Great Expectations Critique Essay

Have you ever wonder how wealth can bring a person happiness and how it can change a person or does it make that person a better person who was once poor? Driving to a local grocery store for an example, to buy some food for your family to eat and at the register, you have a dollar left. So you decide to buy a lottery ticket and later that night watching TV, you out of million hit the jackpot which would change your life forever.

Or just going to school everyday and doing your homework knowing that your family poor and have money problem, you kept up in school and later went to college and getting a master degree plus a well-pay career bring you wealth. Being poor to wealthy or being rich and staying rich as a child to an adult, does the wealth usually bring you happiness? In the novel “Great Expectation,” Pip is a character who as a child become a wealthy person from a poor background family.

As he grew up in a poor childhood, an opportunity came up for him to become rich and surely he took that opportunity from a secret benefactor which was Magwitch, Pip convict. Now being wealthy, Pip thought that it would bring him closer to the girl he loved, Estella. But it didn’t. In return, he had more problems personally then before to face and wasn’t enjoying his wealthy life. Wealth brought him to the path of broken love and change him because if Pip didn’t take the job or opportunity to become rich at the Satis House where he first fell in love when he saw Estella.

And now for him to get Estella, he has to change his old way of life to a higher class of people like Estella herself to even have a chance with her. (Chater 8) So according to Pip, wealth doesn’t bring happiness, but it regard only one person only Pip. The way he live in London, he look back at his childhood and old lifestyle, he realize what a terrible place he grew up in and was an embarrass to him. (Part II of the novel until the end of the book or Chapter 20) When Pip was poor, his relationship with Joe was like father to son.

But when Pip became wealthy, the relationship grew further apart until a point where Pip became a higher classmen then Joe which he was at the low classmen of people. Looking back now, Pip again realize how Joe was an embarrassment to him now and that he couldn’t socialize with Joe. From what he realize, Pip didn’t talk to Joe as often as he would thought when he came from poor to rich. So wealthy does change a person and in Pip case, it made him not a better person but a poorer person especially in attitude.

But Pip is only one individual compare to hundreds of thousands of people. How about what other people experience other then Pip. Another character in the novel, Miss Havisham who almost have the same but simliar problem like Pip with wealth, love, and happiness. Miss Havisham being wealthy herself wanted to get marry with guy who name is Compeyson, but she thought that the marriage was base on love not money. She also didn’t know that the guy Compeysonwas just after her money not her love.

Her father warn her about this, but she didn’t care. When the wedding day came and everything was set up, the guy she thought she was going to marry stood her up just as her father warn her. Now heartbroken and mad, Miss Havisham left everything that day like the wedding cake still on the table til the present day, molding away. Because being wealthy, Miss Havisham didn’t find true love as she wanted and now so depress from that day, her lifestyle change to a witch like house.

Not seeing the sun or letting sunlght enter her home, she growing old and wrinkle not having happiness to enjoy. Love was want Pip and Miss Havisham thought as happiness, but none of them got it because they were wealthy. In conclusion, so does wealth usually bring a person happiness? To my oppinion yes it should bring a person happiness because it let what the person want and desire knowing that they can afford it. It really depend on the person and what he or she think happiness is and their attitude toward other people about their wealth.

Maybe being greedy or just being a fool falling in love over the person because of their wealth or their appearence. Money is money whether you earn it or win it, and it will cause the person who own its problems because of the way they spend it. But money can’t buy true love which is happiness for a person like Pip or Miss Havisham. But on the other hand, if you found true love when your poor and become wealthy, the same person that love when you were poor is true love like Herbert Pocket love life and of course you’ll be happy like Herbert and his love becoming rich.

So according to the novel, about 75% percent say that wealth doesn’t bring happiness. But Pip and Miss Havisham are only two people compare to hundreds of thousands of people in real life. Maybe so, who really know what wealth will really bring happiness. If you ask me I would say yes it does for me. Well how can wealth change a person? Its can change a person in many ways from their attitude to their physical appearence. Wealth can change a person by making them feel better about life and knowing that what the want they an get. And does wealth make someone a better person that someone who is poor? Well once again, it depend on that person. That once poor person who became wealthy can realize the hardness of life low on money can help out in many way. Giving away money to buying cloths for the poor. But on the other hand, wealth can make a person attitude even poorer then before over greed. So I think wealth does bring a person happiness for a while and it can the person too.