An essential theme in literature is that of self-discovery, which can come in different ways to different characters. For some, a moment of understanding occurs, an epiphany in which the individual suddenly sees more clearly. For others, understanding comes only after years of slowly developing awareness. For many, both can be true at the same time as years of understanding suddenly coalesce in a moment of epiphany. Both Pip in Charles Dickens's novel Great Expectations and Gabriel in James Joyce's "The Dead" spend their lifetime learning before they achieve a fuller understanding of some aspect of their world.
Dickens is a writer who takes a strong social position, and Pip's life is bound with certain issues of social hierarchy and class. The concept of parents plays an important role in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, and parentage determines social position. Pip is an orphan, and the driving force in his life, a drive that takes several different forms, is to have a family, the family he was denied as a child. The stratified social structure of England equates family with social position and worth. An orphan like Pip sees little chance of achieving a high social position because of the lack of family, and antecedents count for more than individual worth or achievement. Pip thus has a double reason for yearning for parents and for seeking a family which will give him the social imprimatur he craves.
In Dickens' view, as the novel shows, true worth does come from within and not from social position or wealth, but this view goes against the grain of British society. Pip learns this lesson after many emotional hardships and disappointments, but in the beginning he is a product of his society and feels the sting of having no parents by which to hang his fortune. Pip's search for a family naturally draws him to people of a social class that will be to his benefit. Miss Havisham has the social position that Pip de...