"We have no choice, you and I, but to obey our instructions. We are not free to go our own way, you and me." (265).Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get an original essay The question of self-determination is central in Great Expectations. Dickens strives to determine and express the extent to which an individual decides his own destiny. This struggle is depicted in the lives of two orphans, Pip and Estella, who are searching for their own identity. Both are strongly influenced by other characters, notably their respective benefactors. The difference between them is whether this influence comes only from the benefactor or whether it is internalized, and they are also shaped by their own psyche. While Pip and Estella are shaped by other people and circumstances into great expectations and find, to some extent, comfort in this subjugation, this control is much more all-encompassing for Estella. Estella is emotionally shaped in such a way that another determines her character and identity. Pip, however, is more externally controlled and has more power to think independently and form his own character and central identity, allowing him greater potential for moral redemption by the end of the novel. Estella is a person who has been completely transformed into an instrument of vengeance. Miss Havisham, in her attempt to assert her control and retaliate for the wrongs done to her, transforms this desire into total control over a little girl, saying, "I adopted her to be loved." I raised and educated her to be loved. loved. I developed her into what she was, so that she would be loved. (240). In the world in which Estella grew up, even play and love, those fundamental elements of young children's character, were orchestrated. Estella has been molded against love, Miss Havisham "stole her heart and put ice in its place" (399), and love becomes something Estella cannot understand. Miss Havisham seems surprised by the extent to which she has determined Estella's identity when she realizes that the woman she has created is incapable of love even towards her adoptive mother. Estella exhibits this concept of her life not being hers consistently throughout the novel. She often adopts an attitude and behavior that does not seem to be her fault. Pip says, “You talk about yourself as if you were someone else.”(266). However, it seems that she takes on this role of her own free will. Estella has so internalized the control exerted over her that she shapes herself to completion. She seems acutely aware of this control, telling Miss Havisham "Am I what you made me? I must be taken as I was made. Success is not mine, failure is not mine." not mine, but the two together make me.” (304-306). Later, she explains to Pip how she cannot escape this construct, telling him "It's in my nature? It's in the nature formed in me." (362). Estella became an unnatural person due to the influence of how she was shaped. Pip is influenced by a long list of masters, including Mrs. Joe, Estella, Joe, Jaggers and Magwitch. With so many influences, it's hard to see how much control he has over his own destiny. His first training came from Ms. Joe's mistreatment. This abuse has led to feelings of self-loathing and criminality, and he internalizes this connection to crime. The humorous presentation of these incidents of abuse, however, emphasizes Pip's autonomy beyond them. InThe first pages of the novel we see Pip wandering the marshes, and we can already see that he has more freedom because of his gender than Estella, who remained trapped in Miss Havisham's old house. Joe serves as a moral example for Pip. Joe respects and recognizes his own nature, telling Pip "I go wrong out of the forge, out of the kitchen, or out of the mesh." (224). By example, he encourages Pip to maintain a certain independent identity. Joe's influence on Pip is clearly seen at first in his compassion towards the condemned man. When Pip meets the convict, he describes himself as "pitying his desolation" (19), just as Joe later tells Magwitch "We don't know what you've done, but we wouldn't want you to starve to death." for that, poor thing. miserable neighbor. » (40). Joe, through this, exerts a gentle moral influence on Pip, as opposed to an aggressive one, like his wife. Miss Havisham and Magwitch are aggressive forces of influence in Pip's life. He is physically molded into what they want to see and, like Estella, he becomes the instrument of other people's desires. Miss Havisham desires a boy who dances and makes him engage in these actions. She forces him to adopt his “rude and common” class identity (92). Magwitch wants a gentleman and so constructs him as such, saying, “If I be not a gentleman, nor yet have I any education, I am the owner” (321). However, these two elements only represent a change in physical identity. Pip's most influential training occurs through Magwitch and, more specifically, the high expectations he imparted to Pip. With these expectations, Pip assumes an identity of a gentleman as he sees it. In this identity, he becomes increasingly concerned with appearances. Pip becomes like Herbert, who “still confused his intention a little with his execution”. (176). However, Pip also realizes the constraints of money and comes to see how it reduces his control over his own destiny, saying "What I was chained to and how intelligible it became to me" ( 331). He is of money, just as Estella is of affection and money. Estella is not treated with love and therefore does not give love to others. Pip too is objectified and so begins to form all of his relationships in this way, treating Joe and Biddy as objects at his disposal. The main contrast between Pip and Estella in this regard lies in Pip's ability to resist this construction of ownership of social relations. All Pip has to do is escape the money that binds him. He is less of a helpless victim and willingly enters and remains in the collective fantasy of his gentlemanly identity. Jaggers, through his frequent assertions of separation from the lives he deals with and his regular washing of his hands to erase his connection with what he does, imposes a certain influence on Pip, teaching him to avoid responsibility. Pip acts in accordance with this teaching in his monetary affairs with regard to the debts he accumulates, and in his emotional ties by abandoning Joe, but he retreats morally, showing his maintained autonomy of moral thought. Pip further shows his capacity for self-determination in his reflections on the influences that shape him and their negative results. "As I had become accustomed to my expectations, I had gradually begun to notice their effect on myself? Their influence on my own character? I knew very well that all was not good." (272). He also reflects on how he shaped himself. “All other swindlers on earth are nothing to the swindlers themselves, and it was with such pretexts that I was deceived.” (225). Pip is able to escape a complete internalization of the influences which,.