Charles Dickens, in his novel Great Expectations, explores as one of his major themes the psychological effect on the individual of the desire for property, money, and material possessions. This research will analyze this influence on Joe, Mr. Joe, Pumblechook, Miss Havisham, Estella, Pip, and Wemmick.
Joe is one of the least affected by the desire for property and money. He is a down-to-earth character who is happier with his lot and work and life than most of the other characters, and thus he does not have to blindly seek material things in order to establish some sort of money-oriented self-esteem. As Angus Calder writes in the Introduction to the novel, it was Pip who underestimated the worth of Joe's character in the beginning, only later coming to understand the simple goodness of the man: "Joe, who at first, (Pip) confesses, 'I always treated as a larger species of child, and as no more than my equal,' is recognized as his right preceptor, 'a gentle Christian man'" (p. 23).
What Joe has in the way of material things is minimal, but he is nevertheless more than willing to share with the oppressed Pip:
Joe's station and influence were something feebler (if possible) when there was company, than when there was none. But he always aided and comforted me when he could, in some way of his own, and he always did so at dinner-time by giving me gravy, if there were any. There being plenty of gravy to-day, Joe spooned into my plate, at this point, about half a pint (p. 57).
Throughout the book, Joe generally maintains this generous and non-materialistic attitude.
Mrs. Joe is herself certainly not the worst of the offenders in regard to materialist desire. She is not nearly as generous with what she does have as Joe is. She is put upon by what she does have to give Pip, and she is cold-hearted in her demand that the boy be grateful eternally for the little he receives from her: "'Now,' said Mrs. Joe, unwrappin...