Great Expectations question

I must confess I have never asked myself whether I like Pip or not. I suppose I have “taken” him just the way he is – a fictional character, just Pip. I liked him, as a point – remember those first pages of the book when he stole food for –the unknown and scary guy whom we found later to be Magwitch – he did what he did because he was naïve and scared, but at some point we may suppose that it was a bit of an instinct, of a way of …doing things. Just at some point. I find Pip not a normal character, howsoever, but an interesting character. He possesses a multitude of flaws and I bet he is aware of some of them. He is rather human, if we think about it. When Magwitch appears, Pip reacts in a way that many people would react. He is scared of the fact that he may loose his condition – he is ashamed of his “origins” (if we can call them like that) and this thing becomes as usual as anything else. He is wrapped in a multitude of feelings and characteristics that, in a way or another, represent the face of real human beings. Charles Dickens did not create a perfect character be it beautiful or beastly… he has created a typo – a character that reflects a human being’s personality. Saying that we do not like Pip is like saying we don’t really like the people and their personalities –which is not that bad, right?
Anyhow, I can’t say whether I like Pip or not. I don’t dislike him, that’s for sure and I suppose I quite fancy with him at some point. I didn’t find it disagreeable when he felt what he felt towards Magwitch and in the end… it was all good. I can tell he was a little selfish brat, but aren’t we all like that… I like the fact that Pip is not perfect, I like the fact that his great expectations were all screwed up, forgive my saying so. It serves him right, him and his personality and thoughts so far. I think Dickens’ book is a life typology – and so is Pip.
Not to mention Pip’s transformation… because he sure changes a lot during the book. He is, nevertheless, interesting to follow and you can feel hatred towards him in this page, but you can also like him in the other page, I guess. In his composure, we find several mixtures, feelings, thoughts and so on and so forth.
Now you ask me if I like him or not. I can’t say that much because he was not my favorite fictional character ever, but I didn’t dislike him… not at all.

[I’m going to re-read the book when I get the time!]

I liked Pip; he is just very human in a lot of ways I think and perhaps exposes flaws most people have. One of the points of the novel is that he develops so much throughout the tale. It would have been silly if he was completely perfect right at the beginning; characters that grow and learn are much more interesting, and we can relate to flawed characters more so that perfect characters.

I think Pip is not likeable but he changes. He grows up to regret his mistakes. He is like most people... less than perfect but unlike most people he realizes that he is less than perfect and tries to correct his flaws.

I didn't love Pip, but also I didn't hate him. I saw in him a part of myself: scared of the unknown, my motivations (both real and unreal) to my goal (a real one or an illusion as well), unrequited loves, not being grateful with the people who deserve it, but later recognized them, having an enlightment about what real happiness consists, caring for the others, feel manipulated, etc, etc.

One can say that Estella was the Ice Queen in the reading because she rebuffed him or she was playing with him. But in some way, Pip did the same with the people who really cared of him (Joe, Magwitch) or felt the same he did for Estella (Biddy).

I know that this has to be a reason to hate him, but I can't, because this happens in life: unrequited love in both ways, you can love someone who maybe doesn't deserve it, but there could be someone who feels the same for you but you can't reciprocate his/her feelings.

What I felt at some moments was that my feelings were the same as Pip's or like other characters' in some parts of his life.

I really like Pip and his journey. I don't think I've ever 'hated' any literary character. That's rather an extreme emotion and probably says more about the reader than the actual character. You might question their motives or personality, but actually hate them - that seems incredibly immature. The good thing about literature is that it's open to interpretation but I think 'hating' something shuts down a lot of discussion.

Pip changed a lot during the book, but what was fascinating about him was not only that he was flawed, he realized it and tried to become better. In the beginning he's really likable because he's an innocent boy who's mistreated by his sister. Then, when he fell in love with Estella is that he becomes difficult... especially when he ignored Biddy's love and Joe's love, the only two people who actually helped him emotionally throughout his life . The part when Joe visited him and cared for him and paid his bills, that broke my heart since Pip had made Joe feel uncomfortable and unwelcome in London, but JOe loved him anyway. However, Pip realized the hurt he caused, so later on and tried to make it up... and isn't that what being human is all about? Pip is not a typically 'perfect' character, which makes him unique and Dickens a masterful storyteller.

I liked Pip at the beginning of the book, then loathed him by the end of it. Shallow, self-serving, blinkered, and too stupid to live. All the things I hate in a lead character. I often wonder if Dickens had meant to write him that way? Usually characters evolve positively, but Pip just spirals into a contemptuous d*ckhead. Even his lame attempt at righting his wrongs couldn't redeem him in my eyes.

If you read this novel to try and buddy up with Pip you read it for the wrong reasons. I'll never understand why people put so much stock in the likability of characters. I don't like 90% of the people I meet. I don't even like myself. Which is why I happen to like Pip, but that's beside the point. Take another look at the title, reevaluate the situation, and call me in the morning.

Pip is like a lot of people I have observed over the years. Likable enough during his childhood, then absolutely insufferable during his young adult years; and by the end of the book he has matured to the point where he is about to become a decent human being again.

To paraphrase Blink 182: Nobody likes you when you're 23.

Pip was ungrateful to Joe, who had done so much for him. However, by being educated to be a "gentleman" and being in the circles of high society from a very young age, he did become a true GENTLEMAN, meaning that he had to be ungrateful to his family, he had to be ashamed of his past, etc. I think, or I hope, that Dickens wants to show us this aspect of that class and how it can corrupt even the most innocent of all.

Pip was a victim of the British class system. I liked him more at the end of the book when he grew up a bit.

i hate pip he makes me sick to my stomach
and the fact that he is scared of a homeless
man tells me alot about him for example
he is scared to stick up for himself

I did love Pip, and I still do. I may venture to say he remains one of the characters I remember with most fondness. The thing with Pip is that he's not perfect, not at all in fact, but that's maybe why I like him.

To start with, we can easily say that Pip makes huge mistakes in his life, he certainly is not fair towards Joe, for example, and we are invited to look at Pip with partial detachment and maybe a critical eye because of this. Yet, I believe, and this is certainly true for me, although we want to shout out, 'What are you doing, you idiot?' we cannot stop feeling that love that in my experience I would describe as akin to the one we feel for a younger brother, even a younger version of oneself. One can see his mistakes, even think of him as arrogant for quite a large part of the novel, but one is reminded that even oneself and the people one loves cannot claim perfection. The fact that Dickens had to re-write the ending because his contemporary readers, judgemental Victorians, wanted a happier future for Pip says a lot.

I think it goes back to the very beginning: Pip does, in helping Magwitch, not what is legal, but what is right. In this, Great Expectations is at very heart of Dickensian philosophy. For though Pip may turn into an idiot later on, his one heroic act is to feed the convict. That, even if done out of fear (though I may point out that the dominant feeling in the first chapters is not fear, yet guilt) is something that, at least in readers like me, gains him a form of respect which overshadows all the stupid things he commits thereafter. There are moments when we witness Pip looking through the window pf righteousness and care again later in the novel, especially when he visits the Aged, though the curtains of ambition obscure his view.

I suppose we could read Great Expectations as asking a fundamental question about love: can we love faulty, even at times unpleasant people? The answer is, in my case, yes, we do.

Pip is a fighter for love. He struggles his whole life just to get to the girl he's always liked. He didn't lose hope, and that's why i like him.

Agree with most of the above. Personally I feel that Pip's behaviour at the different stages of his life are those of first a lovable and very impressionable boy, then a teenager confronted with people (Estelle and her aunt) he had no way of judging and comparing and nobody to advise him, then a young man freed of responsibilities and with too much money and therefore personal power to quickly (young investement bankers!). Yes sometimes he treated those who loved him the best and treated him the best, and whom he loved too, shabby at stages, but young people do that until they learn. Moreover, he did exactly what the society he lived in expected him to do, so no help there. So, whilst he and the book as a whole, will never be one of my Dickens favourites, I feel we have to cut him some slack.

I hated Pip. He was whiny and frustrating. When I got to the part where he had intended to propose to Biddy, I was so angry.She is not his consolation prize! I was so glad when I discovered she married Joe instead. I do not like Pip, for his self hatred and his blatant disregard for his family. I hated how he drooled all over Estella and his shallowness when it comes to everyone.

I read Great Expectations in school and while I was reading I knew there was something about it that I couldn't place. When I finished I realized that I didn't like the main character. At that time that seemed really special, to like the book, but not the main character. Now, with more reading experience under the belt, I've seen much, much worse main characters, although that usually means I hate the book too.

I read this book as a child, I've always liked Biddy. Why didn't he go after Biddy? It's terrible, and she ends up marrying some old illiterate!

So many people dislike Pip! I have to say, I was rather surprised when I heard the first person say they thought Pip was shallow, pathetic, etc. Before then I never saw him in such a way, which I am sure is because I see so much of myself in him (or at least so much of how I used to be), and I often fail to recognise my own faults.
'Suffering' in a similar way to Pip when I read the book (though I admit now that I need not have ever put myself through so much!), I could understand how he was feeling (mainly his emotions towards Estella) so I sympathised with him and saw the book as a small reflection of my own thoughts; and a comforter, as I needed less to think and more to simply read.
I see now that there are much stronger characters than Pip, though his faults also make him 'strong' in that they render him much more of a rich and real person, with very deep emotions.

Hayley wrote: "I hate Pip more than I have ever hated a fictional (or real) person before! I just thought he was snobby in the way he tried to get rid of Magwitch even though he had changed his life and done so m..."

Pip I think suffered greatly from ingratitude to his family and the convict who gave him his fortune. But then I think that's why Estella and him work together. They're a lot alike.

I was not happy with Pip, but he is just a poor kid trying to move up. I think he act just a I would expect him to, but he gets what he deserves. He is believable, so I like him.

Every great character has their flaws, which makes them interesting to read about. Estella is my favorite character because she makes Pip question himself and second guess his life.

I did not like Pip, it took like half a life time and a whole bunch of crap to turn his attitude around. When everyone around him who had less were great people and didn't have as much as he had.

I liked him as a youth but his upper class pretensions upon becoming an adult offended me. His sense of entitlement was too overwhelming. As for his obsession with the flame, I believe him to be obsessively in love. I believe the good ending version to be a false one as there is no indication in the novel that she had a real bone in her body.

We all have a hidden 'Pip' somewhere in ourselves. He is undoubtedly one of my favourite characters ever.

whats this about not liking flawed characters? would anyone learn anything from a perfect main character?

I hated Pip. Weak, whining characters are not my cup of tea.

I didn't really think much of Pip. Although he was the main character I focused on what was happening around him.

At first I liked Pip because he was so innocent and he really wanted a better life because of his elder sister. Then he became ignorant and I really didn`t care about him anymore...

I couldn't stand Pip but then I was forced to read the book in my freshmen english class.

I liked him, but sometimes I wanted to hit him upside the head.

I don't really know but I know I like the other characters way better then I liked Pip I loved Miss Havisham.

I blush to admit it, but I do like Pip. Partly because he is so very, very flawed.