The meaning of dreams in great expectations | | | | | Contents Motivation Changing expectations Dreams that foreshadow Pip's failure Dreams that reinforce Pip's unhappiness and fear Final thoughts Works Cited "Tell me your dreams for a while and I will tell you what you really are." Written by ER Pfaff in 1868, this proverb postulates dreams as authentic manifestations of an individual's identity and character. We come to two conclusions: 1) dreams are a very accurate measure of character 2) an outsider can know more about an individual's character through the interpretation of his or her dreams than he or she can know about himself or herself. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The proverb goes so far as to suggest that an individual's dreams are the most revealing measure of personality, more revealing of real-life events, than voluntary daydreaming, than conversations with others, or any other conventional means to judge character. “What you really are like” is more accurately discerned from the contents, problems, desires, recurring themes, and other aspects of an individual's dreams than from any other attempt to judge his or her character. This proverb also implicitly assumes that an individual's personal opinion regarding his or her character is partial and imperfect, and that a more accurate representation of character is constructed from external interpretation of dreams. Written eight years before E. R. Pfaff's proverb, Great Expectations is filled with the character's meaningful dreams that highlight the social work that Charles Dickens aimed to accomplish. Aiming to break down the Victorian era's "great expectations" of wealth and class, Dickens constructs in Pip a fallible protagonist whose actions and aspirations are expected of a man in a society, but whose dreams reveal his guilt and social problems. underlying these expectations. Motivation Dickens' motivation for examining youthful and male expectations is largely due to the differences in lifestyle between the "lower orders", the middle class and the aristocracy. Of the differing conditions between the classes, Victorian People and Ideas author Richard Altick writes: “There were many reasons for discontent. At a time when millions of their countrymen could barely survive, great families invested fortunes in building stately faux-Gothic homes or adding wings.” (21) Thus the physical construction prevalent among the upper classes coincided with the social destruction prevalent among the lower classes. Owners exploited their workers, taking advantage of political policies that allowed cheap labor to amass fortunes. Workers were certainly exploited as farm laborers, but literary attempts to question the exploitation of the lower classes actually began with the dawn of factory work. Says Atlick: “As miserable as [agrarian working conditions] were, it was not their condition but that of workers trapped in the toils of industrialism that awakened the first Victorian social conscience.” Great Expectations was written in the second half of the nineteenth century, a time when the agrarian economy had shifted to an industrial economy, resulting in considerable exploitation and abuse of workers. However, potentially even more significant than these tangible lifestyle differences were the emotional pain and feelings of failure experienced by those born into the lower classes. Pip, born into the lower middle class, serves as a social guinea pig for Dickens. It is the character having the experience that illustrates Dickens' purpose in writing thenovel. He wants to become a gentleman, he thinks that to do so he must be rich, and his quest to achieve wealth ultimately teaches him the lesson of Dickens. Pip is given the “great expectations” of being able to eradicate the barriers that impede social mobility, marry Estella, amass a fortune, rise through the ranks, and ultimately become a gentleman. However, this fairy-tale trajectory with a happy ending is not achieved. Changing Expectations Dickens' dynamic characterization of Pip serves as a vehicle to promote a change in society's expectations. Dickens's initial characterization of Pip is very consistent with the prevailing aspirations of the nobility in the Victorian era. Once again, he wants to be rich and he wants to be considered a gentleman, two presumably inseparable notions. However, although Pip decides to pursue kindness, Dickens's use of Pip's highly critical and very confusing first-person narrative suggests that there is something wrong with Pip's and ultimately society's notions of kindness . On returning home and meeting Joe and Biddy, he says: I could never have believed it without experience, but when Joe and Biddy became comfortable and cheerful again, I became rather gloomy. Dissatisfied with my good fortune, of course, I could not be; but it is possible that I was, without knowing it, dissatisfied with myself. Dickens's uncertainty regarding society's concept of kindness runs parallel to Pip's uncertainty regarding his position in society. One point that Dickens makes clear in this passage is that there is no direct correlation between wealth and happiness. Pip, seemingly on his way to amassing a fortune, is actually “gloomy.” Joe and Biddy, members of lower-middle-class society, also appear with a “cheerful ease.” What then is the ultimate goal, wealth or happiness? For Dickens, wealth is simply a means to happiness, but as is evident from the example of Joe and Biddy, wealth is certainly not a prerequisite for happiness. Dickens also suggests through this passage that social assumptions are often disproved by experience. Pip's social assumption is that wealth and class are the conditions for kindness. Dickens's use of the perspective of hindsight illustrates that Pip's and ultimately society's assumption is off base. Pip admits that “it is possible that I was, without knowing it, dissatisfied with myself.” Through the more experienced and mature lens of Pip in later life, Dickens portrays remorse in Pip as a means of suggesting that society's "great expectations" are not so great after all. There is therefore a common thread between Pip's inexperienced and immature aspirations and society's equally distorted view of kindness. Pip as a young man can be said to represent the Victorian model of politeness, directly linked to wealth and class, of which Dickens did not approve. However, Pip in later life realizes that kindness can be achieved without wealth, a realization that Dickens ultimately tries to convey to society. class society to that of nobility of character and respect for his fellow men, it can therefore be argued that Dickens uses Pip's dreams as a tool to foreshadow the end of his pursuit of wealth and a tool to suggest a problem in the expectations of Pip and, ultimately, of society. As will soon be established, Pip's life choices and dreams are often in conflict with each other to the extent that his life choices often adhere to the social ideal of politeness, but his dreams appear to promote new Dickensian expectations for gentlemen . Dickens gives us the sense of high critical nature and also the sense of circumstanceslooming menaces in one of Pip's first dreams: If I slept that night, it was only to imagine drifting down the river on a strong spring tide, towards the Hulk; a ghostly pirate shouted to me through a speaking trumpet, as I passed the gallows station, that I had better go ashore and be hanged there immediately, without delay. (15)This passage occurs as Pip plans to steal from Mrs. Joe's toilet the next day. Pip's trouble falling asleep indicates that his conscience troubles him. Throughout the novel, and particularly in this passage, Dickens uses Pip's highly critical conscience as a means of suggesting a sense of wrongdoing. Of this passage Claire Slagter, author of the article “Pip's Dreams in Great Expectations”, writes: “Fear, guilt and the certainty of punishment are already revealed in this dream as distinctive characteristics of Pip's personality, marked, as the mature Pip observes when considering his childhood, from a kind of 'cowardice' and 'moral timidity'." (180) For Dickens, evil Pip believes is symbolic of a social conscience regarding kindness. Just like Pip he has an inner feeling that there is something wrong with his “great expectations”, the society should also realize the unfairness and injustice regarding their “great expectations” towards gentlemen. This nightmare of Pip is extremely dark too; at such an early age, Pip unconsciously dreams of being hanged.Thus Pip, Dickens's social guinea pig, feels the guilt that Dickens expects society to feel for its prevailing belief that only rich men can be gentlemen. Pip's dreams throughout the novel conflict with his "great expectations." Dickens uses Pip's conscious actions and aspirations as a representation of the "great expectations" of kindness, and on the other hand constructs Pip's unconscious thoughts or dreams to project guilt, fear and wrongdoing onto Pip and ultimately , on society for misunderstanding the concept of a gentleman. In The Interpretation of Dreams of Sigmund Freud, a famous psychologist named Radestock said: “The dream often reveals to us what we do not want to admit to ourselves and that we are wrong to call him a liar and a deceiver.” (60) This reinforces the deep psychological meaning of dreams and the power of the unconscious, and is very consistent with Pip's circumstances. Pip is determined to get rich and become a gentleman; He has “high expectations” of himself. However, Dickens infuses Pip's dreams with what Pip "does not want to admit" to himself: that he could more easily and effectively be a true gentleman if he had maintained his relationship with Joe and Biddy, behaved kindly, and developed a noble character like Joe, and gave up his misguided pursuit of wealth. To foreshadow the error in Pip's judgment, Dickens gives Pip a bizarre dream that seems very out of touch with reality, as Pip will be in London. Pip says of his dream: “All night there were carriages in my troubled sleep, going to the wrong places instead of London, and had on their traces now dogs, now cats, now pigs, now men, - never horses. Fantastic failures of journeys occupied me until the day dawned and the birds sang.”(159) Being Pip's last night at home, this dream foreshadows the plight of his next journey. First, the fact that his sleep is interrupted means that he is uncomfortable with his upcoming journey, that he has some trepidation about leaving Joe and Biddy in search of kindness. Subsequently, Dickens foreshadows the complexity and uncertainty of Pip's journey: “the coaches…they go to the wrong places instead of London” suggests that Pip has no control over the destination of his journey. Although he intends to go to London, the carriage, a mere object without a rational mind or intentional direction, has the power to dictate the journey. Dickens's purpose in denying Pip control over his mission is to suggest that Pip's desire, to become a wealthy gentleman after being born into a lower-middle class society, is not likely and ultimately so uncontrollable like the bus ride in his dream. Dickens also suggests that Pip has no control over his journey by having many different animals, but "never horses" driving the carriage. The images that Dickens illustrates with these animals emphasize the struggle. It is not possible to imagine a dog, a cat, a pig or even a man driving a carriage as smoothly as a horse. By illustrating the struggle, perhaps Dickens foreshadows the struggle that Pip will soon encounter on his quest. Furthermore, the “fantastic failures of journeys” dreamed by Pip are a warning from Dickens that Pip's journey will also be a fantastic failure. Freud's theory of dreams as wish fulfillment resonates well with this bizarre dream of Pip. According to Freud “the dream cannot be compared to the random resonance of a musical instrument struck not by the hand of a player but by the impact of an external force; it is not meaningless, it is not absurd... it is a fully valid psychic phenomenon, indeed a wish fulfillment. (98) Freud goes on to describe that every time he eats something salty before going to bed, he dreams of quenching his thirst with a drink until he wakes up. In much the same way, it could be argued that Dickens intended Pip's dream to be interpreted as the fulfillment of a wish. In the dream the bus does not arrive in London. Although Pip seems to aspire to meet society's high expectations of kindness, he is also very reluctant to leave the comforts of home, especially the comfort of his established relationships with Joe and Biddy. Therefore it could be argued that Dickens's intention is to construct in Pip a character who unconsciously feels obliged to remain with Joe and Biddy in the lower middle class but consciously desires wealth, high class society and kindness due to the extreme social pressure, or "great expectations" characteristic of the Victorian era. Therefore, Pip's dream manifests the realization of his inner desires, but in the end his conscious state, strongly influenced by society's expectations, prevails over his dream and he pursues society's desires: wealth, high-class society, social approval, and ultimately kindness Pip's misery and fear Once Pip gets to know London, his dreams no longer foreshadow the future, but rather dwell on misery. of his situation and of the anxiety he feels. After returning from the theater with Herbert Pocket, Pip says: "After all I went miserably to bed, and thought miserably of Estella, and dreamed miserably that all my expectations were obliterated." . (258) Before Pip arrived in London, Dickens used his dreams to foreshadow the series of unfortunate events he would face. Once immersed in London, Dickens reinforces the idea of misery through Pip's dreams, but no longer as a simple threat, but as reality. The repetition of misery that Dickens casts on Pip, both in his conscious thoughts just before sleep and in his unconscious dreams during sleep, speaks to the pervasiveness of Pip's despair. In both moments of conscious wakefulness and moments of unconscious sleep, Pip cannot help but dwell on the misery of his condition. However, in portraying Pip in this way, Dickens carefully avoidsconfusing Pip's conscious ideas of politeness and the subconscious doubts about gentlemanly expectations that Pip experiences in his dreams. . Before Pip falls asleep, he realizes that he is unhappy and realizes that the prospect of marrying Estella is diminishing. However, it is only when Pip falls asleep that he dreams that his “expectations have all been dashed.” This has a social significance. Bearing in mind that Pip serves as a cultural guinea pig for Dickens, insofar as he learns through experience that kindness is not directly linked to wealth, Pip's realization that his "expectations have all been dashed" can only occur unconsciously in a dream. In doing so, Dickens suggests that, subconsciously, society may know that a gentleman need not be rich. Consciously, however, it is very difficult at this point for Pip and ultimately for society to come to terms with this new concept. Subconsciously there is no hope for Pip and ultimately for society; his dream suggests no sign of hope, the “expectations” he so desperately hoped to maintain until “they were obliterated.” Pip's conscious state also seems hopeless and full of misery, but Dickens interrupts his depressive condition with a letter from Estella that provides a false sense of hope. Of the letter Pip comments: "It had no set beginning, like Dear Mr. Pip, or Dear Pip, or Dear Sir, or Dear Anything." (258) This conveys the sense of haste and carelessness on Estella's part. Dickens wants it to be clear that there is little to no affection on Estella's part, as becomes even more evident from the tone of the letter: I will come to London the day after tomorrow by the noon coach. I believe it was decided that you should meet me? At any rate, Miss Havisham has this impression, and I write in obedience to this impression. He sends you his regards. The letter is short, impersonal and callously direct. Estella makes it clear that she had nothing to do with arranging a meeting with Pip, saying that she "believed it had been arranged" by someone else and saying that she would simply meet with Pip "in obedience" to Miss Havisham's wishes, denying any personal interest. in the meeting. However, Pip is so happy to hear from her that he ignores the fact that she has no intention of marrying him. Thus, Dickens creates a situation in which Pip's dreams more accurately describe his emotional condition – that of misery and remorse – than a life event that simply provides a false, extremely temporary sense of hope. Once again, there appears to be hope for Pip in his conscious waking hours, but there is little to no suggestion of hope in his involuntary, subconscious dreams. The dreams that Pip has in London, therefore, are tools that Dickens uses to accurately describe the situation. of both Pip and society. While the events of Pip's life sometimes seem to be going in the right direction, for example London, the misery, fear, anguish, guilt and other negative feelings that pervade his dreams serve to remind him that he is in fact going in the wrong direction, that his life is wrong. the pursuit of kindness is misguided. Dickens allows glimpses of hope into Pip's conscious life, but the prevailing doom manifested in his dreams suggests to him that his aspirations will not be realized and that his approach is problematic. Remembering that Pip is a social guinea pig for Dickens who evolves expectations of kindness, it becomes clear that Dickens uses Pip's life as a common example of a young aspiring lower-middle-class boy trying to rise in society and achieve "great things ”. expectations". However, considering the aforementioned extremely pessimistic feelings in Pip's dreams, it is clear that Dickens uses dreams. 1988.

Topic > The meaning of dreams in great expectations | | | | | Contents Motivation Changing expectations Dreams that foreshadow Pip's failure Dreams that reinforce Pip's unhappiness and fear Final thoughts Works Cited "Tell me your dreams for a while and I will tell you what you really are." Written by ER Pfaff in 1868, this proverb postulates dreams as authentic manifestations of an individual's identity and character. We come to two conclusions: 1) dreams are a very accurate measure of character 2) an outsider can know more about an individual's character through the interpretation of his or her dreams than he or she can know about himself or herself. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The proverb goes so far as to suggest that an individual's dreams are the most revealing measure of personality, more revealing of real-life events, than voluntary daydreaming, than conversations with others, or any other conventional means to judge character. “What you really are like” is more accurately discerned from the contents, problems, desires, recurring themes, and other aspects of an individual's dreams than from any other attempt to judge his or her character. This proverb also implicitly assumes that an individual's personal opinion regarding his or her character is partial and imperfect, and that a more accurate representation of character is constructed from external interpretation of dreams. Written eight years before E. R. Pfaff's proverb, Great Expectations is filled with the character's meaningful dreams that highlight the social work that Charles Dickens aimed to accomplish. Aiming to break down the Victorian era's "great expectations" of wealth and class, Dickens constructs in Pip a fallible protagonist whose actions and aspirations are expected of a man in a society, but whose dreams reveal his guilt and social problems. underlying these expectations. Motivation Dickens' motivation for examining youthful and male expectations is largely due to the differences in lifestyle between the "lower orders", the middle class and the aristocracy. Of the differing conditions between the classes, Victorian People and Ideas author Richard Altick writes: “There were many reasons for discontent. At a time when millions of their countrymen could barely survive, great families invested fortunes in building stately faux-Gothic homes or adding wings.” (21) Thus the physical construction prevalent among the upper classes coincided with the social destruction prevalent among the lower classes. Owners exploited their workers, taking advantage of political policies that allowed cheap labor to amass fortunes. Workers were certainly exploited as farm laborers, but literary attempts to question the exploitation of the lower classes actually began with the dawn of factory work. Says Atlick: “As miserable as [agrarian working conditions] were, it was not their condition but that of workers trapped in the toils of industrialism that awakened the first Victorian social conscience.” Great Expectations was written in the second half of the nineteenth century, a time when the agrarian economy had shifted to an industrial economy, resulting in considerable exploitation and abuse of workers. However, potentially even more significant than these tangible lifestyle differences were the emotional pain and feelings of failure experienced by those born into the lower classes. Pip, born into the lower middle class, serves as a social guinea pig for Dickens. It is the character having the experience that illustrates Dickens' purpose in writing thenovel. He wants to become a gentleman, he thinks that to do so he must be rich, and his quest to achieve wealth ultimately teaches him the lesson of Dickens. Pip is given the “great expectations” of being able to eradicate the barriers that impede social mobility, marry Estella, amass a fortune, rise through the ranks, and ultimately become a gentleman. However, this fairy-tale trajectory with a happy ending is not achieved. Changing Expectations Dickens' dynamic characterization of Pip serves as a vehicle to promote a change in society's expectations. Dickens's initial characterization of Pip is very consistent with the prevailing aspirations of the nobility in the Victorian era. Once again, he wants to be rich and he wants to be considered a gentleman, two presumably inseparable notions. However, although Pip decides to pursue kindness, Dickens's use of Pip's highly critical and very confusing first-person narrative suggests that there is something wrong with Pip's and ultimately society's notions of kindness . On returning home and meeting Joe and Biddy, he says: I could never have believed it without experience, but when Joe and Biddy became comfortable and cheerful again, I became rather gloomy. Dissatisfied with my good fortune, of course, I could not be; but it is possible that I was, without knowing it, dissatisfied with myself. Dickens's uncertainty regarding society's concept of kindness runs parallel to Pip's uncertainty regarding his position in society. One point that Dickens makes clear in this passage is that there is no direct correlation between wealth and happiness. Pip, seemingly on his way to amassing a fortune, is actually “gloomy.” Joe and Biddy, members of lower-middle-class society, also appear with a “cheerful ease.” What then is the ultimate goal, wealth or happiness? For Dickens, wealth is simply a means to happiness, but as is evident from the example of Joe and Biddy, wealth is certainly not a prerequisite for happiness. Dickens also suggests through this passage that social assumptions are often disproved by experience. Pip's social assumption is that wealth and class are the conditions for kindness. Dickens's use of the perspective of hindsight illustrates that Pip's and ultimately society's assumption is off base. Pip admits that “it is possible that I was, without knowing it, dissatisfied with myself.” Through the more experienced and mature lens of Pip in later life, Dickens portrays remorse in Pip as a means of suggesting that society's "great expectations" are not so great after all. There is therefore a common thread between Pip's inexperienced and immature aspirations and society's equally distorted view of kindness. Pip as a young man can be said to represent the Victorian model of politeness, directly linked to wealth and class, of which Dickens did not approve. However, Pip in later life realizes that kindness can be achieved without wealth, a realization that Dickens ultimately tries to convey to society. class society to that of nobility of character and respect for his fellow men, it can therefore be argued that Dickens uses Pip's dreams as a tool to foreshadow the end of his pursuit of wealth and a tool to suggest a problem in the expectations of Pip and, ultimately, of society. As will soon be established, Pip's life choices and dreams are often in conflict with each other to the extent that his life choices often adhere to the social ideal of politeness, but his dreams appear to promote new Dickensian expectations for gentlemen . Dickens gives us the sense of high critical nature and also the sense of circumstanceslooming menaces in one of Pip's first dreams: If I slept that night, it was only to imagine drifting down the river on a strong spring tide, towards the Hulk; a ghostly pirate shouted to me through a speaking trumpet, as I passed the gallows station, that I had better go ashore and be hanged there immediately, without delay. (15)This passage occurs as Pip plans to steal from Mrs. Joe's toilet the next day. Pip's trouble falling asleep indicates that his conscience troubles him. Throughout the novel, and particularly in this passage, Dickens uses Pip's highly critical conscience as a means of suggesting a sense of wrongdoing. Of this passage Claire Slagter, author of the article “Pip's Dreams in Great Expectations”, writes: “Fear, guilt and the certainty of punishment are already revealed in this dream as distinctive characteristics of Pip's personality, marked, as the mature Pip observes when considering his childhood, from a kind of 'cowardice' and 'moral timidity'." (180) For Dickens, evil Pip believes is symbolic of a social conscience regarding kindness. Just like Pip he has an inner feeling that there is something wrong with his “great expectations”, the society should also realize the unfairness and injustice regarding their “great expectations” towards gentlemen. This nightmare of Pip is extremely dark too; at such an early age, Pip unconsciously dreams of being hanged.Thus Pip, Dickens's social guinea pig, feels the guilt that Dickens expects society to feel for its prevailing belief that only rich men can be gentlemen. Pip's dreams throughout the novel conflict with his "great expectations." Dickens uses Pip's conscious actions and aspirations as a representation of the "great expectations" of kindness, and on the other hand constructs Pip's unconscious thoughts or dreams to project guilt, fear and wrongdoing onto Pip and ultimately , on society for misunderstanding the concept of a gentleman. In The Interpretation of Dreams of Sigmund Freud, a famous psychologist named Radestock said: “The dream often reveals to us what we do not want to admit to ourselves and that we are wrong to call him a liar and a deceiver.” (60) This reinforces the deep psychological meaning of dreams and the power of the unconscious, and is very consistent with Pip's circumstances. Pip is determined to get rich and become a gentleman; He has “high expectations” of himself. However, Dickens infuses Pip's dreams with what Pip "does not want to admit" to himself: that he could more easily and effectively be a true gentleman if he had maintained his relationship with Joe and Biddy, behaved kindly, and developed a noble character like Joe, and gave up his misguided pursuit of wealth. To foreshadow the error in Pip's judgment, Dickens gives Pip a bizarre dream that seems very out of touch with reality, as Pip will be in London. Pip says of his dream: “All night there were carriages in my troubled sleep, going to the wrong places instead of London, and had on their traces now dogs, now cats, now pigs, now men, - never horses. Fantastic failures of journeys occupied me until the day dawned and the birds sang.”(159) Being Pip's last night at home, this dream foreshadows the plight of his next journey. First, the fact that his sleep is interrupted means that he is uncomfortable with his upcoming journey, that he has some trepidation about leaving Joe and Biddy in search of kindness. Subsequently, Dickens foreshadows the complexity and uncertainty of Pip's journey: “the coaches…they go to the wrong places instead of London” suggests that Pip has no control over the destination of his journey. Although he intends to go to London, the carriage, a mere object without a rational mind or intentional direction, has the power to dictate the journey. Dickens's purpose in denying Pip control over his mission is to suggest that Pip's desire, to become a wealthy gentleman after being born into a lower-middle class society, is not likely and ultimately so uncontrollable like the bus ride in his dream. Dickens also suggests that Pip has no control over his journey by having many different animals, but "never horses" driving the carriage. The images that Dickens illustrates with these animals emphasize the struggle. It is not possible to imagine a dog, a cat, a pig or even a man driving a carriage as smoothly as a horse. By illustrating the struggle, perhaps Dickens foreshadows the struggle that Pip will soon encounter on his quest. Furthermore, the “fantastic failures of journeys” dreamed by Pip are a warning from Dickens that Pip's journey will also be a fantastic failure. Freud's theory of dreams as wish fulfillment resonates well with this bizarre dream of Pip. According to Freud “the dream cannot be compared to the random resonance of a musical instrument struck not by the hand of a player but by the impact of an external force; it is not meaningless, it is not absurd... it is a fully valid psychic phenomenon, indeed a wish fulfillment. (98) Freud goes on to describe that every time he eats something salty before going to bed, he dreams of quenching his thirst with a drink until he wakes up. In much the same way, it could be argued that Dickens intended Pip's dream to be interpreted as the fulfillment of a wish. In the dream the bus does not arrive in London. Although Pip seems to aspire to meet society's high expectations of kindness, he is also very reluctant to leave the comforts of home, especially the comfort of his established relationships with Joe and Biddy. Therefore it could be argued that Dickens's intention is to construct in Pip a character who unconsciously feels obliged to remain with Joe and Biddy in the lower middle class but consciously desires wealth, high class society and kindness due to the extreme social pressure, or "great expectations" characteristic of the Victorian era. Therefore, Pip's dream manifests the realization of his inner desires, but in the end his conscious state, strongly influenced by society's expectations, prevails over his dream and he pursues society's desires: wealth, high-class society, social approval, and ultimately kindness Pip's misery and fear Once Pip gets to know London, his dreams no longer foreshadow the future, but rather dwell on misery. of his situation and of the anxiety he feels. After returning from the theater with Herbert Pocket, Pip says: "After all I went miserably to bed, and thought miserably of Estella, and dreamed miserably that all my expectations were obliterated." . (258) Before Pip arrived in London, Dickens used his dreams to foreshadow the series of unfortunate events he would face. Once immersed in London, Dickens reinforces the idea of misery through Pip's dreams, but no longer as a simple threat, but as reality. The repetition of misery that Dickens casts on Pip, both in his conscious thoughts just before sleep and in his unconscious dreams during sleep, speaks to the pervasiveness of Pip's despair. In both moments of conscious wakefulness and moments of unconscious sleep, Pip cannot help but dwell on the misery of his condition. However, in portraying Pip in this way, Dickens carefully avoidsconfusing Pip's conscious ideas of politeness and the subconscious doubts about gentlemanly expectations that Pip experiences in his dreams. . Before Pip falls asleep, he realizes that he is unhappy and realizes that the prospect of marrying Estella is diminishing. However, it is only when Pip falls asleep that he dreams that his “expectations have all been dashed.” This has a social significance. Bearing in mind that Pip serves as a cultural guinea pig for Dickens, insofar as he learns through experience that kindness is not directly linked to wealth, Pip's realization that his "expectations have all been dashed" can only occur unconsciously in a dream. In doing so, Dickens suggests that, subconsciously, society may know that a gentleman need not be rich. Consciously, however, it is very difficult at this point for Pip and ultimately for society to come to terms with this new concept. Subconsciously there is no hope for Pip and ultimately for society; his dream suggests no sign of hope, the “expectations” he so desperately hoped to maintain until “they were obliterated.” Pip's conscious state also seems hopeless and full of misery, but Dickens interrupts his depressive condition with a letter from Estella that provides a false sense of hope. Of the letter Pip comments: "It had no set beginning, like Dear Mr. Pip, or Dear Pip, or Dear Sir, or Dear Anything." (258) This conveys the sense of haste and carelessness on Estella's part. Dickens wants it to be clear that there is little to no affection on Estella's part, as becomes even more evident from the tone of the letter: I will come to London the day after tomorrow by the noon coach. I believe it was decided that you should meet me? At any rate, Miss Havisham has this impression, and I write in obedience to this impression. He sends you his regards. The letter is short, impersonal and callously direct. Estella makes it clear that she had nothing to do with arranging a meeting with Pip, saying that she "believed it had been arranged" by someone else and saying that she would simply meet with Pip "in obedience" to Miss Havisham's wishes, denying any personal interest. in the meeting. However, Pip is so happy to hear from her that he ignores the fact that she has no intention of marrying him. Thus, Dickens creates a situation in which Pip's dreams more accurately describe his emotional condition – that of misery and remorse – than a life event that simply provides a false, extremely temporary sense of hope. Once again, there appears to be hope for Pip in his conscious waking hours, but there is little to no suggestion of hope in his involuntary, subconscious dreams. The dreams that Pip has in London, therefore, are tools that Dickens uses to accurately describe the situation. of both Pip and society. While the events of Pip's life sometimes seem to be going in the right direction, for example London, the misery, fear, anguish, guilt and other negative feelings that pervade his dreams serve to remind him that he is in fact going in the wrong direction, that his life is wrong. the pursuit of kindness is misguided. Dickens allows glimpses of hope into Pip's conscious life, but the prevailing doom manifested in his dreams suggests to him that his aspirations will not be realized and that his approach is problematic. Remembering that Pip is a social guinea pig for Dickens who evolves expectations of kindness, it becomes clear that Dickens uses Pip's life as a common example of a young aspiring lower-middle-class boy trying to rise in society and achieve "great things ”. expectations". However, considering the aforementioned extremely pessimistic feelings in Pip's dreams, it is clear that Dickens uses dreams. 1988.