论文总字数：36679字

摘 要

《远大前程》是英国作家查尔斯·狄更斯的晚年代表作。作者经历了情感危机和对社会黑暗面的深刻认识之后，对人生有了更加深刻的理解，《远大前程》由此问世。该小说基于维多利亚时期资本主义迅速发展、社会风气中拜金主义严重、阶层问题愈发尖锐、道德伦理问题被冲击的背景下，以自传体形式成功塑造了小说中的主导人物--皮普。作者通过把皮普作为一个完美的实验对象，展示皮普成长过程中对财富、社会地位等观念的转变，来分析资本主义迅速发展背景下经济地位、财富欲望、尊严、官僚主义及其对人民的影响。在作者对皮普命运和人生走向的描述中，我们可以看到作者对资本主义迅速发展下社会拜金主义盛行现象的揭露，对社会上层和资产阶级虚伪、无情、贪婪的无情抨击，这对当今现实有强烈的警示意义。同时，通过深入理解该作品，读者还可以体会到坚守本心的意义——即使社会资本发展迅速风气浮夸，但坚持自我、保持本心、不被社会恶劣风气所影响，才能更好的收获人生幸福，最大的实现自我价值，获得真正意义上的成功。作为英国现实主义文学的先驱，查尔斯·狄更斯的《远大前程》有很强的现实意义，通过深入研究该作品，读者可以进一步观察社会经济发展过程中对道德和人民精神的影响，从而推动社会风气、道德伦理和经济水平共同发展。这对正处于经济迅速发展的中国来说，具有非常深刻的指导和借鉴意义。

关键词：皮普性格转变；资本发展；风气道德；二者关系

1. Introduction

1.1 Background of the research

Nowadays Chinese people especially working people are under great pressure for having a higher position in their career due to the more and more expensive houses, children education. People are trying their best to be materially rich to meet their consuming needs, which will greatly cause the social problems and mental troubles of people who are under great pressure; therefore, some people’s personalities and characters will gradually be changed because of the changes of social background. Catherine Peters. (2002) and Sun Huaxiang (2010) conducted a research on how great the influences of social background are to people’s mental changes. In this study, we will focus on Pip, the male character of Great Expectations, and lots of examples and analysis will be used to demonstrate the relationship between Pip’s Character and the social background. Bressler, Charles F. (2004) believed that classics always make good use of social conflicts to criticize the problems and seek for understandings and making a difference. So to provide more guidance to people who are living in this world full of desire and seduction of fortune can make this world a better place.

1.2 Literature review

Charles Dickens, given by Charles, D.(1998), is universally considered as one of the most fantastic English novelists in the Victorian era as well as one of the most popular in many different times. He created some of literature's most memorable characters. Zhao Yuexi (2013) believed that his writing style is mixed fantasy and reality, ironic and thought-provoking. Among all the characters in his novels, the leading character Pip in Great Expectations is one of the most representative vivid roles which has been analyzed under lots of different perspectives by different professional critics.

Today the study on Great Expectations mainly has two aspects: the relationship with women and the relationship between society and people’s personalities. Many scholars focus on the latter one due to its reflection about the people and social development.

Liu Bingshan (2007) made an analysis that the more we know about how society influences people, the more we can provide wiser strategies for people to deal with the mutual relationship with society. The depth and the importance of Great Expectations in English history is uncountable and far reaching. As Bressler, Charles F. (2004) believes, people’s personalities and characters are always changing as the social background changes. A great amount details can be found with very accurate description of that Victorian age and the spiritual development of British people: admiration of fortune, lack of dignity of the poor, people’s dark sides facing the interest, celebrity influence and so on. Guo Rong (2004) made an analysis that society is developing and different needs are created gradually. So all the changes above recorded British people’s life and most importantly, it exposed the truth about how the outside environment, or typically society, influence people. Pip was innocent and naive when he was little, Xu Yufeng (2005) wrote in her paper that “Pip and his uncle had quite a good time with each other, besides that, his uncle’s simple and innocent personalities shaped Pip’s characters a lot”. (Xu, 2005: 13) However, since he had seen what the upper society was and especially when he got into London, all the influences that other people brought to him started to show up. As the novel goes, we will see the power of the different kinds of influences, after the time with uncle and Magwitch, Pip started to reflect his behaviors and became the genuine Pip. Zheng Li (2015) believed and after Pip heard what his uncle and Magwitch said and what he had done for providing all the carefree life for Pip, Pip finally realized how big the mistake he made was, and he chose to protect this gentleman who had defended him for his whole life.

Researchers and scholars believe Great Expectations will bring deep thoughts for people who are living in this so changeable world, in this novel, Qin Yan (2009) and Li Liang (2010)believed that people can see the social influences and how powerful they are to people, people can do more thinking and reflecting to their environment and their choice, so the realistic meaning of Great Expectation is very far reaching.

1.3 Purposes of the research

From a realistic perspective, it will guide people more by showing people what the true happy and healthy life is, and it’s also one of the reasons to do research from this point. There are quite lots of people who act like Pip in real life, even they do have innocent hearts and beliefs at the very beginning. However, under the whole social environment and influence from others, they start to lose their true heart by being benefit-oriented, all they want is the fortune and the status instead of their real spiritual needs, some even can do things that hurt the people who love them. Besides that, there are two more factors：the society and himself. The society showed him the bigger world and left the life path to himself, and Pip himself was the kind of person who preferred the upper-class life. Both of them influenced young Pip. With seduction, there were lots of signs that showed Pip had his own ambitions in the novel, his affection for Estella, his attitude toward uncle Joe, his life after getting the great amount of fortune, his words to Mr. Magwitch and his wrong appreciation. All of these presented us a real Pip who was not perfect, while through Pip’s inner mind readers can know that Pip would finally find the innocence back through reflection on what the real love was.

The purposes of this research will include three parts. Firstly, the most simple and direct one is to understand the power of social background and the very obvious changes of Pip after he had seen a totally different world. Secondly, the solid evidence will be showed why social background changes can cause great changes of people, even it’s not genetic. Thirdly, solutions will be provided as to what people can do to adjust healthily to this changeable world without getting themselves mentally worsen or emotionally hurt. In this way, this paper will focus on its social problems happening nowadays and provide an example as guidance.

1.4 Research methods

In this paper, the methods synthesis, induction and seduction will be used to analyze the main characters in this novel and to scientifically research the topic of this paper.

With synthesis, Pip’ whole life with different factors and many perspectives, like his childhood can be analyzed, what kind of person he was, how people around him influenced him and how he changed during his growing up, and what path he finally chose at the end. With induction, research can be done to figure out all the reasons that affect Pip during his growing up: Uncle Joe, Estella, Miss Havisham, Mr. Magwitch, his lawyer, his friend since he had got London; besides that, there are two more factors：the society and himself. The society showed him the bigger world and left the life path to himself, and Pip himself was the kind of person who preferred the upper-class life. Both of them influenced young Pip. Zuo Jinmei (2011) believed that with seduction, there were lots of signs that showed Pip had his own ambitions in the novel, his affection for Estella, his attitude toward uncle Joe, his life after getting the great amount of fortune, his words to Mr. Magwitch and his wrong appreciation. All of these presented us a real Pip who was not perfect, while through Pip’s inner mind readers can know that Pip would finally find the innocence back through reflection on what the real love was.

2. Changes of Pip in Different Social Development Times and the Relationship Between Them

2.1 The original Pip and Victorian society

Pip’s original nature is simple and kind. This can be shown from the fact that even born from a poor and simple family, he still helped the convict - Magwitch. His good nature also existed with his sister’s abuse and his respect in his brother-in-law Joe: they helped each other during the unhappy family time and that was a simple and innocent time with his bother-in-law. They were just simple laboring people who were kind, helpful and had the eager of getting education under the living difficulties. At that time, the whole society was under huge industrial changes, many people made a great amount of fortune by doing business and trade, and social changes and political departments also encouraged British people to make a difference by owning more fortune. People were fascinated by the illusion of fortune and preferred to be upper-status people, so they showed crazy admiration to people who had fortune and considered that being liked by rich people was an honor. That’s one of the reasons that young boy Pip was sent to Miss Havisham’s house and started to see the whole different world: the food, the fine clothes, the elegant dance and manners of the rich people. Before knowing all of these differences between rich or poor, Pip wasn’t aware of this so-called social status differences between the classes, his nature was thus full of kindness and purity.

2.2 The Pip after meeting Estella and social factors

After being sent to Miss Havisham’s house, Pip met Estella and learned a lot rules of the upper and rich people, and his behaviors were gradually influenced and changed by the environment he was living in: well-dressed peer, fancy rules, use of words, and Estella, his first crush as a boy, her elegance and coldness and proud to him. All of these different environments showed him differences between his original home to this glamorous one, and all these changes were just like a terrible trigger that

stimulated his another side, which was totally opposite of kindness and innocence and purity. The desires full of capitalism were corrosion to the pure soul of a kid. It’s not difficult to imagine that when every person in your life believed things, you would gradually assume it’s right or common to you, especially to a kid who was from a labor family. Especially with his crush on his girl, Pip would do anything to please her, but the first obstacle would be the class difference and that began young Pip’s shame. People gave praise and complements to the rich people and no matter what they did was considered righteous and reasonable, which provided a significant terrible model to Pip. His behaviors were moving closer to what rich people did and that’s probably a wrong way in a young man’s future. He tended to become a gentleman, however, his original kindness and innocence were hidden by the luxurious life in London.

2.3 The gentleman Pip with his fortune

After getting an unexpected good fortune, Pip finally got an access for going to a higher class and went to London. The first thing he did was to check Estella, which was a strong evidence of his love for her and in his deep mind he had arrived a higher level for chasing his dream girl. After getting the answer that she went abroad for higher education and to be a fine lady, Pip was disappointed and then he started to be a gentleman with a false information that Miss Havisham was the one who financially supported him. During his transformation time of being a gentlemen, Pip came to know the meaning of money and life: to be a true gentleman, one must have money. Money seems to be the immediate ladder for him to climb upward along the social scale, and unconsciously he was dyed in accepting the living art of the bourgeoisie, drinking, spending money extravagantly and dreaming of marrying Estella. He was getting further and further from his original innocence and personalities, instead he became more and more realistic and materialistic and impatient to the poor, he was not the simple-minded and sincere young boy anymore. He was strongly influenced by the London life and rich people around him: bragging, eager for being richer and never be content with what they had.

2.4 The Pip after knowing truth of his fortune

If Mr. Magwitch didn’t come to visit Pip, Pip would very probably be proud of his rich life still and grateful to Miss Havisham；however, after knowing the truth, he was ashamed of getting to know this convict and his financial support, readers could tell at this time, Pip had changed a lot, including his behaviors and response to his brother-in-law Joe’s visit, he was embarrassing to have a meal with his old relations, people and manners were pressure to him and he was very sensitive about it. But in another way, people and society did influence him a lot, while his good heart still existed. In his deep mind, he was still a good and kind young fellow: his help to Mr. Magwitch and his friend Herbert, especially when Mr. Magwitch was in extreme danger, he made the same choice like what he did when he was a little boy. Readers can be told that society and people can influence people: it tests human beings’ morality. However, sometimes your choices can also define who you are. After intense conflicts with Magwitch, Pip finally realized he should be with the man who had financially supported him and considered Pip as his own son and he should help him to go to another country for getting rid of the charger. Pribram, K. (2007) believed that from now on people can find a strong Pip, who was deeply convinced that the profit-hungry money exclusively-concerned and cunning bourgeoisie could not give him great expectations.

3. The Influences from People Around Him

3.1 Relationship between social background and people’s characters

In the Victorian time, the industry started to grow fast and people who owned the first resource had won the business market and ready to do the primitive accumulation of capital, and the power of fortune was getting more and more powerful, especially in London, the center of Britain, where all the rich and ambitious people stayed and gathered, the fast growing speed and the money-oriented theory were becoming the mainstream, and people came to consider that the most valuable asset was the fortune. In this way, this thought could change lots of outsiders. People tended to believe what people that around them believe. So social values are created by people who have different personalities, while when people who believe in one thing became the mainstream, they would have the power to influence more and more people.

People are social animals, all the cognitive behaviors are constantly received from the outside messages. Thus individuals personalities are mostly determinedly integrated by these outside information. In their early mind, people’s personalities are shown as primitive status because of the lack of experience and knowledge, their behaviors can be shown as less sophisticated, innocent, easy to trust people, helpful and so on. However, as they grow up, their living situation is becoming more and more mixed, more precisely, the resources are being divided and owned, this is more obvious and fiercely during the rapid development of economy or capitalism. During this period, people pay more and more attention to their material benefit because in the world of materialism, resources, or more precisely, the fortune and the social status, instead of the conscientiousness and wonderful traits, have the say. As time passing by under this environment, the good personalities and traits are mostly getting covered or disappeared, that’s why and how relationship between social background and people’s characters work.

3.2 Influences from people around Pip

3.2.1 Influences from Joe

During his whole childhood, Pip was suffering the terrible physical abuse from his sister. As a lady who had no tolerance to anyone, she had no kind attitude and greetings to her husband Joe, either. The lucky thing was that Joe and Pip were the emotional support to each other, uncle Joe was a kind, lovely, outgoing, optimistic guy. Though he was an uneducated blacksmith, he loved to learn how to read and improve himself. Pip spent his most carefree days with Joe and that’s when the goodness of heart and kindness rooted in his mind and shaped his original characters. According to Pan Xiaodong (2009), an individual’s personalities and characters can be greatly effected by the people who taught him during his very early period, that’s the most effective way to influence a person. Uncle Joe protected Pip greatly during his growing up. so with his positive influences, Xu Yufeng (2005) wrote in her paper that “they had quite a good time with each other, besides that, his simple and innocent personalities shaped Pip’s characters a lot”. (Xu, 2005: 13) And we all have experienced this life experience in the early times of ours.

Joe was a simple guy who didn’t have that much material desire and he was quite content with all the life that he had had already. However, after getting to know what the upper-class life was, Pip refused to continue his uncle’s blacksmith life, and he did make a choice to leave his uncle and barely came back, so his life path was getting far and far away from his uncle Joe. Usually one of the standards to identify what kind of a person is to see what kind of person he or she was originally, even he or she has changed after so many years, the minds and real traits will be with this person forever, it just depends when and how the good traits show up. Just like Pip in this novel, he was educated well and raised by uncle Joe, Joe’s good heart influenced Pip since he was a kid, even he became ridiculously crazy with his behavior, he finally chose the right path because he was good originally. And it also shows us how powerful the original faith is, even you have been into wrong directions, but you will always find the true life path.

3.2.2 Influences from Estella

Dickens often considered Estella was the first compelling and creative woman among all the Dickens’ works. She was also considered the ironic role in many his works. Estella, definition of romantic love, also was mired in bitter criticism of class society. Estella was very little when she was adopted by Miss Havisham, she was given the ladylike education and living in a very comfortable life under Miss Havisham’s care. The cost was to become a girl who tortured men and broke their hearts. Miss Havisham adopted her as a weapon to attack men for getting the feeling of revenge. Pip fell in love with her within a very short time. Estella filled him with all the fantasies of a beautiful and well-educated upper-class lady, and that’s how Pip started to change his original minds and innocence. According to Du Yu (2001), people always want to become what their partner wants them to be, and they tend to show their best side to get more impression and attention. That’s how Pip felt in this novel. He barely noticed them importance or the value of fortune and social status as a young boy, however, after spending time with her he started to realize the differences between them, from their dressing style to classes, and as a male teenager, Pip’s ego was stimulated and his class issue became a problem and that’s why he wanted to go to upper class, not only to get the girl Estella, but to show how powerful he was.

Approaching the end of this novel, Pip got to know that Estella was criminal Magwitch’s daughter, who was originally and actually born in the bottom of society. Ironically, the upper-class life didn’t teach Estella how to be a real fine lady, given the truth that she didn’t have the real freedom to show her true feelings and express affection to Pip. In the end, Estella did not marry the kind of "ordinary people" Pip, but chose to marry a noble savage. After many years’ miserable marriage, ended with the death of her husband, Estella finally got free and met Pip when they were not young anymore. At the end of the novel, Estella, for the first time, turned into a woman of her own. As she put it: "painful lessons of my profound than anything else, and now my whole body and mind has been broken up, but I hope some of that can be reassembled more perfect." (Dickens, 1998: 79) Readers may have heard a lot of stories about how romantic love can change a person and that’s the explanation.

3.2.3 Influences from Miss Havisham

Miss Havisham was a weird lady who was super wealthy and lived in an well-decorated old house. She wore her old wedding dress all the time. She was manic, cruel, vengeful or even crazy. This role was so impressive that many readers remembered her vividly. Miss Havisham's life was innocent and simple before the day she got married. Yet, her fiance abandoned her on their wedding day, and it turned out that her whole marriage was just a tragic trick that the only purpose was to get her money. From that moment, Miss Havisham never fixed her broken heart. She was stuck in that time space. From this point, readers can also sense the change of Miss Havisham, she was a simple lady before getting married, young, rich, bur simple, all she ever wanted was just pure romantic love, however, the heartbroken news made her become a crazy person who only want to revenge and more ridiculously she never really trusted any male or individual since this tragedy, she blocked herself into a cave full of sorrow and grief by wearing the same wedding dress for many many years. Her craziness and revenge started since Pip came.

Her purpose of adopting Estella's was to use all of the men to avenge her. Miss Havisham was obsessed with the single-minded pursuit of a typical example of the devastating revenge. And because of her desperate retaliation, she suffered lots of great pain. She was totally unaware of her actions that had hurt Pip and Estella. And even when she knew it, she didn’t provide any support but to hurt their relationship. Miss Havisham taught Pip what a fancy upper world was, and when she lied to Pip when she knew that Pip thought her as the financial supporter for his life in London, even though she wasn’t. All of these actions were from the hatred towards men. In some certain ways, she accelerated Pip’s changing speed and caused his immaturity by lying him and using him to satisfy her own hatred towards men. Pip became more and more realistic under her teaching and control, she knew everything but she still pushed Pip to a wrong direction of life.

3.2.4 Influences from Mr. Magwitch

Mr. Magwitch was the leading line in this novel. As a righteous guy who had

been in the jail because of the tricks from friends, this role was tragic and heroic. He helped Pip to go to London and paid all his bills without letting him know until the last minute. After many years’ hard work, Magwitch finally had a chance to get out of the jail and visited his “son” Pip, while Pip refused to have any connection with him, because he was “guilty” and he was a criminal that government wanted the most. Pip went extremely crazy when he figured this truth out, besides, after the long luxurious and expensive time in London, he became very cocky and literally treated himself as a true upper-class gentleman. His ignorance and so called self ego became crazier and crazier and he forgot his old family—Joe, and his childhood life, He unscrupulously overdrew the fortune that belonged to a truly gentleman—Magwitch.

However, at the end, after the suffering of struggling whether he could help this true gentleman who helped him and changed his life. The time when Pip finally accepted himself as the true person as he was, and all the thoughts of being a fancy gentleman had gone away. He started to review himself as a normal man and cherished what he had owned, like visiting his Uncle Joe and Estella again with histrue heart. In this way, Mr. Magwitch saved Pip by showing him what true care was and what a real gentleman should do. Mr. Magwitch was the person who gave Pip financial support and emotional support as well. He truly influenced Pip and shaped the grown-up Pip. In some ways, he was the one who taught Pip the most valuable lesson, Pip learned the luxurious upper class life with Magwitch’s fortune and that’s also Pip learned what the true gentleman should act, Magwitch can be considered the savior of Pip.

3.3 Influences from social background

Everyone has his own personalities, and can change vastly during different periods of life. In this case, the major reason is often considered the change of the social background. People’s mind or ideas can be directed and effected easily when the whole society is believing a certain idea firmly. In the case of Pip, when he arrived in London, everyone there was after more fortune and fame, and many rich people spent time on the fancy clothes and gentleman manners to show their elegance and

higher status to poor people. Pip realized his family background when he was with Estella, but now he had fortune to be a gentleman like others. So during this time, he tried lots of efforts to be part of them, which instructed him to be more and more realistic and colder. Pip’s character was just an reflection of all of people, it’s difficult to pass the test fro life and the society, as social animals, people tend to receive recognition and encouragement from others, while to truly be yourself and get acceptance from the society at the same time make the difficulty doubled. Especially in China nowadays, there are all kinds of temptations and seduction around everyday, not mention the shinning life in big cities, for people who don’t have firm beliefs and faith, they can get lost pretty fast.

In people’s daily life, they can be influenced by different people everyday, everyone has their own opinions and during the exchange of the information. People can get the fact that in this novel, there were all kinds of seduction in the society and thousands of people came to London to seek fortune and fame, they valve nothing but money, which created the social environment and people who live inside gradually became part of that. Living in this environment and surrounded by the rich gentlemen who did nothing daily but focused on the superficial thoughts, Pip would need lots of encouragements from himself to stick to his genuine heart, however, since the time living with Miss Estella, Pip knew the importance of the fortune and social status, which accelerated his fall down and personal corruption. That’s also an example for us to not copy what Pip did during the time even he got rich, a truly gentleman is not a person who spends lots of money but who has a good and kind true heart. In some degree, social factors do matter when it comes to shape people’s characters, and reasonably the better social atmosphere is, the more positive energy will be.

4. Conclusion

请支付后下载全文，论文总字数：36679字