Pip—whose full name is Philip Pirrip—is the narrator of Great Expectations. The novel details his coming-of-age story, beginning when he is a young orphaned boy living with his older sister and husband, a blacksmith named Joe Gargery.

From the beginning of the novel, Pip demonstrates a thirst for knowledge and a desire to rise beyond his station in life as a poor blacksmith’s apprentice. In the very first scene, for example, he traces the letters on his parents’ tombstones with a longing to read and write. When Pip meets the aristocratic Miss Havisham and her beautiful adopted daughter Estella, his longing for wealth and education intensifies. Pip yearns to become a well-educated gentleman worthy of marrying Estella, and his dreams of class advancement and romantic love become inextricable.

Throughout the novel, Pip struggles with his conscience. When he steals food for a starving, escaped convict named Abel Magwitch, he feels guilty and wonders if he has done right or wrong. These feelings resurface when Magwitch secretly serves as Pip’s benefactor, allowing Pip to become a gentleman. On learning his benefactor’s identity, Pip feels that his gentleman’s status is fraudulent because it has been procured through questionable means by a man who is decidedly ungentlemanly.