A "pip" is a small seed, something that starts off tiny and then grows and develops into something new. Pip's name, then, is no accident, as Great Expectations is a bildungsroman, a story of the growth and development of its main character. Dickens presents the ambition to improve oneself that drives Pip along with many of the novel's secondary characters as a force capable of generating both positive and negative results. Pip's early ambitions focus on elevating his social class, on making himself into someone who seems worthy of Estella, but in the process he turns himself into someone who feels like a sham, is unkind to those who were kindest to him such as Joe and Provis, and ruins himself financially. Through these humbling experiences, Pip eventually comes to understand self-improvement as a more complex process involving moral and spiritual development as well. Pip's own ambitions are echoed by the self-improvement efforts of secondary characters like Joe and Ms. Havisham, who learn to write and to empathize, respectively, at Pip's encouragement.
The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Ambition and Self-Improvement appears in each chapter of Great Expectations. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
Below you will find the important quotes in Great Expectations related to the theme of Ambition and Self-Improvement.
Ross, Margaret. "Great Expectations Themes: Ambition and Self-Improvement." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 16 Sep 2013. Web. 26 Feb 2019.
Ross, Margaret. "Great Expectations Themes: Ambition and Self-Improvement." LitCharts LLC, September 16, 2013. Retrieved February 26, 2019. https://www.litcharts.com/lit/great-expectations/themes/ambition-and-self-improvement.