Emotional Experience and Self-Realization in Charles Dickens's Great Expectations

This article examines how emotional experience shapes self-realization in Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations. The novel presents personal development as a gradual process influenced by desire, shame, attachment, disappointment, and later by responsibility. The focus is on Pip’s inner life and on the way his emotional reactions guide his choices and alter his understanding of himself. The analysis relies on close reading of key episodes and reflective passages. The findings indicate that emotional conflict is central to character development rather than incidental. Pip’s growth becomes possible when he begins to recognize his own feelings, connect them with his actions, and accept their consequences. The study treats emotional awareness as a necessary condition for self-understanding within the narrative.