Limbo

The fundamental cause for Pip’s outsider status is his dissatisfaction with his current state in life. While it certainly does not help that his entire family is dead and he has few living biological connections, even if they were alive Pip would be equally lost. In his efforts to become part of the upper class Victorian society, Pip finds it necessary to strip himself of everything not upper class which, unfortunately, is everything he knows.

Pip is an outsider because he refuses to accept his social status. He is unable to reconcile himself with the fact that that he really is a member of the lower class society. Instead, he is insulted by comments to that effect and tries even harder to leave all traces of his background behind. We even see Joe, Pip’s moral role model, being shunned by Pip when he is around people, such as Drummle, who might look down on his connection to people of such low social standing. Pip finds himself losing connections to his lower class background but never really gains entrance into the upper class life he seeks.

Pip never makes it into the upper class, but removes himself from the lower class. As a result, he is left in some limbo state between the two. In his efforts to become a member of the upper class, he fails not only in joining that class but also in maintaining any ties to society. Ironically, Pip’s own social ambitions are the cause of his status.