Great Expectations Ambition and Self-Improvement Quotes

Where I might go, what I might do, or when I might return, were questions utterly unknown to me; nor did I vex my mind with them, for it was wholly set on Provis’s safety.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 54. Pip is no longer the selfish person whose main purpose in life is acquiring wealth, desperately climbing the social ladder and marrying the cold and aloof Estella. His thoughts are concentrated, not on himself anymore, but on aiding the convict Magwitch to escape London and reach a place of safety away from England. This marks an improvement in Pip’s previous self-centered character, as he puts others before himself. He has learned to value true friendship over social status and superficiality.

For now my repugnance to him had all melted away, and in the hunted, wounded, shackled creature who held my hand in his, I only saw a man who had meant to be my benefactor, and who had felt affectionately, gratefully, and generously, towards me with great constancy through a series of years. I only saw in him a much better man than I had been to Joe.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 54. Pip’s attitudes towards Magwitch have gone through a significant transformation, reflecting Pip’s own personal growth and development. Initially disgusted that the convict was his benefactor, Pip now recognizes the generosity, affection and loyalty he has shown Pip through the years. The admission when Magwitch is arrested that he is a better man than Pip has been to Joe is significant. Pip is able to recognize his own failures and lack of kindness. We are looking at a more mature Pip than when, blinkered by an obsession with social class and superficiality, he felt superior to Magwitch and Joe. This passage follows Magwitch’s arrest when Pip’s escape plan to spirit Magwitch out of England is foiled by the law.

“I will never stir from your side,” said I, “when I am suffered to be near you. Please God, I will be as true to you as you have been to me!”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 54. Pip says this to Magwitch after he urges Pip to leave him because it is better for a gentleman not to be publicly seen with a convict. Promising never to leave him, Pip pledges to be true to Magwitch like he has been true to Pip. Pip shows how he has improved and grown from being a shallow, superficial and selfish individual to honoring those who are true and loyal.

“Dear Magwitch, I must tell you now, at last. You understand what I say?” A gentle pressure on my hand. “You had a child once, whom you loved and lost.” A stronger pressure on my hand. “She lived, and found powerful friends. She is living now. She is a lady and very beautiful. And I love her!”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 56. As Magwitch is dying, Pip offers him closure with the revelation that his “lost” child is now grown to a beautiful woman whom Pip loves. Magwitch’s daughter Estella was adopted and he has not seen her since she was a young girl. Pip’s consoling of the dying criminal is an act of love and loyalty towards his benefactor, who risked all by coming to London to see him. This shows the degree to which Pip has grown and matured from the time he was a hopeless snob and looked at Magwitch with a mixture of disgust and horror.

“Not wishful to intrude I have departed fur you are well again dear Pip and will do better without JO. P.S. Ever the best of friends.” Enclosed in the letter was a receipt for the debt and costs on which I had been arrested. Down to that moment, I had vainly supposed that my creditor had withdrawn, or suspended proceedings until I should be quite recovered. I had never dreamed of Joe’s having paid the money; but Joe had paid it, and the receipt was in his name.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 57. After nursing Pip back to health when he fells ill in London, Joe quietly departs leaving him a short letter. Enclosed with it is a receipt for Pip’s debts which got him almost arrested and Joe paid off unknownst to him. This quote demonstrates how hugely loyal, loving and generous Joe is. It also show Joe’s determination to improve himself, having learned to read and write from Biddy.

“Dear Biddy,” said I, “you have the best husband in the whole world, and if you could have seen him by my bed you would have – But no, you couldn’t love him better than you do…And, dear Joe, you have the best wife in the whole world, and she will make you as happy as even you deserve to be, you dear, good, noble Joe!”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 58. When Pip visits his home village with the intention of proposing to Biddy and working with Joe, he ironically walks in on them on their wedding day. Instead of showing anger or resentment, he responds with generosity, congratulating and speaking in high praise of them. He tells them that they make the perfect loving partners for each other. In referring to the “good, noble Joe,” Pip recognizes the inherent goodness and integrity in the man who has been his true friend. This shows how much Pip has developed as a character and how he has grown in maturity, since the days he felt superior to his two truest friends.

“And Joe and Biddy both, as you have been to church to-day, and are in charity and love with all mankind, receive my humble thanks for all you have done for me, and all I have so ill repaid!”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 58. Pip’s shame and regret over his treatment of Joe and Biddy is expressed in this speech. He regrets the ingratitude he has shown in response to their love and kindness. A more humble Pip finally sees the error of his ways when he lived a life built on superficial values and forgot who his true friends were. Pip’s apology for the way he treated them shows an awakening of a sense of integrity on his self-improvement journey.

“Dear Joe, I hope you will have children to love, and that some little fellow will sit in this chimney-corner of a winter night, who may remind you of another little fellow gone out of it for ever. Don’t tell him, Joe, that I was thankless; don’t tell him, Biddy, that I was ungenerous and unjust; only tell him that I honoured you both, because you were both so good and true, and that, as your child, I said it would be natural to him to grow up a much better man than I did.”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 58. After learning that his two friends Joe and Biddy have just wed, Pip delivers this moving speech filled with repentance and remorse. Wishing them the blessing of children, he hopes one will remind them of Pip as a child growing up in the forge. But he asks them not tell their child of Pip’s selfishness and ingratitude, but that he honored them both for their goodness. His words are all the more poignant because Joe acted as a father figure to Pip, raising him after the death of both of his parents. Pip’s deep affection for Joe and Biddy is seen here, also his remorse and wish for redemption as he admits past failures and neglect of his true friends. This is an important step on his journey of self-improvement.

We owed so much to Herbert’s ever cheerful industry and readiness, that I often wondered how I had conceived that old idea of his inaptitude, until I was one day enlightened by the reflection, that perhaps the inaptitude had never been in him at all, but had been in me.

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 58. After Pip moves to Egypt to work in the same firm as Herbert, he questions why he ever saw his friend as inept in business and financial matters. Earlier in the story Pip commented that Herbert would “never be very successful or rich.” In this later moment of self-realization, a more mature Pip sees that he was the one with the lack of aptitude.

“But you said to me,” returned Estella, very earnestly, “‘God bless you, God forgive you!’ And if you could say that to me then, you will not hesitate to say that to me now, – now, when suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but – I hope – into a better shape.”

– Charles Dickens

Great Expectations, Chapter 59. In the novel’s final scene, Estella recalls what Pip said to her when they parted after announcing her engagement to Bentley Drummle. She tells him how her own suffering has taught her to sympathize with the sufferings of others, like Pip. Using hyperbole and metaphor, she speaks of how life has broken and reshaped her and made her into a better person. After a loveless and failed marriage to the cruel Drummle, she now appreciates the importance of love and what was in Pip’s heart. She sees what a special person Pip is and recalls how even as she broke his heart he forgave her. Among the themes explored in this passage are guilt and shame.
    • 1
    • 2
Close