The bildungsroman Great Expectations (1913) by Charles Dickens cannot help but impress the reader with an overwhelming sense of guilt that permeates the novel on different levels. As the plot unfolds, the characters evolve; the feeling of guilt, however, remains unchanged until the main character, Pip, completes his transformation. This feeling of guilt is thematically linked to the other themes of crime and punishment and human error; for Pip, this results in a form of self-imposed guilt. Dickens's narrator recounts Pip's journey from an emphasis on false values ​​to the development of self-awareness and moral strength. At the beginning of the novel, Pip finds himself involved in an act of criminal conspiracy by stealing to help the convict, Magwitch, an act which creates immense feelings of guilt in the young boy: Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned"?Get the original essay My mindset regarding the theft from which I had been so unexpectedly exonerated did not prompt me to frank disclosure; ...But I loved Joe – perhaps for no other reason at that time than because this dear man let me love him – and as for him, my inner self was not so calm. I really felt (especially when I first saw him looking for his file) that I had to tell Joe the whole truth. Yet I didn't, and that's why I was wary that if I did, he would think I was worse than I was. The fear of losing Joe's trust and of sitting by the fireplace at night, looking sadly at my forever lost companion and friend, tied my tongue in knots. (33; ch. 6) From the beginning of the novel, young Pip therefore finds himself drawn into a world of criminal behavior in which his guilt constantly torments him. Instead of dissipating over time, Pip's sense of guilt seems to overwhelm his conscience until it becomes an integral part of his character. As Dickens develops this theme, he uses much of the novel's atmosphere and setting to achieve his goal. For example, as a child, Pip's world is defined by the "long black marshes", the "black lighthouse by which sailors went", and "a gallows with chains attached to it, which had once held a pirate » (6; ch1). On the water are the “hulks” – the prison boats – and on the shore looms the battery with the cannons that warn of prisoners’ escapes. Pip's immediate consciousness is, in effect, "bound" by the literal manifestations of the criminal world. The physical slavery created by Dickens's use of these dark and disturbing images highlights for Dickens the influence of the vision of criminality which recounts the life path of his main character. Explicit slavery translates for Pip into implicit slavery: legally, he is bound commercially to Joe, while emotionally, he is bound to Joe out of gratitude. As a direct result of his meeting with Estella and the perpetuation of several false values ​​in his mind, he no longer considers the honorable profession of blacksmith as an admirable career. Rather, the forge becomes Pip’s figurative “prison,” binding him to a lifestyle that now dissatisfies him. His aspirations have changed, making him feel trapped. This mental dilemma is added to his brain disorder: he feels guilty because he longs for a different path. He signs, in fact, his own "death warrant", condemning himself to the "scaffold" while he apprentices himself to Joe: Here, in a corner, my contracts were duly signed and attested, andI was “bound”. ; Mr. Pumblechook held me the whole time as if we were looking inward as we headed towards the scaffold to finish these little foreplays... Anyway, I remember that when I entered my little room, I was really miserable and I had a strong conviction about myself that I would never enjoy Joe's job. I had loved him once, but once, it wasn't now. (85-86; ch 13)The physicalThe setting of the city of London, which is the scene of several revelations for the main character, is also presented in a dominant unhealthy atmosphere, as Pip comments during his visit to the Smithfield Meat Market : “… this shameful place, being all stained with filth, grease, blood and foam seemed to stick to me” (133; ch 20). Given that Dickens continues to focus on Newgate Prison as a metaphorical image throughout the novel, one can only assume that the imagery of the prison and the heinous criminal world it depicts serves to emphasize the theme of crime and to reflect the merits of justifiable punishment. Pip's aspirations for wealth and success are inextricably linked to the image of crime, as evidenced by the irony of his wealth coming directly from a benefactor who is a convicted criminal. In addition to the physical setting with which Dickens surrounds his main character, many of Dickens's other characters in the novel who interact with Pip are aimed at the thematic perpetuation of guilt and criminality. An interpretation of the text as a panopticon, in Prison-bound: Dickens and Foucault, suggests that Pip's guilt and criminality can be seen through the actions of real criminals such as Orlick and Bentley Drummie: Orlick hits Mrs. Joe with the leg iron (which Pip is "guilty" of providing and thus, to some extent, of making the crime possible), while Bentley Drummie becomes the tool through which Pip obtains the gratification of the treatment that 'Estella reserved for him Both characters are physical representations of Pip's secret desires to take revenge on the people who have wronged him. By committing these crimes, they also maintain Pip's guilt, which keeps him locked in the prison. of his own conscience (Tambling, Bloom). Even Dickens's minor characters replicate the role of crime as a thematic influence in the text. This is reflected in characters such as Jaggers, who manages Pip's financial affairs on behalf. by Magwitch. Jaggers is also a direct link to the criminal underbelly of the world the characters live in, providing legal representation to criminals on trial, including his housekeeper, Molly, who is acquitted of murder. Molly serves as a foil to Dickens's theme in that the revelation of Estella's parentage highlights Pip's misguided values: when Pip professes to love Estella (although his values ​​focus on the high lifestyle she represents), she denounces and firmly rejects his love based on her weak feeling of love. birth, considering him “a stupid and clumsy work boy” (49; ch 8). Ironically, however, Estella's parents, Molly and Magwitch, are members of the criminal element that Pip and Estella seek to avoid. The novel does not praise Pip's aspirations for wealth; Rather, throughout the narrative, Dickens seems to juxtapose the idea of ​​wealth with the theme of guilt, an idea reinforced by Magwitch's role as the vehicle for Pip's advancement. “The horrible personification of Pip's guilt turns out to be the source of his expectations…. [H]is real culpability in pursuing them lies in his acceptance of hollow values…. [He] therefore has the feeling of having abandoned Joe, whose values, 2010.