GREAT EXPECTATIONS, THE SECOND STAGE.

        Pip's meeting of Herbert Pocket or "the pale young gentlemen" enhances themes and motifs in the novel. Also, along with Mr. Jaggers. They're characters who at first don't have much to do in the First Stage but are come back towards the end of the First Stage or in the beginning of the Second Stage and they're to play a greater or larger part in Pip's life. At first, Herbert plays the "pale young gentlemen" and gets into a fight with Pip in the first stage at Miss Havisham's house but during the second part he comes back to become a great friend of Pip and the son of Pip's tutor. Mr. Jaggers is also first brought up in Miss Havisham's house when he encounters Pip on the staircase, and he is brought back into the novel when he informs Pip that he has a benefactor and wants to give him his "great expectations". "Becoming a gentlemen" is the main motif in the novel right now. Pip is off in London working his way up to becoming a gentlemen along with the help of Herbert who teaches him table manners. As Pip grew older, he started wanting more and more for himself until he wanted to be much more than stuck at home working as a blacksmith such as Joe.
        Pip entering London was a large disappointment among his part. He was hoping for it to be fancy and more "upper-class" but to his astonishment "...it was not rather ugly, crooked, narrow, and dirty." (161). His dreams are to become a gentlemen and being around Estelle and Miss Havisham are what I think to have brought on his high hopes of his "great expectations". Thanks to the mysterious benefactor, he has a place to live, learn and even the money to live out his new life. Entering London though brought down his hopes I believe though, because it's like finally being able to go somewhere you've been wanting to go to, only to realize it's nothing like you expected it to be and it caused disappointment. I just hope that Pip will come to reason with reality and that becoming a gentlemen all isn't what it's cracked up to be. He'd be better off living back with what little family he has left, working as a blacksmith and to be loved for who he truly is and not what he's turning into.