"We have no choice, you and I, but to obey our instructions. We are not free to follow our own devices, you and I." (265). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The question of self-determination is central to Great Expectations. Dickens struggles to determine and express the extent to which a single person decides his or her own fate. This struggle is depicted in the lives of two orphans, Pip and Estella, who are searching for their own identity. Both are heavily influenced by other characters, particularly their respective benefactors. The difference between them lies in whether this influence comes only from the benefactor, or whether it is internalized and is also shaped by their own psyche. While both Pip and Estella are shaped by other people and circumstances in Great Expectations, and to some extent find comfort in this submission, this control is much broader for Estella. Estella is emotionally shaped so that another determines her true character and identity. Pip, however, is more externally controlled and has more power to think independently and form his own character and core identity, allowing him greater potential for moral redemption at the end of the novel. Estella is a person who has been completely transformed into an instrument of revenge. Miss Havisham, in her attempt to assert control and take revenge for wrongs she has suffered, transforms this desire into total control over a child, saying: "I adopted her to be loved. I raised her and educated her, to be I loved her. I transformed her into what she is, so that she can be loved!" (240). In the world in which Estella grew up, play and love, those fundamental shapers of character in young children, were also orchestrated. Estella has been molded against love, Miss Havisham has "stolen her heart and put ice in its place" (399), and love becomes something Estella cannot understand. Miss Havisham seems surprised by the degree 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 displays this concept that her life is not her own consistently throughout the novel. He often assumes an attitude and behavior that does not appear to be of his own making. Pip says, “You talk about yourself as if you were someone else.”(266). It appears, however, that she is taking on this role of her own volition. Estella has so internalized the control exercised over her that it is becoming complete. She seems keenly 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, but the two together make me." (304-306). He later explains to Pip how he cannot escape this construction, telling him "Is it in my nature? It is in the nature that has formed within me." (362). Estella is made 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 the extent to which you control your own destiny. His first education came from abuse by Mrs. Joe. 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, highlights Pip's autonomy beyond them. In the first pages of the novel we see Pip wandering the marshes, and we can already see that he has more freedom thanks to his sex than Estella, who remainedtrapped in Miss Havisham's old house. Joe serves as a moral example for Pip. Joe respects and acknowledges his own nature, telling Pip "I made mistakes outside the forge, in the kitchen, or outside the links." (224). Through example he encourages Pip to maintain an independent identity. Joe's influence on Pip can be clearly seen early on in his compassion towards the condemned man. When Pip meets the condemned man, he describes himself as "Pitying his desolation" (19), just as Joe later tells Magwitch "We know not what you have done, but we will not starve you for it, poor miserable fellow." (40). Joe through this exerts a gentle moral influence on Pip, as opposed to an aggressive shaping influence, such as his wife. Miss Havisham and Magwitch are aggressively influencing forces in Pip's life. He is physically molded into what they want to see and, like Estella, becomes an instrument of another's desires. Miss Havisham desires a boy who dances and forces him to perform those actions. It forces him into his “gross and common” class identity (92). Magwitch wants a gentleman and so constructs him as such, saying "'If I am not a gentleman, nor yet have I any education, I am the owner of it'" (321). Both, however, represent only a change in physical identity. Pip's most influential education comes through Magwitch and, more specifically, the high expectations imparted to Pip by him. With these expectations, Pip takes on the identity of a gentleman as he sees it. In this identity he is increasingly concerned with appearances. Pip becomes like Herbert, who "still rather confused his intention with his execution." (176). Even Pip, however, realizes the constraints of money and comes to see how it is reducing his control over his own destiny, saying "What I was chained to and how heavily became comprehensible to me" (331). He is possessed through money, as Estella is possessed through affection and money. Estella is not treated with love and therefore does not give love to others. Pip is also objectified and begins to structure all 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 power to resist this proprietary construction 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 identity as a gentleman. Jaggers, through his frequent statements of separation from the lives he deals with and his regular washing of his hands to wash away his connection to what he does. , imposes some influence on Pip, teaching him to avoid responsibility. Pip acts in line with this teaching in his monetary affairs with respect to the debts he accrues, and in his emotional ties in abandoning Joe, but he morally escapes from it, showing his maintained autonomy of moral thought. Pip also displays his capacity for self-determination in his reflections on the influences that shape him and their negative results. "When I had become accustomed to my expectations, I had insensibly begun to notice their effect on myself? Their influence on my character? I knew full well that all was not well." (272). He also reflects on how he shaped himself. “All other swindlers on earth are nothing compared to their own swindlers, and with such pretenses I have deceived myself.” (225). Pip is able to escape a complete internalization of the influences that shape him by realizing these influences and their effects on him before they become established in his character. Pip, unlike Estella, can allow himself the luxury of having an identity crisis. The independent identity he clings to goes against his,.