Abstract

Being portrayed as possessing inwardness, Pip, the lead character in Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, thinks by himself and changes as an effect of this thinking. This characteristic makes him mature and achieve a full self at the end of the novel. Pip’s self, his personality, takes form in his acceptance of a need for pain, which is observed in his relationship with Estella, his childhood love. Estella does not love him back, but Pip, even without developing a sexual relationship with her, as the ambiguous ending of the novel suggests, accepts the painful nature of love. In other words, he accepts being close to her even though their relationship is painful to him. My main claim, thus, is that the reconciliatory acceptance of his need for pain configures the comic aspect of Pip’s personality and the comic sense of the novel.