Appearance vs. Reality in Great Expectations by Dickens

Introduction: Appearance as a Governing Force

In Great Expectations, Pip is frequently affected and influenced by appearances. The very nature of his life is dictated by his perception of how others look and by his own concern with outward presentation. The novel demonstrates a major theme associated with the dangers of judging by appearance, while simultaneously showing how much those very appearances mean to the individual characters and to society at large. The tenor of the story is built around the concept of appearance making or breaking an individual, juxtaposed against the darker idea of hidden faults and weaknesses that undermine all the characters, regardless of their social standing.

The juxtaposition of the appearance and power of wealth — coded as all that is good — with poverty coded as all that is bad reflects Charles Dickens's broader social criticism. Dickens attempts to expose the idea that appearances are deceptive, and that those who hold the outward signs of wealth and power are not always what they seem. The result is an attempt to show Pip, through lived experience, that making decisions based on appearances is faulty, and that he must rely instead on the "evidence" of good or evil within an individual.

Pip's Assumption About His Benefactor

To demonstrate this thesis, one needs only to examine the development of Pip's character through his actions and relationships. For the purpose of this essay, focusing on Pip's reaction when he discovers that his benefactor is Magwitch is sufficient. Despite Jaggers's warnings that Pip should not assume his benefactor is Miss Havisham, Pip nonetheless draws that conclusion — given her history of seeking him out to "play" with Estella and paying for his apprenticeship to Joe, the blacksmith and his brother-in-law. Pip therefore assumes Miss Havisham is his patron.

The conversation in which he discovers that his benefactor is actually Magwitch — the frightening criminal whom Pip helped with food and tools in the novel's opening chapter — is deeply revealing. Jaggers rebukes Pip for his assumption: "Not a particle of evidence, Pip," said Mr. Jaggers, shaking his head and gathering up his skirts. "Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There's no better rule." (Dickens 332). Pip is so shocked that he does not know how to respond. By all appearances, Magwitch was not only an unsuitable benefactor, but Pip assumed that any money received from such a man must have been ill-gotten and would haunt him eternally. Of Magwitch's appearance, Pip concludes: "By-and-by, his door opened and he came out. I could not bring myself to bear the sight of him, and I thought he had a worse look by daylight." (325–326). The theme of appearance versus reality in Great Expectations is nowhere more sharply illustrated than in this moment of revelation.

The source of Magwitch's wealth is never fully revealed. Even though Magwitch is fully aware that he can never truly become a gentleman, the kindness Pip showed him when he was a starving escaped convict never leaves him. He spends his life as a criminal outcast in Australia, working as "a sheep-farmer, stock-breeder, and other trades besides" (312). His success is the source of his fortune, and according to Magwitch, his motivation was to build a better life for Pip — because he could not build one for his wife or daughter, whom he believes is dead but who has in fact been adopted by Miss Havisham and is none other than Pip's love interest, Estella.