Satire in Great Expectations Essays

Satire in Great Expectations Essays Satire in Great Expectations Paper Satire in Great Expectations Paper Essay Topic: Great Expectations â€Å"When you satirize something, it’s usually through feelings and behavior. Satire is exercised through the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.† In the novel, Great Expectations, Charles Dickens shows readers how he satires human feelings and behavior through Pip’s character. One of the ways Dickens demonstrates this is when Pip turns his back on the ones that love and care about him. First of all, Pip thinks that he is better than Joe and Biddy and is ashamed of them. He ends up turning his back on them when they are basically the only people that love and care for him. For instance, Joe visits Pip in London and apologizes to him for embarrassing him, â€Å"If there’s been any fault at all today, it’s mine. You and me is not two figures to be together in London, nor yet anywheres else but what is privateand understand among friends† (Dickens 257). Even though Pip is embarrassed of Joe and goes to London and abandons him, Joe still visits him and apologizes even though it’s Pip’s problem. Another example is when Pip and Biddy have an argument about Pip’s treatment of Joe. Pip tries to explain to Biddy why he does not want to come visit Joe, â€Å"Well! Joe is a dear good fellow- in fact, I think he is the dearest fellow that ever lived-but he is rather backward in some things. For instance, Biddy, in his learning and his manners† (Dickens 158). It surprises the reader that Pip would say this about Joe since, Pip is full of flaws as well and Biddy and Joe do not turn their backs on him. The final example is when Pip abandons Joe and Biddy for Magwitch. However, he soon comes to the realization for his rejection; â€Å"I would not have gone back to Joe now, I would not have gone back to Biddy now, for any condition-simply, I suppose, because my sense of my own worthless conduct to the