wanted to be something more than a common boy, a gentleman. Pip then realized it was nothing compared to what he had before, his family and friends who showed him kindness, and the love and goodness which helped him to realize that he wasn’t any better than he was before. Biddy and Joe helped him to become the simple little boy he once was. And in the end Dckens portrays that goodness is the key to life, love, and friendship in the novel, Great Expectations.