Great Expectations Essay What is a parent? A parent is someone who nurtures their children with both love and discipline. There are many other characteristics of a parent, but not all of them are good. Three specific types of parents stand out most in this book. Miss Havisham is the kind of parent who wants to live her dreams through her children. Joe is the kind of parent who loves his children no matter what they do, good or bad. On the other hand, Mrs. Joe is the kind of parent who disciplines her children no matter what kind of mistakes they make.
Miss Havisham is the foster mother of Estella. This means she did not raise Estella the way a young lady should be raised. She only cares about getting revenge on men and she uses Estella to get this revenge. Miss Havisham lives in a world where she reflects on the past and looks at the future as a way of making up for the past.
English: Miss Havisham, Pip, and Estella, in art f...
English: Miss Havisham and Pip, in an illustration...
Hey .. Joe !She wasn't a good role model to Estella, by never showing her love, and this was the reason why Estella was so heartless. She was trapped in an old grim infested house where barely any sunlight was let in. In the 1945 movie version of Great Expectations, it seemed as though Estella was turning into Miss Havisham towards the end of the movie. All together Estella wasn't raised in a healthy environment.
Joe raised Pip. Joe wasn't Pip's dad - he was his brother-in-law; but he treated Pip not only like his son, but he also treated him like a friend. Joe was always willing to take the blame for Pip's wrong doings. When Mrs. Joe would yell at Pip, he would rather have her rage at him then at Pip. The method Joe used to discipline Pip was through understanding Pip's feelings; he did it in a good-hearted and gentle way. Joe was always an admirable friend who was more than polite to Pip. Joe always took care of Pip, understood why he remade himself, and why he fabricated himself in that way.
Mrs. Joe was Pip's sister, but raised him as her son. Although she raised him to be her son, she didn't treat him with the affection a mother should give her son. "Tickler was a wax-ended piece of cane,"ÃÂ (pg6) which Mrs. Joe beat Pip with. She complained about her life because she was married to a blacksmith and had to take care of her little brother: "If it warn't for me you'd have been to the churchyard long ago, and stayed there. Who brought you up by hand?"ÃÂ (pg6) She always took all her anger out on Pip and she wanted a better life. Things changed however, when she almost got killed she realized how special her life really was and became nicer.
Of all these parents the only one that stands out as the ideal parent would have to be Joe. Joe was a patient, authentic, reasonable, earnest, nobel, and trustworthy friend: "Joe is a dear good fellow - in fact I think he is the dearest fellow that ever lived,"ÃÂ (pg102) Pip said.
Joe Ceci in crowd at Marlborough 1
Book illustration from Great Expectations
English: Miss Havisham, in art by Harry Furniss fr...