he receives is from his sister's compassionate husband Joe. Dickens' writes of Pip's feelings, "But I loved Joe - perhaps for no better reason in those early days than because the dear fellow let me love him."
One evening while upon the marshes Pip is caught by an escaped
convict who threatens frightened Pip into stealing some food and a file from his sister's and Joe's home. Pip, too scared to do any-thing but comply, steals the things for the convict, Magwitch. From then on, Pip's conscience begins to persecute him. He is now beginning to be influenced by the society of which Magawitch and Newgate are representatives; as later he will also be, by Miss Havisham and Jaggers.
Dickens' writes of Pip's guilt, "Conscience is a dreadful thing when it accuses man or boy, that secret burden . . . is a great punish-ment. The guilty knowledge that I was going to rob Mrs. Joe."
The change in Pip's life comes when Mr. Pumblechook, who has
appointed himself to be Pip's benefactor, announces that he has been instructed by Miss Havisham, a lady of great wealth, to bring Pip to play at her estate. The Miss Havisham visits, which gave him a glance of a higher society, mark the beginning of Pip's be-coming discontented with his present station and of his becoming a snob. Estella, Miss Havisham's ward, cold and degrading attitude toward Pip makes him aware of the difference between a blacksmith and a gentleman.
Dickens' writes of how Pip judged the very home that Joe had provided for him, "Home had never been a very pleasant place to me, because of my sister's temper. But Joe had sanctified it, and I had believed in it. Now, It was all course and common, and I would not have Miss Havish
...