Achieving Measure of Contentment in Charles Dickens' Great ExpectationsWorks cited not includedGreat Expectations is a novel that not only satirizes the themes of Victorian society, such as status and crime , but also focuses on rites of passage for a child living in that society. It is through this central focus on rites of passage that Dickens is able to convey to the reader messages about the serious issues that concerned him so greatly. One of these problems is a problem that affects all human beings. It is the desire for contentment in one's life, which is central to the novel, as it follows Pip during his attempt to achieve this goal on his own. However, it is only at the end of the novel that Pip finally achieves some degree of fulfillment in his life. What is meant by 'contentment'? When defined, contentment is a state of happiness and satisfaction, or a sense of self-fulfillment, that allows you to feel at peace or at rest with your successes and failures in life. Dickens asks whether this is achievable in the novel by asking the question: how can this be achieved? Many philosophers and writers have tried to answer this question, for example the philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) stated that human beings strive to achieve satisfaction through the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. This theory is shown with Pip in the novel as he himself tries to achieve a certain satisfaction by aspiring to become a gentleman, who does not need to work, therefore avoiding the "... middle of paper..." pond to the people around you . However, despite this, the most important lesson that comes through the novel, in learning to achieve contentment in life, is to live it. Pip says he was happy at the forge before he went to London, but he was not happy (Page 315). Therefore, this suggests that the novel recommends that the best way to achieve contentment is to live your life and learn through experiencing it; otherwise you would feel dissatisfied with your life experience. And with your experience would come the lessons Pip must learn to achieve satisfaction; good and bad values, knowing how to control fantasies and phobias, listening to the advice of others, recognizing that wealth does not bring satisfaction and, above all, living your life as you feel best is the best way to live it.