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Great Expectations
Charles Dickens
Introduction

The Victorian era was a period of immense social, political and religious
change, but few realize that it is the period in which “the novel” truly emerged.
There are many great novelist arises during this age for example: Charles Dickens ,
George Eliot, Thomas hardy,Charlotte Bronte, William Morris,Benjamin, and like
many others. Here we are discus about a major and very prominent novelist
Charles Dickens and his contribution into a history of English literature, and also
have brief over view about his life and works during Victorian age.

Dickens' Early Life

Charles Dickens was the representative novelist of the Victorian age. He is the
greatest novelist that England has yet produced. Dickens' Early Life

Charles Dickens' life is like something out of a Charles Dickens' novel, which is
probably not a coincidence. He was born in 1812 on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth,
in England, and he was the second of eight children - that's a lot of children.

Things were going super well for a while (which is not like a Charles Dickens
novel). The family moved into a fancy home. They had servants. He was even going
to a private school. Things were great. He read a ton. He read Daniel De foe's
Robinson Crusoe (things like that), Henry Fielding, and he was also really into
Arabian Nights. That's where Ali Baba, Aladdin and all those stories come from.

British novelist Charles Dickens was born England. Over the course of his
writing career, Dickens was 15, his education was pulled out from under him once
again. In 1827, he had to drop out of school and work as an office boy to
contribute to his family’s income. As it turned out, the job became an early
launching point for his writing career.

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His works:

Charles Dickens, one of the most popular, productive, and skilled English
novelist was acclaimed for his rich storytelling and unforgettable characters. His
moving, critical and sentimental stories are characterized by attacks on social
injustices and hypocrisy, and offer an excellent insight into Victorian culture.
Dickens achieved massive worldwide popularity in his lifetime and is regarded as
one of the giants of English literature.

Today his works are still widely read and regularly adapted for cinema and
television. Over 75 feature films have been made based on his novels.He wrote
about numbers of literary genre's like novel, Novella, Shortstory,and many
other.But mostly he is wrote Novel's and novel is the only reason by he has goat
success in writing career.

"I made a compact with myself that in my person literature should stand by
itself, of itself, and for itself."

- Charles Dickens

Novels
Pickwick paper

A tale of two cities

David copper filed

Black house

The Great Expectation's

Oliver Twist

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Short stories :

"The Lamplighter" (1838)

"The Sewer-Dwelling Reptiles" (1841)

"A Child's Dream of a Star" (1850)

"Captain Murderer" (1850)

"To be Read at Dusk" (1852) (a ghost story)

"The Long Voyage" (1853)

The Art of Charles Dickens as a novelist

Introduction:

According to David Cecil, Dickens is "the most representative of Victorian

novelists. Some will contend that he is also the greatest. No doubt he lacks the
profundity of George Eliot, the consuming passion of the Bronte sisters, and the
peculiar eclat of Thackeray, yet he surpasses them all in his basic humanity, a
childlike naivete, and an amazingly fecund imagination.

These qualities place him among the foremost of all English novelists. Dickens
achieved in his lifetime wide popularity among all sections of readers. Cambell, the

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famous Lord Chief Justice, remarked that he would have been prouder of having
written Pickwick Papers than of all the honours he had earned at the Bar. Dickens'
popularity overstepped the frontiers of his country and spread in most countries
of Europe, as also across the Atlantic. While he was in America, he received a
hero's welcome everywhere. Children festooned him as if some sort of Santa Claus
had come. Even in Russia Dickens found a wonderful response. And when he died, an
Italian newspaper bore very characteristically for its headline the news: "Our
Charles Dickens is dead." Indeed, Dickens was not of his country alone but of all he
world. He will be read as long as books are read. This "forecast" is based on the
fact that up to today, about a century and a quarter after his death (1870), there
has been no time when his popularity suffered any noticeable decline, whereas all
these years too many literary reputations have been made and marred.

Dickens and Social Reform:

It must be understood at the very outset that Dickens' art is art with a purpose.
In the Victorian age even poetry-perhaps the most "aesthetic" department of
literature-was approached by many writers as handmaiden of social reform.
Tennyson's is atypical case. The Pre-Raphaelites and some others, no doubt, did not
let their Muse soil her wings by allowing her to fly too close to the earth. But the
Pre-Raphaelites were not typical Victorians. They represented a revolt rather than
a tradition. Dickens did not shut himself up in an ivory tower of such a kind as
"aesthetic culture" or "Gothicism." In his novels he strikes from first to last a loud
and clear note of humanitarianism. which is the most attractive note in the
Dickensian orchestra. He can be called one of the greatest social reformers of his
time. That he works in earnest is unquestionable-but he does not let himself fly
into tantrums or slide into the quagmire of cynicism of which the work of such
social reformers as Ruskin is not altogether innocent. Many a novel of Dickens
seems to have been built around a particular social theme. For instance, Bleak
House attacks "the law's delays"; Nicholas Nickleby, the abuses of charity schools
and the sadism of school-masters; Hard Times, the pet concepts of the then
current "political economy" which was also attacked by Ruskin and Carlyle; Little
Dornit, the inhumanities to which poor debtors are often subjected; and so forth.
But above all such social criticism is the basic lesson of humanness and charity
which almost all Dickens' novels teach implicitly or explicitly. And then there is the
most ebullient, convivial optimism of Dickens, which, even though-rrof altogether
acceptable as the last word on the philosophical exploration of life and the

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universe is yet acceptable for its basic good humour and throbbing humanity. An
opinion runs : "Despite its many evils—the Hardness of heart and-the selfishness
of those in high places-the greed and hypocrisy which were so prevalent-the
wicked class prejudices which divided man from man-the world was still for Dickens
a very good world to live in." Nowhere does Dickens say that "all is right with the
world," but nowhere does he say either that "al 1 is wrong with the world." He is a
realist no less than an optimist.

Characterisation:

The fertility of Dickens' creative imagination is simply amazing. His first novel,
Pickwick Papers, had a swarming mass of finely delineated characters, and he kept
up the pace of supply for all the subsequent novels. One very peculiar feature of
Dickens' work as a novelist is that his novels, when joined together, create a world
of their own, somewhat different no doubt from our world and even the real world
of his own day but none-the-less akin to both in many ways. We cannot exactly talk
of the world of Thackeray's or George Eliot's novels, but we can talk of the world
of Dickens' novels which has very recognizable contours and peculiarities and which
is full of characters whom we know better than even bur aunts and uncles. Take
any character from Dickens. He seems every inch a denizen of Dickens' world. We
generally find it difficult to recall to which novel he belongs, but we do not find it
difficult to say to which world he belongs. Asa painter of the life ofhis day Dickens
works on a very crowded canvas, and very often he uses colours which are too
blazing to be compatible with reality. This brings us to the oft-repeated charge
that he gives not characters but caricatures. There is some substance in the
charge. But all his characters are not caricatures. After Compton-Rickett we can
divide Dickens' characters into various groups as shown below:

Dickens's Characters

(1) The normal (2) The abnormal

(i) Satirical portraits (ii) The grotesques (iii) The villains

(drawn for a special purpose)

The abnormal characters do not embody "normal" reality, but they are not
essentially unrealistic. It is curious that Dickens succeeds better with the

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abnormal than with the normal characters. Normality does not attract him on
account of being dull and "ordinary."

Dickens is more successful with characters drawn from the middle and lower
classes of his society. As a child and young man he had seen and even experienced
the life of these classes. It was in his blood even after he had become a high-hat
with his thumping success in the field of fiction. He is much less successful with
the bigwigs and aristocracy. There ate some set types which make their
appearance much too often in Dickens' novels. Some of them, according to a critic,
are:

(i) "the innocent little child, like Oliver, Joe, Paul, Tiny Tim, and little Nell,
appealing powerfully to the child love in every human heart";

(ii) "the horrible or grotesque foil, like Squeer, Fagin, Quilp, Uriah Heep, and
Bill Sykes";

(iii) "the grandiloquent or broadly humorous fellow, the fun master, like
Micawber and Sam Walter";

(iv) "and fourth, a tenderly or powerfully drawn figure like Lady Dedlock of
Bleak House, and Sydney Carton of A Tale of Two Cities, which rise to the dignity
of true characters."

Applying E. M. Forster's distinction between "flat" and "round" characters to the

characters of Dickens' novels, we find that almost all of them are flat, not round.
A Dickens character is usually built, like a Jonsonian "humour," around a single
quality, and is incapable of surprising us in a convincing way. Dickens' characters do
not "develop," and they do not surprise. But in spite of their lack of development
and their numerous oddities, they are "living" beings, being the effusions of a
tremendously vital imagination.

Plot-Construction:

On the strictly structural side of his art, Dickens can boast only of modest
success. Several of his novels mock the very ideal of structure, or even any other
principle of pattern. It was only in his latest novels-Bleak House, A Tale of Two
Cities, and Our Mutual Friend-thai he was able to offer somewhat coherent plots.

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For the rest, they all exhibit a gross neglect of all architectonic principles. For one
thing, he is always more interested in individual episodes and individual characters
than in the job of integrating them into a well-proportioned pattern. Many
characters—and, some of them, most interesting-serve no structural function; but
they are there all the same, and we too wish them to be there in spite of their
egregious structural irrelevance. Among such characters may be mentioned Mrs.
Gamp, Mr. Micawber, Mr. Crummels, and Flora Pinching. As a novelist, Dickens is a
traditionalist, as he accepts the formal pattern of the novel handed over to him by
Richardson, Fielding, and Smollett-his love from childhood. Some of his novels
depict the career of the hero from his infancy till manhood. This naturally involves
him in the handling of a mass of vicissitudes as variegated as life itself. To impose
even a passable unity on the sprawling episodes representing these vicissitudes is
definitely beyond him.

One of the very important reasons for the weakness of the structural unity of
Dickens' novels is to be sought in the mode of their original publication: they were
published serially in newspapers. Now, the serial mode of publication asks for a
particular kind of discipline on the part of the author, but it is also excessively
detrimental to the structural pattern of the novels so published. From month to
month or week to week or fortnight to fortnight (as the case may be) the author
goes on and on without having a clear idea as to what he is heading for. He receives
letters from fans asking him to give this or that turn to the events-to kill a
character, to make someone rich or poor, to arrange a marriage, and so on. And he
obliges some. In every instalment there has to be some "kick." Between one
instalment and the next, organic development naturally suffers, because the author
sends one instalment and goes about whistling till the time for the next compels
him to take pen in hand once again. It is natural, therefore, for Dickens' novels to
be ill-constructed. "Very often", observes David Cecil, "he leaves a great many
threads loose till the last chapter; and then finds there is not enough time.to tie
them up neatly. The main strands are knotted roughly together the minor wisps are
left hanging forlornly."

Humour:

But we readily excuse Dickens architectonic deficiency the moment we take

congnizance of his humour. Humour is the very soul of his work. It presents his

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novels from becoming tiresome and itself is not tiresome. He is never a bore, as
Thackeray is sometimes, and George Eliot not unoften. Dickens' humour arises
from a deep human sympathy and is ever fresh and refreshing. It is customary to
compare him with such great humorists before him as Chaucer, Shakespeare, and
Fielding. Sometimes his humour is corrective and satiric-but it always has the
quality of geniality, charity, and tolerance. Humour with him is not only an
occasional mood but a consistent point of view, and even a "philosophy of life." His
comic fertility is indeed amazing. We have above referred to Dickens "world." This
world is peopled by a vast number of humorous characters. Dickens is at his best in
what is called the humour of character. We meet with few Falstaffs in his novels,
but his "comic fecundity" is greater than Shakespeare's.

It must be admitted that Dickens' humour is not very subtle. As a humorist he

does not rise to the subtlety even of Fielding and Thackeray. Fielding was often as
coarse and farcical as Dickens-and sometimes even surpassed him; however, that
profundity of sustained ironical attitude which we find in his Jonathan Wilde lies
obviously beyond the capability of Dickens. Dickens' humour is superficial rather
than profound. Very often it is of the nature of full-blooded farce or caricature.
In most of his characters we find a persistent reiteration of one particular note
which becomes comic simply because of the number of times it is flaunted for our
attention-very like the comic snatch of a circus buffoon, which is greeted with
uproarious laughter when it comes after, say, the third time. Mr. Micawber always
waiting for something to "turn up", Barkis who is always "willing", Mrs. Gummidge
always complaining that things are going contrary with her-all are abundantly comic
figures; but they lack any subtle or profound touch.

Pathos:

But in one way, at least, Dickens' humour rises above being a flashy, superficial
affair, and that is its prorximity to pathos. Like Lamb's, Dickens' laughter is never
far from tears. He makes us smile sometimes through our tears. It will be unfair to
say that he is entirely superficial, even though splendidly superficial, and ignorant
of the tragic facets of life. Life he views as a tragi-comedy, and if he laughs and
laughs, he does so not because he is unaware of the tragic part of it, but because
his attitude is "healthy" and untainted by morbidity. In such novels as Hard Times
he manifests a surprisingly profound knowledge of and concern for some

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fundamental problems of the machine age which his England had begun to take
cognizance of. And his treatment of these problems is far from frivolous.

Dickens was as considerably influenced by Goldsmith and Steme as by Fielding and

Smollet. Sterne's sentimentalism and rather hypersensitive human sympathy as
also Goldsmith's fundamental sweetness and fellow-feeling often make themselves
felt in Dickens' work. The earliest attempt made by Dickens at the delineation of
the pathetic is to be found in his very first novel Pickwick Papers-the death of the
Chancery prisoners. He is wonderfully successful in delineating the pathos of child
life. As a child, he himself had suffered much, and his accounts of such life are
always redolent of his personal experiences. Little Dorrit, Great Expectations,
David Copperfield, and many more novels are rich in pathetic accounts of the lives
of their heroes in childhood. What is more, pathos in them mingles and merges with
humour, creating very peculiar effects.

Autobiographic Touches:

A peculiar feature of Dickens' art as novelist is his tendency to be autobiographic.

He constantly draws upon his own experience, and the sympathies and antipathies
which we find so persistenly manifested by him in his work very often have their
origin in the years of his adolescence. Many of his novels are the records of his
own life-though modified by subjection to the canons of art. Thus David
Copperfield is, in essentials, Dickens' autobiography. Oliver Twist uses a lot of
material supplied by his own experience of the low life of London in his tender
years. In Bleak House he draws substantially upon his early knowledge of law courts
and legal affairs. He recollects his school days in Nicholas Nickleby. And so forth.

Conclusion:

In spite of the formidable number of flaws and limitations from which Dickens' art
as a novelist suffers, he is a great novelist. His humour, basic human sympathy, and
his rich, vitalising imagination are his basic assets, even though he is deficient in
the architectural skill as well as other formal and "technical" qualifications as a
novelist. He may be coarse and superficial, but we must remember that he is never
a bore. And when that is said, much is!

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Charles Dickens-Victorian Novelist

When Charles John Huffham Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, the great
nineteenth century of political, social and literary change was only beginning. The
Victorian Age, when Dickens was to reach his greatness as a novelist lay ahead; and
in the year of his birth, Napoleonic France received its first setback at the gates
of Moscow, which was followed in 1817, 1830 and 1848 with the liberal movements
that overthrew some of the revolutionary message, of the French Revolution.

But France remained nonetheless continually in men’s minds throughout his life. In
1837, Thomas Carlyle’s History of the French Revolution had a profound impact on
English thought and made a specially deep impression upon Dickens, and it is on this
dramatic episode that his A Tale of Two Cities came to be written.

The Tale of Two Cities—London and Paris—shifts, as its name suggests, from
England to France, arid back again settling down finally in France. In its English
episodes, Dickens tells us something of the condition of England at the time of
George III: the squalor of everyday life—which grew considerably worse in
Victorian England as the industrial revolution gathered momentum—the conduct of
justice—and injustice—as administered in the London courts; the close-packed,
haphazard, drunken London of old times. Through one of his characters in this
novel, Jerry Cruncher the bank messenger and ‘Resurrectionist’, Dickens even gives
a glimpse of the illicit violation of the hallowed churchyards and sale of dead
bodies for the dissection table of the doctor. Dickens does not bring out the
sordidness of Victorian England to the extent he does in Oliver Twist and David
Copperfield but he does tell us something of the life and times in the first half of
the nineteenth century in England when the industrial revolution began to make its
impact on the lives of ordinary men and women.

But it is with France and the French Revolution that the main theme of the story is
concerned. It is the first five years of the Revolution, 1789-1794, when the Terror
was at its height and thousands were executed or guillotined, that forms the
backdrop of A Tale of Two Cities; subsequent events when ‘the Revolution ended
and the Republic began’, are mentioned en passant but do not form the core of the

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novel. But it is important to remember that while Dickens wrote a historical novel
there are some deviations from the actual course of events and a historian would
not take it as an accurate picture of how the revolution developed its elan and then
petered away. A Tale of Two Cities must therefore be read as a novel where the
novelist’s imagination is stretched to its limits and allowed full play.

The book, written in 1859, has in fact been regarded as one of Dickens’ most
mature works and differs from his earlier novels in three noticeable points. First,
it has an elaborately constructed plot: his characters are carefully delineated and
are not allowed to run away without any aim or purpose. Second, in the semi-
historical nature of his theme, the descriptions of courts of justice, the French
Bastille, the old aristocracy in Britain and France are as close to the actual
conditions as possible. In fact, the bulk of the background information for A Tale
was drawn from Thomas Carlyle’s The French Revolution and from “about two cart
loads” of books that Carlyle sent Dickens while he was writing the novel! Third,
Dickens’ description of “the topmost stratum of the social world in England and
France” and the lowest layer of all, “the uncultured, the poor, the quaint, the
ruffianly, the oppressed” are so true that social historians have used the material
in A Tale as source material for a social history of the times. Dickens was to say
later that he regarded A Tale of Two Cities as perhaps his best work (he was
equally fond of David Copperfield) for which he Lad to do an enormous amount of
research, quite apart from using Thomas Carlyle’s The French Revolution as a basic
guide to the momentous events of the Revolution

THE STRUCTURE OF THE STORY

The story opens in 1775 when the troubles were just beginning in France. Dr
Manette, an old Bastille prisoner, long believed to be dead is brought away from
Paris. It continues in 1780 when the troubles had begun to reach a boiling point
with the trial in London, on false charges of treason, of one ‘Charles Darnay’ who
was believed to be a member of the French aristocratic family which had
imprisoned Dr Manette. Meanwhile ‘Darnay’ had married two years later the
Doctor’s daughter and had two children. The Revolution in 1789 brings to the
surface all the pent up emotions of the poor and the oppressed who storm the
Bastille and unearth an old confession of Dr Manette in one of the prison cells.
Darnay, in the meantime, goes to France to rescue an old friend and is immediately

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arrested by the French revolutionary council as a member of the French

aristocracy. The year is now 1793 and the beginning of the Reign of Terror. Darnay
is tried, acquitted, and then re-arrested and condemned to death. Darnay is
rescued from the guillotine much against his wishes by his friend and look-alike,
Sidney Carton who sacrifices his life for Darnay and his family, and above all for
his love for Lucie Manette.

But A Tale is considered a great novel not merely for the story that Dickens
weaved with the French Revolution in the background. It is remembered for the
array of characters that Dickens brings into play in the drama of terror and for
the self-sacrifice of Sidney Carton, a drunken and dissolute advocate.

Great Expectations
Summary

Great Expectations is the story of Pip, an orphan boy adopted by a blacksmith's

family, who has good luck and great expectations, and then loses both his luck and
his expectations. Through this rise and fall, however, Pip learns how to find
happiness. He learns the meaning of friendship and the meaning of love and, of
course, becomes a better person for it.

The story opens with the narrator, Pip, who introduces himself and describes a
much younger Pip staring at the gravestones of his parents. This tiny, shivering
bundle of a boy is suddenly terrified by a man dressed in a prison uniform. The man
tells Pip that if he wants to live, he'll go down to his house and bring him back some
food and a file for the shackle on his leg.

Pip runs home to his sister, Mrs. Joe Gragery, and his adoptive father, Joe
Gragery. Mrs. Joe is a loud, angry, nagging woman who constantly reminds Pip and
her husband Joe of the difficulties she has gone through to raise Pip and take care
of the house. Pip finds solace from these rages in Joe, who is more his equal than a
paternal figure, and they are united under a common oppression.

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Pip steals food and a pork pie from the pantry shelf and a file from Joe's forge
and brings them back to the escaped convict the next morning. Soon thereafter,
Pip watches the man get caught by soldiers and the whole event soon disappears
from his young mind.

Mrs. Joe comes home one evening, quite excited, and proclaims that Pip is going to
"play" for Miss Havisham, "a rich and grim lady who lived in a large and dismal
house."

Pip is brought to Miss Havisham's place, a mansion called the "Satis House," where
sunshine never enters. He meets a girl about his age, Estella, "who was very pretty
and seemed very proud." Pip instantly falls in love with her and will love her the
rest of the story. He then meets Miss Havisham, a willowy, yellowed old woman
dressed in an old wedding gown. Miss Havisham seems most happy when Estella
insults Pip's coarse hands and his thick boots as they play.

Pip is insulted, but thinks there is something wrong with him. He vows to change, to
become uncommon, and to become a gentleman.

Pip continues to visit Estella and Miss Havisham for eight months and learns more
about their strange life. Miss Havisham brings him into a great banquet hall where
a table is set with food and large wedding cake. But the food and the cake are
years old, untouched except by a vast array of rats, beetles and spiders which
crawl freely through the room. Her relatives all come to see her on the same day
of the year: her birthday and wedding day, the day when the cake was set out and
the clocks were stopped many years before; i.e. the day Miss Havisham stopped
living.

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Pip begins to dream what life would be like if he were a gentleman and wealthy.
This dream ends when Miss Havisham asks Pip to bring Joe to visit her, in order
that he may start his indenture as a blacksmith. Miss Havisham gives Joe twenty
five pounds for Pip's service to her and says good-bye.

Pip explains his misery to his readers: he is ashamed of his home, ashamed of his
trade. He wants to be uncommon, he wants to be a gentleman. He wants to be a
part of the environment that he had a small taste of at the Manor House.

Early in his indenture, Mrs. Joe is found lying unconscious, knocked senseless by
some unknown assailant. She has suffered some serious brain damage, having lost
much of voice, her hearing, and her memory. Furthermore, her "temper was greatly
improved, and she was patient." To help with the housework and to take care of
Mrs. Joe, Biddy, a young orphan friend of Pip's, moves into the house.

The years pass quickly. It is the fourth year of Pip's apprenticeship and he is
sitting with Joe at the pub when they are approached by a stranger. Pip recognizes
him, and his "smell of soap," as a man he had once run into at Miss Havisham's
house years before.

Back at the house, the man, Jaggers, explains that Pip now has "great
expectations." He is to be given a large monthly stipend, administered by Jaggers
who is a lawyer. The benefactor, however, does not want to be known and is to
remain a mystery.

Pip spends an uncomfortable evening with Biddy and Joe, then retires to bed.
There, despite having all his dreams come true, he finds himself feeling very lonely.
Pip visits Miss Havisham who hints subtly that she is his unknown sponsor.

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Pip goes to live in London and meets Wemmick, Jagger's square-mouth clerk.
Wemmick brings Pip to Bernard's Inn, where Pip will live for the next five years
with Matthew Pocket's son Herbert, a cheerful young gentleman that becomes one
of Pip's best friends. From Herbert, Pips finds out that Miss Havisham adopted
Estella and raised her to wreak revenge on the male gender by making them fall in
love with her, and then breaking their hearts.

Pip is invited to dinner at Wemmick's whose slogan seems to be "Office is one

thing, private life is another." Indeed, Wemmick has a fantastical private life.
Although he lives in a small cottage, the cottage has been modified to look a bit
like a castle, complete with moat, drawbridge, and a firing cannon.

The next day, Jaggers himself invites Pip and friends to dinner. Pip, on Wemmick's
suggestion, looks carefully at Jagger's servant woman -- a "tigress" according to
Wemmick. She is about forty, and seems to regard Jaggers with a mix of fear and
duty.

Pip journeys back to the Satis House to see Miss Havisham and Estella, who is now
older and so much more beautiful that he doesn't recognize her at first. Facing her
now, he slips back "into the coarse and common voice" of his youth and she, in
return, treats him like the boy he used to be. Pip sees something strikingly familiar
in Estella's face. He can't quite place the look, but an expression on her face
reminds him of someone.

Pip stays away from Joe and Biddy's house and the forge, but walks around town,
enjoying the admiring looks he gets from his past neighbors.

Soon thereafter, a letter for Pip announces the death of Mrs. Joe Gragery. Pip
returns home again to attend the funeral. Later, Joe and Pip sit comfortably by the
fire like times of old. Biddy insinuates that Pip will not be returning soon as he

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promises and he leaves insulted. Back in London, Pip asks Wemmick for advice on
how to give Herbert some of his yearly stipend anonymously.

Narrator Pip describes his relationship to Estella while she lived in the city: "I
suffered every kind and degree of torture that Estella could cause me," he says.
Pip finds out that Drummle, the most repulsive of his acquaintances, has begun
courting Estella.

Years go by and Pip is still living the same wasteful life of a wealthy young man in
the city. A rough sea-worn man of sixty comes to Pip's home on a stormy night soon
after Pip's twenty-fourth birthday. Pip invites him in, treats him with courteous
disdain, but then begins to recognize him as the convict that he fed in the marshes
when he was a child. The man, Magwitch, reveals that he is Pip's benefactor. Since
the day that Pip helped him, he swore to himself that every cent he earned would
go to Pip.

"I've made a gentleman out of you," the man exclaims. Pip is horrified. All of his
expectations are demolished. There is no grand design by Miss Havisham to make
Pip happy and rich, living in harmonious marriage to Estella.

The convict tells Pip that he has come back to see him under threat of his life,
since the law will execute him if they find him in England. Pip is disgusted with him,
but wants to protect him and make sure he isn't found and put to death. Herbert
and Pip decide that Pip will try and convince Magwitch to leave England with him.

Magwitch tells them the story of his life. From a very young age, he was alone and
got into trouble. In one of his brief stints actually out of jail, Magwitch met a
young well-to-do gentleman named Compeyson who had his hand in everything
illegal: swindling, forgery, and other white collar crime. Compeyson recruited
Magwitch to do his dirty work and landed Magwitch into trouble with the law.

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Magwitch hates the man. Herbert passes a note to Pip telling him that Compeyson
was the name of the man who left Miss Havisham on her wedding day.

Pip goes back to Satis House and finds Miss Havisham and Estella in the same
banquet room. Pip breaks down and confesses his love for Estella. Estella tells him
straight that she is incapable of love -- she has warned him of as much before --
and she will soon be married to Drummle.

Back in London, Wemmick tells Pip things he has learned from the prisoners at
Newgate. Pip is being watched, he says, and may be in some danger. As well,
Compeyson has made his presence known in London. Wemmick has already warned
Herbert as well. Heeding the warning, Herbert has hidden Magwitch in his fiancé
Clara's house.

Pip has dinner with Jaggers and Wemmick at Jaggers' home. During the dinner, Pip
finally realizes the similarities between Estella and Jaggers' servant woman.
Jaggers' servant woman is Estella's mother!

On their way home together, Wemmick tells the story of Jaggers' servant woman.
It was Jaggers' first big break-through case, the case that made him. He was
defending this woman in a case where she was accused of killing another woman by
strangulation. The woman was also said to have killed her own child, a girl, at about
the same time as the murder.

Miss Havisham asks Pip to come visit her. He finds her again sitting by the fire, but
this time she looks very lonely. Pip tells her how he was giving some of his money to
help Herbert with his future, but now must stop since he himself is no longer
taking money from his benefactor. Miss Havisham wants to help, and she gives Pip
nine hundred pounds to help Herbert out. She then asks Pip for forgiveness. Pip
tells her she is already forgiven and that he needs too much forgiving himself not
to be able to forgive others.

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Pip goes for a walk around the garden then comes back to find Miss Havisham on
fire! Pip puts the fire out, burning himself badly in the process. The doctors come
and announce that she will live.

Pip goes home and Herbert takes care of his burns. Herbert has been spending
some time with Magwitch at Clara's and has been told the whole Magwitch story.
Magwitch was the husband of Jaggers' servant woman, the Tigress. The woman had
come to Magwitch on the day she murdered the other woman and told him she was
going to kill their child and that Magwitch would never see her. And Magwitch
never did. Pip puts is all together and tells Herbert that Magwitch is Estella's
father.

It is time to escape with Magwitch. Herbert and Pip get up the next morning and
start rowing down the river, picking up Magwitch at the preappointed time. They
are within a few feet of a steamer that they hope to board when another boat
pulls alongside to stop them. In the confusion, Pip sees Compeyson leading the
other boat, but the steamer is on top of them. The steamer crushes Pip's boat,
Compeyson and Magwitch disappear under water, and Pip and Herbert find
themselves in a police boat of sorts. Magwitch finally comes up from the water. He
and Compeyson wrestled for a while, but Magwitch had let him go and he is
presumably drowned. Once again, Magwitch is shackled and arrested.

Magwitch is in jail and quite ill. Pip attends to the ailing Magwitch daily in prison.
Pip whispers to him one day that the daughter he thought was dead is quite alive.
"She is a lady and very beautiful," Pip says. "And I love her." Magwitch gives up the
ghost.

Pip falls into a fever for nearly a month. Creditors and Joe fall in and out of his
dreams and his reality. Finally, he regains his senses and sees that, indeed, Joe has
been there the whole time, nursing him back to health. Joe tells him that Miss

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Havisham died during his illness, that she left Estella nearly all, and Matthew
Pocket a great deal. Joe slips away one morning leaving only a note. Pip discovers
that Joe has paid off all his debtors.

Pip is committed to returning to Joe, asking for forgiveness for everything he has
done, and to ask Biddy to marry him. Pip goes to Joe and indeed finds happiness --
but the happiness is Joe and Biddy's. It is their wedding day. Pip wishes them well,
truly, and asks them for their forgiveness in all his actions. They happily give it.

Pip goes to work for Herbert's' firm and lives with the now married Clara and
Herbert. Within a year, he becomes a partner. He pays off his debts and works
hard.

Eleven years later, Pip returns from his work overseas. He visits Joe and Biddy and
meets their son, a little Pip, sitting by the fire with Joe just like Pip himself did
years ago. Pip tells Biddy that he is quite the settled old bachelor, living with Clara
and Herbert and he thinks he will never marry. Nevertheless, he goes to the Satis
House that night to think once again of the girl who got away. And there he meets
Estella. Drummle treated her roughly and recently died. She tells Pip that she has
learned the feeling of heartbreak the hard way and now seeks his forgiveness for
what she did to him. The two walk out of the garden hand in hand, and Pip "saw the
shadow of no parting from her."

Character List
Pip

the narrator as well as the protagonist of the story. Pip is an orphan being raised
by his sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery and her husband, Mr. Joe Gargery, a blacksmith.

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Mrs. Joe Gargery

a bitter, angry woman who brings up Pip "by hand." That is, she whips him whenever
she can and complains about what a burden he is while she does it.

Mr. Joe Gargery

a kind, if browbeaten, blacksmith. Though he is theoretically Pip's adoptive father,

Pip sees him as an equal and a friend. Joe is uneducated and perhaps a little slow
but he understands the important things in life.

Mr. Wopsle

the village church clerk whose dream it is to get on the pulpit and preach as he
considers himself an excellent speaker. As it is, he becomes an actor.

Mr. and Mrs. Hubble

simple, silly folks from Pip's village. Mr. Hubble is a wheelwright.

Uncle Pumblechook

Joe's uncle, a well-to-do corn-chandler in the village. He considers himself upper-

class and is actually a bombastic fool.

Mr. Wopsle's great aunt

runs the so-called school in town out of a cottage. A "ridiculous old lady."

Biddy

a kind, intelligent girl Pip's age who works for Mr. Wopsle's great aunt at the
school. Later, she comes to work for Joe taking care of Mrs. Joe Gargery.

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Miss Havisham

a strange, wrinkled up lady who never sees the sunlight and never gets out of her
bridal gown. She's actually a very cold hearted, yet wealthy, lady who lives just
outside the village in a the Satis House.

Estella

Miss Havisham's adopted daughter. Cold and very proud but very beautiful. She's
about Pip's age and is the love of Pip's life.

Geogiana

Aging relatives of Miss Havisham who don't have an inch of love for the woman but
are greedy for her money. They buzz around Miss Havisham like flies.

Sarah Pocket

Aging relatives of Miss Havisham who don't have an inch of love for the woman but
are greedy for her money. They buzz around Miss Havisham like flies.

Cousin Raymond

Aging relatives of Miss Havisham who don't have an inch of love for the woman but
are greedy for her money. They buzz around Miss Havisham like flies.

Camilla

Aging relatives of Miss Havisham who don't have an inch of love for the woman but
are greedy for her money. They buzz around Miss Havisham like flies.

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Orlick

a gruff evil man that Joe employs around the forge. He seems to hate just about
everybody, but has a crush on Biddy.

Matthew Pocket

Miss Havisham's cousin, but not one of her relatives that is greedy. Matthew
Pocket has charge of nine children, two nurses, and a pretty but useless wife. He
also tutors young gentlemen, including Pip.

Herbert Pocket

Matthew's son. An extremely cheerful and honest boy about Pip's age. He become
Pip's best friend in London.

Jaggers

rational and seemingly emotionless lawyer for Miss Havisham and for Pip. He is an
excellent speaker and logician, however, and specializes in getting criminals light
sentences.

Wemmick

Jaggers' stiff clerk by day, esoteric and generous man in private. Wemmick lives in
a cottage he fashioned into a castle and fights to divide his public and private life.
Wemmick becomes a good friend of Pip's (in private).

The "Aged"

Wemmick's elderly, and quite deaf, relative (of unknown relations). The Aged lives
with Wemmick in his castle and is quite happy when you nod at him.

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The "Avenger"

Pip's servant boy who Pip finds more of a nuisance than a help. Pip never has enough
for him to do, so the Avenger always seems to be standing around.

Drummle

another student and boarder of Matthew Pocket. He is a moody, disgruntled

"spider" but comes from an upper-class family.

Startop

another student and boarder of Matthew Pocket. He is a good friend of Pip's.

Miss Skiffins

Wemmick's sweetheart.

Clara

Herbert secret sweetheart. She is secret because Herbert knows his mother
would say she is below his "station." She's actually a sweet, fairy-like girl who
takes care of her dying drunk of a father.

Magwitch

the convict that Pip helps at the beginning of the movie. He later returns as Pip's
benefactor under the name of Provis. He is a rough ex-con, but seems to have a
good heart.

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Compeyson

Magwitch's mortal enemy and the other convict Pip saw in the marshes fighting
with Magwitch. Compeyson is a gentlemanly swindler who was the fiancé that
swindled Miss Havisham out of her heart.

Themes

Ambition and Self-Improvement

The moral theme of Great Expectations is quite simple: affection, loyalty, and
conscience are more important than social advancement, wealth, and class. Dickens
establishes the theme and shows Pip learning this lesson, largely by exploring ideas
of ambition and self-improvement—ideas that quickly become both the thematic
center of the novel and the psychological mechanism that encourages much of Pip’s
development. At heart, Pip is an idealist; whenever he can conceive of something
that is better than what he already has, he immediately desires to obtain the
improvement. When he sees Satis House, he longs to be a wealthy gentleman; when
he thinks of his moral shortcomings, he longs to be good; when he realizes that he
cannot read, he longs to learn how. Pip’s desire for self-improvement is the main
source of the novel’s title: because he believes in the possibility of advancement in
life, he has “great expectations” about his future.

Ambition and self-improvement take three forms in Great Expectations—moral,

social, and educational; these motivate Pip’s best and his worst behavior throughout
the novel. First, Pip desires moral self-improvement. He is extremely hard on
himself when he acts immorally and feels powerful guilt that spurs him to act
better in the future. When he leaves for London, for instance, he torments himself
about having behaved so wretchedly toward Joe and Biddy. Second, Pip desires
social self-improvement. In love with Estella, he longs to become a member of her
social class, and, encouraged by Mrs. Joe and Pumblechook, he entertains fantasies

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of becoming a gentleman. The working out of this fantasy forms the basic plot of
the novel; it provides Dickens the opportunity to gently satirize the class system
of his era and to make a point about its capricious nature. Significantly, Pip’s life as
a gentleman is no more satisfying—and certainly no more moral—than his previous
life as a blacksmith’s apprentice. Third, Pip desires educational improvement. This
desire is deeply connected to his social ambition and longing to marry Estella: a full
education is a requirement of being a gentleman. As long as he is an ignorant
country boy, he has no hope of social advancement. Pip understands this fact as a
child, when he learns to read at Mr. Wopsle’s aunt’s school, and as a young man,
when he takes lessons from Matthew Pocket. Ultimately, through the examples of
Joe, Biddy, and Magwitch, Pip learns that social and educational improvement are
irrelevant to one’s real worth and that conscience and affection are to be valued
above erudition and social standing.

Social Class

Throughout Great Expectations, Dickens explores the class system of Victorian

England, ranging from the most wretched criminals (Magwitch) to the poor
peasants of the marsh country (Joe and Biddy) to the middle class (Pumblechook)
to the very rich (Miss Havisham). The theme of social class is central to the novel’s
plot and to the ultimate moral theme of the book—Pip’s realization that wealth and
class are less important than affection, loyalty, and inner worth. Pip achieves this
realization when he is finally able to understand that, despite the esteem in which
he holds Estella, one’s social status is in no way connected to one’s real character.
Drummle, for instance, is an upper-class lout, while Magwitch, a persecuted convict,
has a deep inner worth.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember about the novel’s treatment of
social class is that the class system it portrays is based on the post-Industrial
Revolution model of Victorian England. Dickens generally ignores the nobility and
the hereditary aristocracy in favor of characters whose fortunes have been
earned through commerce. Even Miss Havisham’s family fortune was made through
the brewery that is still connected to her manor. In this way, by connecting the

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theme of social class to the idea of work and self-advancement, Dickens subtly
reinforces the novel’s overarching theme of ambition and self-improvement.

Crime, Guilt, and Innocence

The theme of crime, guilt, and innocence is explored throughout the novel largely
through the characters of the convicts and the criminal lawyer Jaggers. From the
handcuffs Joe mends at the smithy to the gallows at the prison in London, the
imagery of crime and criminal justice pervades the book, becoming an important
symbol of Pip’s inner struggle to reconcile his own inner moral conscience with the
institutional justice system. In general, just as social class becomes a superficial
standard of value that Pip must learn to look beyond in finding a better way to live
his life, the external trappings of the criminal justice system (police, courts, jails,
etc.) become a superficial standard of morality that Pip must learn to look beyond
to trust his inner conscience. Magwitch, for instance, frightens Pip at first simply
because he is a convict, and Pip feels guilty for helping him because he is afraid of
the police. By the end of the book, however, Pip has discovered Magwitch’s inner
nobility, and is able to disregard his external status as a criminal. Prompted by his
conscience, he helps Magwitch to evade the law and the police. As Pip has learned
to trust his conscience and to value Magwitch’s inner character, he has replaced an
external standard of value with an internal one.

Sophistication

In Great Expectations, Pip becomes obsessed with a desire to be sophisticated and

takes damaging risks in order to do so. After his first encounter with Estella, Pip
becomes acutely self-conscious that “I was a common labouring-boy; that my hands
were coarse, that my boots were thick.” (pg. 59). Once he moves to London, Pip is
exposed to a glamourous urban world “so crowded with people and so brilliantly
lighted,” and he quickly begins to “contract expensive habits.” As a result of
spending money on things like a personal servant and fancy clothes, Pip quickly falls
into debt, and damages Herbert’s finances as well as his own. Even more troubling,

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Pip tries to avoid anyone who might undermine his reputation as a sophisticated
young gentleman. In the end, sophistication is revealed as a shallow and superficial
value because it does not lead to Pip achieving anything, and only makes him lonely
and miserable.

Education

Education functions as a force for social mobility and personal growth in the novel.
Joe and Biddy both use their education to pursue new opportunities, showing how
education can be a good thing. Pip receives an education that allows him to advance
into a new social position, but Pip’s education improves his mind without supporting
the growth of his character. Biddy takes advantage to gather as much learning as
she can, with Pip observing that she “learns everything I learn,” and eventually
becomes a schoolteacher. Biddy also teaches Joe to read and write. Pip’s education
does not actually provide him with practical skills or common sense, as revealed
when Pip and Herbert completely fail at managing their personal finances. Pip’s
emotional transformation once he learns the identity of his benefactor is what
ultimately makes him into the man he wants to be, not anything he has learned in a
classroom.

Family

Although Pip and Estella both grow up as orphans, family is an important theme in
the novel. Pip grows up with love and support from Joe, but fails to see the value of
the unconditional love Joes gives him. He eventually reconciles with Joe after
understanding his errors. Estella is exposed to damaging values from her adopted
mother, Miss Havisham, and gradually learns from experience what it actually
means to care about someone. For both characters, learning who to trust and how
to have a loving relationship with family members is a major part of the growing-up
process. As Estella explains at the end of the novel, “suffering has been stronger
than all other teaching.” Both Estella and Pip make mistakes and live with the

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consequences of their family histories, but their difficult family experiences also
helps to give them perspective on what is truly important in life.

Motifs

Doubles

One of the most remarkable aspects of Dickens’s work is its structural intricacy
and remarkable balance. Dickens’s plots involve complicated coincidences,
extraordinarily tangled webs of human relationships, and highly dramatic
developments in which setting, atmosphere, event, and character are all seamlessly
fused.

In Great Expectations, perhaps the most visible sign of Dickens’s commitment to

intricate dramatic symmetry—apart from the knot of character relationships, of
course—is the fascinating motif of doubles that runs throughout the book. From
the earliest scenes of the novel to the last, nearly every element of Great
Expectations is mirrored or doubled at some other point in the book. There are two
convicts on the marsh (Magwitch and Compeyson), two invalids (Mrs. Joe and Miss
Havisham), two young women who interest Pip (Biddy and Estella), and so on. There
are two secret benefactors: Magwitch, who gives Pip his fortune, and Pip, who
mirrors Magwitch’s action by secretly buying Herbert’s way into the mercantile
business. Finally, there are two adults who seek to mold children after their own
purposes: Magwitch, who wishes to “own” a gentleman and decides to make Pip one,
and Miss Havisham, who raises Estella to break men’s hearts in revenge for her own
broken heart. Interestingly, both of these actions are motivated by Compeyson:
Magwitch resents but is nonetheless covetous of Compeyson’s social status and
education, which motivates his desire to make Pip a gentleman, and Miss Havisham’s
heart was broken when Compeyson left her at the altar, which motivates her desire
to achieve revenge through Estella. The relationship between Miss Havisham and
Compeyson—a well-born woman and a common man—further mirrors the
relationship between Estella and Pip.

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This doubling of elements has no real bearing on the novel’s main themes, but, like
the connection of weather and action, it adds to the sense that everything in Pip’s
world is connected. Throughout Dickens’s works, this kind of dramatic symmetry is
simply part of the fabric of his novelistic universe.

Comparison of Characters to Inanimate Objects

Throughout Great Expectations, the narrator uses images of inanimate objects to

describe the physical appearance of characters—particularly minor characters, or
characters with whom the narrator is not intimate. For example, Mrs. Joe looks as
if she scrubs her face with a nutmeg grater, while the inscrutable features of Mr.
Wemmick are repeatedly compared to a letter-box. This motif, which Dickens uses
throughout his novels, may suggest a failure of empathy on the narrator’s part, or
it may suggest that the character’s position in life is pressuring them to resemble
a thing more than a human being. The latter interpretation would mean that the
motif in general is part of a social critique, in that it implies that an institution
such as the class system or the criminal justice system dehumanizes certain
people.

Symbols

Satis House

In Satis House, Dickens creates a magnificent Gothic setting whose various

elements symbolize Pip’s romantic perception of the upper class and many other
themes of the book. On her decaying body, Miss Havisham’s wedding dress
becomes an ironic symbol of death and degeneration. The wedding dress and the
wedding feast symbolize Miss Havisham’s past, and the stopped clocks throughout
the house symbolize her determined attempt to freeze time by refusing to change
anything from the way it was when she was jilted on her wedding day. The brewery
next to the house symbolizes the connection between commerce and wealth: Miss
Havisham’s fortune is not the product of an aristocratic birth but of a recent
success in industrial capitalism. Finally, the crumbling, dilapidated stones of the

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house, as well as the darkness and dust that pervade it, symbolize the general
decadence of the lives of its inhabitants and of the upper class as a whole.

The Mists on the Marshes

The setting almost always symbolizes a theme in Great Expectations and always
sets a tone that is perfectly matched to the novel’s dramatic action. The misty
marshes near Pip’s childhood home in Kent, one of the most evocative of the book’s
settings, are used several times to symbolize danger and uncertainty. As a child,
Pip brings Magwitch a file and food in these mists; later, he is kidnapped by Orlick
and nearly murdered in them. Whenever Pip goes into the mists, something
dangerous is likely to happen. Significantly, Pip must go through the mists when he
travels to London shortly after receiving his fortune, alerting the reader that this
apparently positive development in his life may have dangerous consequences.

Bentley Drummle

Although he is a minor character in the novel, Bentley Drummle provides an

important contrast with Pip and represents the arbitrary nature of class
distinctions. In his mind, Pip has connected the ideas of moral, social, and
educational advancement so that each depends on the others. The coarse and cruel
Drummle, a member of the upper class, provides Pip with proof that social
advancement has no inherent connection to intelligence or moral worth. Drummle is
a lout who has inherited immense wealth, while Pip’s friend and brother-in-law Joe
is a good man who works hard for the little he earns. Drummle’s negative example
helps Pip to see the inner worth of characters such as Magwitch and Joe, and
eventually to discard his immature fantasies about wealth and class in favor of a
new understanding that is both more compassionate and more realistic.

Character analysis of Pip

As a bildungsroman, Great Expectations presents the growth and development of a
single character, Philip Pirrip, better known to himself and to the world as Pip. As
the focus of the bildungsroman, Pip is by far the most important character in

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Great Expectations: he is both the protagonist, whose actions make up the main
plot of the novel, and the narrator, whose thoughts and attitudes shape the
reader’s perception of the story. As a result, developing an understanding of Pip’s
character is perhaps the most important step in understanding Great Expectations.

Because Pip is narrating his story many years after the events of the novel take
place, there are really two Pips in Great Expectations: Pip the narrator and Pip the
character—the voice telling the story and the person acting it out. Dickens takes
great care to distinguish the two Pips, imbuing the voice of Pip the narrator with
perspective and maturity while also imparting how Pip the character feels about
what is happening to him as it actually happens. This skillfully executed distinction
is perhaps best observed early in the book, when Pip the character is a child; here,
Pip the narrator gently pokes fun at his younger self, but also enables us to see and
feel the story through his eyes.

As a character, Pip’s two most important traits are his immature, romantic idealism
and his innately good conscience. On the one hand, Pip has a deep desire to improve
himself and attain any possible advancement, whether educational, moral, or social.
His longing to marry Estella and join the upper classes stems from the same
idealistic desire as his longing to learn to read and his fear of being punished for
bad behavior: once he understands ideas like poverty, ignorance, and immorality, Pip
does not want to be poor, ignorant, or immoral. Pip the narrator judges his own past
actions extremely harshly, rarely giving himself credit for good deeds but angrily
castigating himself for bad ones. As a character, however, Pip’s idealism often
leads him to perceive the world rather narrowly, and his tendency to oversimplify
situations based on superficial values leads him to behave badly toward the people
who care about him. When Pip becomes a gentleman, for example, he immediately
begins to act as he thinks a gentleman is supposed to act, which leads him to treat
Joe and Biddy snobbishly and coldly.

On the other hand, Pip is at heart a very generous and sympathetic young man, a
fact that can be witnessed in his numerous acts of kindness throughout the book
(helping Magwitch, secretly buying Herbert’s way into business, etc.) and his

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essential love for all those who love him. Pip’s main line of development in the novel
may be seen as the process of learning to place his innate sense of kindness and
conscience above his immature idealism.

Not long after meeting Miss Havisham and Estella, Pip’s desire for advancement
largely overshadows his basic goodness. After receiving his mysterious fortune, his
idealistic wishes seem to have been justified, and he gives himself over to a
gentlemanly life of idleness. But the discovery that the wretched Magwitch, not
the wealthy Miss Havisham, is his secret benefactor shatters Pip’s oversimplified
sense of his world’s hierarchy. The fact that he comes to admire Magwitch while
losing Estella to the brutish nobleman Drummle ultimately forces him to realize
that one’s social position is not the most important quality one possesses, and that
his behavior as a gentleman has caused him to hurt the people who care about him
most. Once he has learned these lessons, Pip matures into the man who narrates
the novel, completing the bildungsroman.

Character analysis of Estella

Often cited as Dickens’s first convincing female character, Estella is a supremely

ironic creation, one who darkly undermines the notion of romantic love and serves
as a bitter criticism against the class system in which she is mired. Raised from
the age of three by Miss Havisham to torment men and “break their hearts,”
Estella wins Pip’s deepest love by practicing deliberate cruelty. Unlike the warm,
winsome, kind heroine of a traditional love story, Estella is cold, cynical, and
manipulative. Though she represents Pip’s first longed-for ideal of life among the
upper classes, Estella is actually even lower-born than Pip; as Pip learns near the
end of the novel, she is the daughter of Magwitch, the coarse convict, and thus
springs from the very lowest level of society.

Ironically, life among the upper classes does not represent salvation for Estella.
Instead, she is victimized twice by her adopted class. Rather than being raised by
Magwitch, a man of great inner nobility, she is raised by Miss Havisham, who

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destroys her ability to express emotion and interact normally with the world. And
rather than marrying the kindhearted commoner Pip, Estella marries the cruel
nobleman Drummle, who treats her harshly and makes her life miserable for many
years. In this way, Dickens uses Estella’s life to reinforce the idea that one’s
happiness and well-being are not deeply connected to one’s social position: had
Estella been poor, she might have been substantially better off.

Despite her cold behavior and the damaging influences in her life, Dickens
nevertheless ensures that Estella is still a sympathetic character. By giving the
reader a sense of her inner struggle to discover and act on her own feelings rather
than on the imposed motives of her upbringing, Dickens gives the reader a glimpse
of Estella’s inner life, which helps to explain what Pip might love about her. Estella
does not seem able to stop herself from hurting Pip, but she also seems not to
want to hurt him; she repeatedly warns him that she has “no heart” and seems to
urge him as strongly as she can to find happiness by leaving her behind. Finally,
Estella’s long, painful marriage to Drummle causes her to develop along the same
lines as Pip—that is, she learns, through experience, to rely on and trust her inner
feelings. In the final scene of the novel, she has become her own woman for the
first time in the book. As she says to Pip, “Suffering has been stronger than all
other teaching. . . . I have been bent and broken, but—I hope—into a better shape.”

The Evolution Of Pip

In Great Expectations, Pip goes through stages of moral maturity. Over the course
of the novel, Pip learns lifelong lessons that result from pain, guilt, and shame. Pip
evolves from a young boy filled with shame and guilt to a selfish, young man, and
finally into a man who has true concern for others. Pip goes through three stages in
the novel; shame and guilt, self-gratification, and his stage of redemption.

The first stage of Pip's maturity is his shame and guilt. Shame is a feeling brought
on by circumstances beyond the control of the person. For example, Pip feels
ashamed over how common and coarse he and Joe are. Guilt, on the other hand, is a

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feeling brought on by one's actions. An example of this is after Pip beats the pale
young gentlemen.

Pip starts off the novel with feelings of guilt but when Pip encounters Estella and
Miss Havisham he begins to feel shame as well. Pip feels ashamed about how he is
so common. He regrets that Joe is a mere blacksmith and has no education. Pip's
shame is brought on by Estella. Estella points out all of Pip's common mannerisms
and treats Pip as an inferior, even though they are about the same age. She taunts
Pip for calling knaves "Jacks", for wearing thick boots, and for having coarse hands.
This makes Pip feel ashamed of things he has never been ashamed of before. His
self-esteem is demolished by Estella. Pip thinks to himself: "I had never thought
of being ashamed of my hands before; but I began to consider them a very
different pair," From then on, Pip is ashamed of who he is and where he comes
from. He doesn't see himself in the same light as he used to.

Pip's feelings of guilt are shown after the fight with the young pale gentlemen and
the attack of Mrs. Joe. After beating up the boy at Ms. Havisham's, Pip said
he "felt but gloomy satisfaction in my victory. Indeed, I go so far as to hope
that I regarded myself while dressing, as a species of savage young wolf, or
other wild beasts."Pip is not happy with his behavior. Though Pip feels guilt here,
some feelings of pride come over Pip; he did beat up a gentlemen.

The attack upon Mrs. Joe also brings guilt to Pip. The weapon used against Mrs.
Joe was an ironed leg-chain. Pip's guilt comes from his believing that he supplied
the weapon. Orlick puts blame on Pip, as well.

"I was at first disposed to believe that I must have had some hand in the
attack upon my sister...I was a more legitimate object of suspicion than
anyone else."

Although Pip was in no way responsible for his sister's attack, he is filled with
guilt.

Pip was a young boy riddled with intense feelings of shame and guilt. As a result of
this, he undergoes a change in character. Pip is encountered with an opportunity to

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leave behind his life of being a common labouring boy and on his way to become a
gentlemen. Pip is quite pleased with these circumstances because he feels that he
will then be accepted by the upper class and, therefor, be able to win Estella over.
However, these circumstances bring about a negative change when Pip starts to see
himself above others. He becomes a person with characteristics he used to detest.
He always hated Mr. Pumblechook's superficial ways, and now Pip has adopted
them. Examples of Pip being superficial is when Joe comes to visit and Pip dreads
his arrival only because he is embarrassed by him. When Pip encounters his grand
opportunities, he immediately starts acting better than others, even Biddy and
Joe. He even goes as far as to say, "I should have been good enough for you,
shouldn't I, Biddy?" Pip's bad attitude of being above everyone continues
throughout all of volume 2; his stage of self-gratification. This stage of self-
gratification and self-interest eventually leaves Pip with no money and broken-
hearted.

Pip's guilt and shame that was mostly brought on by his visits to Miss Havisham's
encouraged his next stage of self-gratification. Pip's insecurities, guilt, and shame
about himself that was caused by Estella made him want to be more like her and
the upper class. These insecurities led him to be superficial and self-absorbed.

As Pip is living his new life and enjoying his new fortune, he becomes wrapped up in
his own life and concern of what others think of him. He becomes superficial and
phony. He loses touch with what truly mattered to him in the beginning of the novel
and what should matter to him; his loved ones, the ones who respect for the person
he truly was raised to be. Pip's negative change in attitude can be seen when he
receives a letter from Biddy explaining that Joe is coming to visit him in London.
Instead of being happy and gracious, Pip does not look forward to seeing Joe. He,
in fact, did not want Joe to come at all:

"Not with pleasure...no; with considerable disturbance, some mortification,

and a keen sense of incongruity. If I could have kept him away by paying
money, I certainly would have paid Money."

This mean and disrespectful behavior towards Joe, his best friend, the man who
raised him, shows a perfect example of where Pip is in this stage of his life. Pip is

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only concerned with his appearance and what people think of him. He doesn't want
anyone to see Joe and his common ways, especially Drummle. Pip is ashamed of Joe
and his past.

Pip's hiring of the avenger is another example of Pip's self-gratification. He only

hires the Avenger so he can impress Joe and the other people in town. The servant
is not even needed in Pip's small apartment and he doesn't even like having the
Avenger around: "he haunted my existence,"

Joining the club Finches of the Grove is yet another example of Pip's self-
gratification. The social club had no real function or purpose to Pip except to
dine "dine expensively...to quarrel among themselves" Pip doesn't belong in such
a club. He even says that "The Finches spent their money foolishly". Despite the
negative aspects of the club, he and Herbert join without any hesitation, just so
they can be members of high class. The Finches of the Grove does not bring Pip
happiness though. Pip says of the club: "We spent as much money as we could,
and got as little for it as people could make up their minds to give us. We
were always more or less miserable." This quote shows that Pip would do anything
to fit in and to be accepted by upper class, even if it means being miserable. Pip's
priorities were topped off with his concerns of his appearance and reputation.

Pip's stage of self-gratification comes to a downfall when he falls into debt and
finally, when he learns Magwitch is his secret benefactor. Before this though, we
see some evidence of change. He shows genuine concern for Herbert when
he "helps" Herbert obtain his new, successful job. Pip feels genuinely happy for the
first time in a while when Herbert tells him how great his job is. Pip is ecstatic by
the fact that he helped someone he cared about. "I did really cry in good earnest
when I went to bed, to think that my expectations had done some good to
somebody." Pip's final stage of redemption, in which he achieves true selflessness,
becomes clear when he starts to take care of Magwitch. Pip realizes he should not
judge others based on their appearance, but rather on who they are inside. This
point of redemption is made after realizing how grateful he is to Magwitch. At
first, Pip is disgusted with Magwitch and wishes he wasn't his benefactor. Pip goes
through a stage of redemption and he has the utmost concern for his loved ones.
He realizes how much Magwitch actually loved him and Pip stays by his side until

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the end. Pip says, "I will never stir from your side...when I am suffered to be
near you. Please god, I will be as true to you as you have been to me."

This quote shows that people can change. Pip changed after encountering true love.
His love for Magwitch was real because he had nothing to gain from him. Pip's love
for Magwitch is true because when Magwitch dies, it puts Pip into a tailspin. Pip
becomes physically ill and depressed. Pip now realizes how much he missed Biddy
and Joe. He realizes Joe was a true blessing. He is the only thing that has
remained constant in Pip's life; through all the good times and all the bad times.
Joe even pays off Pip's debt and helps Pip get better when he had become ill. Pip
says of Joe, "Exactly what he had been in my eyes then, he was in my eyes
still; just as simply faithful, and as simply right."

Pip goes through a big evolution throughout his lifetime. Pip began as an innocent
child. When he became unhappy with his life, he left home in search of a better
life. He became wrapped up in appearances and being accepted by the upper class
society becomes most important to him; self-gratification became the driving
force of his actions. This stage starts to disappear when his true benefactor is
revealed. He is at first repulsed by Abel Magwitch, but he slowly learns to look
beyond a persons' surface. He finally sees Magwitch as the person he truly is: the
person who cared for Pip and changed his life. Pip's evolution changed him
immensely. He learned how to be happy and to not judge a book by its' cover. By
doing generous and kind acts, people can be much happier then if they had all the
money in the world. Pip's evolution was long and painful, but in the end made him a
better person then what he was. He learned how to care for others and saw what
he had all along- a man who loved him like a son, a man who was there through thick
and thin. Joe Gargery was the only constant in Pip's life. Joe was the same man at
the end of the novel that he was in the beginning. Shame and guilt never took
control of him; that is why he was able to save Pip. In the end, Pip manages to
become a respectful, true gentlemen.

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Picture of the Victorian Society in Great Expectations

Great Expectations reveals Dickens’s dark attitudes toward Victorian society such
as its inherent class structure, flaw of judicial system, contrast between rural and
urban England and immorality of high class. In Great Expectations, he also depicts
several educational opportunities that highlights the lack of quality education
available to the lower classes.

Throughout Great Expectations, Dickens explores the class system of Victorian

England, ranging from the most wretched criminals (Magwitch) to the poor
peasants of the marsh country (Joe and Biddy) to the middle class (Pumblechook)
to the very rich (Miss Havisham). It is not only that there were several classes,
but there also existed class distinction or class consciousness. The people of the
upper class, so called gentleman did not mix with the people of the lower class. It
is seen through Pip’s uneasiness on Joe’s arrival at London.

This is Dicken’s sharp criticism that a fake Victorian gentleman Pip becomes
ashamed of his old childhood friend Joe’s presence at his lodging in London. When
Biddy, by writing a letter, informs Pip that Joe is coming at London, Pip cannot be
happy: rather a growing discomfort seizes him. Inwardly, he does not hope Joe’s
coming to meet him at London where Pip lives with a sophisticated society. Pip’s
snobbishness rises to such an extent that he once thinks that if it would be
possible, he could bid Joe away offering him some money. When Joe meets him, Pip
shows a cold and disinterested attitude to him. He feels a sense embarrassment
for Joe’s clumsy behavior, loose coat, and old hat. However, Joe clearly recognizes
Pip’s treatment of him, and decides not to settle down in his room for the night.
Similarly, Pip’s snobbery is obvious when he, on visiting his home town, does not
settle down on the smithy with Joe, rather takes a room at an inn.

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The shocking fact was that the people of the higher class or gentlemen also got
the different treatment from the judicial system. They were highly punished, while
the people of the lower class got the comparatively harsh punishment. Magwitch
fell a victim to injustice and ruthlessness of law enforcing agency. They passed a
harsher punishment (14 years imprisonment) for Magwitch than the original villain
Compeyson (7 years’ imprisonment) simply because Magwitch had previous records
of criminal activities while Compeyson seemed a gentleman with good and upper
social lineage.

A marked difference existed between the rural and urban England. The lives of the
rural people were still very simple. They were honest and caring. But the people of
the city like London became complicated as well as complex. For example, pip has
arrived in the metropolis and has taken a look around. He is not much impressed by
the locality in which Mr. Jaggers has his office. He finds this locality called “Little
Britain,” to be full of filth. Mr. Jaggers office is itself a most dismal place.

The housekeeper, a woman of about forty, kept her eyes attentively on her master
all the time that she was in the dining-room. Pip also noticed that, during the
dinner. Jaggers kept everything under his own hand and distributed everything
himself. In the course of the dinner, Jaggers, a shrewd lawyer as he was,
extracted whatever information he wanted from each of his guests.

The picture of rural England, is given through the Joe’s family. In the opening
chapter we find, an orphan boy, named Pip who lives with his sister, Mrs. Joe
Gargery, who is married to the blacksmith, Joe Gargery. The family, consisting of
the blacksmith, his wife, ad the latter’s little brother Pip, lives in the marsh
country, down by the river, within twenty miles of the sea.

People specially the members of the upper class became immoral. A number of
characters in Great Expectation are dominated by a greed for money. When Pip
goes o Miss Havisham’s house for the second time, he finds a number of Miss
Havisham’s relatives there. He calls those relatives “toadies and humbugs”.

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Herbert Pocket- Herbert Pocket is a member of the Pocket family, Miss

Havisham's presumed heirs.

Camilla –Camilla is an ageing, talkative relative of Miss Havisham who does not care
much for Miss Havisham but only wants her money. She is one of the many
relatives who hang around Miss Havisham "like flies" for her wealth.

Cousin Raymond -Cousin Raymond is another ageing relative of Miss Havisham who
is only interested in her money. He is married to Camilla.

Georgiana - Georgiana is another aging relative of Miss Havisham who is only

interested in her money.

Sarah Pocket- Sarah Pocket is one of her relatives who are greedy for Havisham's
wealth.

All those relatives are seeker after money. They all expect monetary advantages
from Miss Havisham. They all visit her on her birthday in order to win her favor.
The inwardly hate her because of her prosperity. Their visit to Miss Havisham is
based on greed, hoping to please her enough to be given some of her money at her
death.

Miss Havisham is the victim even of her lover’s greed for money. Her lover robbed
her of a lot of money and then deserted her. Miss Havisham has learned that the
possession of money is no guarantee of avoiding cruelty and unhappiness.

Mercenary attitude of people is reflected through Miss Havisham's relatives. Her

relationship with her relatives is based on money and power. They may conceive

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enough hate for her but cannot refuse to have undue advantages from her. The
greed of these persons also portrays the materialistic society of that time.

Through his portrayals of teachers in Great Expectations, Dickens symbolized the

varied educational opportunities and what they offered. Mr. Wopsle’s great aunt
illustrates the lack of education available to the working class. Like the education
she offers, this old dame is "ridiculous," "of limited means," "and unlimited
infirmity". She is so insignificant, that she has no name. This emphasizes the
insignificant amount of knowledge she offers her students. Just as she is a distant
relative of a church clerk, her school is a distant relative of the church’s attempts
at educating the poorer class.

Other educational options existed in Victorian England but were reserved for
those who could afford it. Pip is elevated to one such opportunity when a
mysterious benefactor pays for his "gentleman’s education." Matthew Pocket
illustrates this type of education. As indicated by its tutor’s name, this genre of
education was reserved for those who had "full pockets." Unfortunately, it was
bestowed upon many who would find little use for it. These "gentlemen" were not
expected to work. Mr. Pocket, a Cambridge graduate, provides a scholarly
education that like his own pursuits leads to "loftier hopes" that often fail (185;
ch. 23). This type of education produced self-serving individuals who offered no
benefit to society. It costs a great deal of money for Pip to "contract expensive
habits" (197; ch. 25). His expensive habits put him in debt, yet his scholarly
education leaves him "fit for nothing" (316; ch. 41). Almost a comical situation, if
you are not living it. Even an expensive education yields very little benefit for Pip
and society.

Great Expectations was a magic mirror for England’s Victorian society. In Great
Expectations, Dickens provides a vivid picture of the working-class struggles with
the existing educational opportunities.

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The Symbolic Setting or the Significance of the Setting of 'Great

Expectations'

The setting establishes the mood in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. The
opening pages of the novel set a gothic mood. Charles Dickens opens the story with
a young boy in a graveyard. It is dark, dank and terrifying, and "growing afraid of it
all and beginning to cry is Pip.Then, an evil convict pops out at Pip threatening his
life unless he brings him food and a file. The dark, creepy graveyard sets the evil
scene for this to occur. Miss Havisham is an evil woman who lives in a house "of old
brick, and dismal, and had many iron bars to it." This sets an eerie and strange
mood to the story and almost a feeling of wonder, for who would live in a house like
the one described. The mood of the story is often set by the setting, as was the
case in this novel.

The setting can tell many characteristics about the character that lives within.
Charles Dickens creates settings that are like subtle characters. Though not
named, these "characters" have a big impact on the story. Pip's kind brother-in-
law, of which he lives with, was a blacksmith. "Joes forge adjoined our house, which
was a wooden house, as many in our country were." (671). Pip's family is a common
one.

They do not have an exquisite home or a great deal of money, they were just like
everyone else: common. Joe's forge is a good place. Joe says that there is always
room at the forge for Pip though his sister wished to turn him away. The forge
tells of Joe's warmth and kindness. Though he may be average, he has a big heart.
Miss Havisham is an evil person, who lives in the past. Her house is also evil. "the
first thing I noticed was the passages were all dark, and only candle lighted us."
(688). Her home is dark and invested with old, dreadful memories that haunt Miss
Havisham. These memories turn her evil. Estrella is a young girl that lives with Miss
Havisham. She carries the candle through the dark passages, so she is even the
slightest bit good, though she hurts Pip emotionally, physically, and mentally. The
setting can tell the reader much about a character.

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The setting of a story can further or support the theme. One theme in Great
Expectations is that even a good person will do evil things when exposed to evil. Pip
is a young innocent boy who is scared into stealing from his family by an evil
convict. This happens on the graveyard, an evil place, where a good young boy
begins to loose his innocence. Estrella is a young girl who lives with Miss Havisham,
an evil person.

Miss Havisham's home is dark and the only light comes from a candle that Estrella
carries. This symbolizes that Estrella is the only good in the house even though she
is now almost fully corrupted by the dark enveloping her candle, Miss Havisham.
She enjoys abusing Pip even when she realizes he likes her. She hits him and puts
him down, telling him that he is common. Miss Havisham tells her to break his heart
and she accomplishes this goal. Miss Havisham corrupts the innocent Estrella. The
setting supports the theme of a good person will do evil acts when exposed to evil.

The setting is an important part of a novel. It helps the story progress. The
setting helps the reader visualize where and when the story takes place. The
setting establishes the mood of the entire story. Charles Dickens uses places like
characters that tell about the inhabitant. The setting is also used to advance the
theme. The setting of a story plays an important part in the narration of a story.

Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations: A Story of Conflict between

Bourgeois and Proletariat

In Charles Dickens novels, 18th century Great Britain is the chief functionary
where a comprehensive description on the rise of bourgeois sphere in the society is
given. Great Expectations is also a Bildungsroman in which character depicted their
inter relations, their atmosphere at work place and home and the structure of
society all wrapped in bourgeois sphere. Before 18th century, common man in Great
Britain began to adopt bourgeois life-style. They did not gather at public places

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rather they confined themselves in their richly decorated houses. As far as the
feelings of love are concerned, it was nothing more than ‘imputing the autonomous
declaration of will on the part of both partners.’ (Habermas) The greatest
achievement of bourgeois family is to influence the society rather forming a naked
ideology that further brought humanity in true colours and thus they give a new
tone to society and the self image of bourgeois family functioned in wide sphere
that resultantly influence the society. There seems a dependence of the bourgeois
on their conditions of maintaining their existence that creates an authentic
representation of themselves to the world that is represented through class
structure and production in the economy, but relation of these proletariats were
purely human and they were not based on economy.

Great Expectations of Charles Dickens is a compendium of ideas, which took him

out of accustomed field. Perhaps his intension was to produce continuum
characters having psychological duplicity. So, he formed characters like Pip, Joe,
Havisham, Estella, Magwitch and Molly who exhibit a tint of sadness in a minute and
a tint of pleasantness along with it. As the book was published in 1861, it falls in
the ‘heyday of bourgeois public sphere’. The story is also set in the time of
Dickens’s childhood. The instincts, nature and weakness of common man are dealt
with in the spheres of relations, public domain and the state.

Great Expectations is the story of a poor boy Pip whose, orphanage changes much
of his public and private spheres of life. In the beginning, where he lives with his
sister and brother-in-law Joe Gargery, he has to leave much of his interests that
largely affect his public and private life too. He has to stick to his assigned role of
a proletariat and remain stick to his set position in the society. He narrates:

My sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery, was more than twenty years older than I, and had
established a great reputation with herself and the neighbours because she had
brought me up “by hand”. Having at that time to find out for myself what the
expression meant, and knowing her to have a hard and heavy, and to be much in the
habit of laying it upon her husband as well as upon me. I supposed that Joe Gargery
and I were both brought up by hand. (Dickens 8)

He is so far from the field of education that he only dreams to be a blacksmith and
nothing else like bourgeois who do not wish to link themselves to the advanced
world. But in the later parts of the novel when Pip raises his standard, he cannot

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leave his humanity as his conscience did not allow him to do so and again come back
to his root, his old home.

From the beginning to the end of the novel, he wishes to be dominated, not to
dominate and thus living the life of a working class-man. But when he meets
Magwitch, he wishes to educate himself and the money secretly given to him is
wholly used to make him an educated and cultured man as Magwitch dreamt off.
His social situations change to a great deal first as apprentice, secondly as a
servant at Mrs. Havisham’s home and thirdly as a foreigner.

The dwelling places of the characters of the novel are also shown in the light of
their mental set-up. Previously, Miss Havisham’s house contained both social and
private spheres, but in the later parts of her life, when she is deceived by
Compeyson, her social and private both lives are destroyed and from then onwards,
she lives a life of seclusion with a sole purpose to cheat and destroy the male-
hearts and she always dresses herself in her decaying wedding dress that clearly
indicates the decaying of marriage institution.

She held the head of her stick against her heart as she stood looking at the table;
she in her once white dress, all yellow and withered; the once white cloth all yellow
and withered; everything round, in a state to crumble under a touch.

“When the ruin is complete”, said she, with a ghastly look, “and when then lay me
dead, in my bride’s dress on the bride’s table- which shall be done, and which will
be the finished curse upon him- so much the better if it is done on this day!”
(Dickens 60)

The house of Pip is not thus separated, it is combined with both the spheres;
working and living. At the house of Miss Havisham, the difference between working
and capitalist class is strictly observed. With the bourgeois ideal of equality, Pip
has to suffer much whenever he goes to Miss Havisham’s home where he is
sincerely made to realize that he does not belong to the comforts of this
aristocratic class.

Miss Havisham’s intentions towards me, all a mere dream; Estella not designed for
me; I only suffered in Satis House as a convenience, a sting for the greedy
relations, a model with a mechanical heart to practice on when no other practice
was at hand; those ere the first smarts I had. But sharpest and deepest pain of

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all- it was for the convict, guilty of I knew I sat thinking, and hanged at the Old
Bailey door, that I had deserted Joe. (Dickens 172)

And humorously only for winning the heart of Estella, he wishes to improve his
status and personality and attempts best to detach himself from the class of
proletariat and he feels much humiliated when he thinks about his own house in
comparison to Miss. Havisham’s grand house.

Right on the other hand, stands Miss havisham. She belongs to the bourgeois class,
so, howsoever wrong might have happened with her in her past life. She still has a
great control over her wealth and legacy. She uses Stella (a proletariat) and Pip
(another proletariat) as a tool to satisfy her own envies against men neglecting
their biological families. This is another thing that Estella works as an eye opener
to Pip but sadly like a dawn trodden man, he has to confirm his faith in this class.

Pip always lives in inferiority complex before Estella. And the story seems to bury
him in the ditch of utter humiliation of proletariat, but Dickens intention to ‘move
this class up in the society of bourgeois comes in true colours when Pip attempts to
fight with Herbert. The most distressed Pip shines brilliantly only because of his
pure heart and benevolence and because of his poor conditions. Illustration of his
assistance given to Magwitch in his distress is the finest event that states his pure
humanity. If we compare the merits of Pip with other characters of the novel, we
find only Magwitch can stand and nobody else who infinitely assisted Pip in pursuing
his studies without bringing himself into light.

Unfortunately, poor always wish to reach the social conditions of bourgeois. Pip
also leaves his apprenticeship as a blacksmith and moves to work at Jaggers’ office
in London where both Herbert and Pip work there in social and public sphere.
Unlike, middle class people Pip generates his interest in club. Pip’s illusion of
bourgeois once more shatters when he comes to know that a criminal Magwitch
payed his education allowances and not that woman Miss. Havisham. He is totally
discarded by bourgeois family that later become the reason of downfall of Pip. The
mishappenings in Miss. Havisham’s family and in the city of London compel him to
return to his former social condition.

I was slow to gain strength, but I did slowly and surely became less weak, and Joe
stayed with me, and I fancied I was little Pip again. For the tenderness of Joe was
so beautifully proportioned to my need, that I was like a child in his hands. He

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would sit and talk to me in the old confidence and with the old simplicity, and in the
old unassertive protecting way, so that I would half believe that all my life since
the days of the old kitchen was one of the mental troubles of the fever that was
gone.’ (Dickens 242)

He returns into his proletariat conditions and feels the familiar silence and shabby
atmosphere there:

I went towards the forge under the sweet green limes, listening for the clink of
Joe’s hammer. Long after I ought to have heard it, and long after I had fancied I
heard it and found it but a fancy, all was still. The limes were there, and the white
thorns were there, and the chestnut-trees were there, and their leaves rustled
harmoniously when I stopped to listen; but the clink of Joe’s hammer was not in the
midsummer wind. (Dickens 248)

Then Joe again appears and the social barriers between blacksmith and a
gentleman end and their relationship revives again. Pip attempts to harmonize his
soul in his old forge, which had once been a hateful place for him in comparison to
Miss Havisham’s grand palace:

So unchanging was the dull old house, the yellow light in the darkened room, the
facled specter in the chair by the dressing table glass, that I felt as if the
stopping of the clocks had stopped Time in that mysterious place, and,. While I and
everything else outside it grew older, it stood still. Daylight never entered the
house a to my thoughts and remembrances of it, any more than as to the actual
fact. It bewildered me, and under its influences, I continued at heart to hate my
trade and to be ashamed of my home. (Dickens 82)

Joe shuddered at the thought of meeting Miss Havisham. He was in utter

difficulty to expose himself before Miss Havisham. So, he dressed himself in
Sunday clothes. His inferiority complex worsened this time. Pip narrates this as:

However, as he thought his court- suit necessary to the occasion, it was not for me
to tell him that he looked far better in his working dress; the rather, because I
knew he made himself so dreadfully uncomfortable, entirely on my account, and
that it was for me he pulled up his shirt-collar so very high behind, that it made
the hair on the crown of his head stand up like a tuft of feathers. (Dickens 69)

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Although, being their so much careful about their dress these bourgeois do not
take a least notice of these things. The clash of bourgeois and proletariat comes
best in the episode when we see Miss Havisham’s palace demolished for gradually
catching the patterns of social transformation. The material of the old building is
being reused that shows:

How the bourgeois household, where the private and social sphere ere sharply
divided, is transformed into a new structure of society. The materials of the fallen
bourgeois are transformed into the new structure of modern society: the horns of
the, simultaneously, expanding and declining bourgeoisie and passably members of
the working class. (Christensen)

Thus, Havisham’s house signifies fall of bourgeoisie sphere and rise of the
proletariat who in the later parts of the novel expand their sphere into a holy,
dignified, human and benign atmosphere.

Another reality of the bourgeois family emerges in the novel when Miss. Havisham
tries to dominate in the male-dominated society by exploiting a poor girl Estella.
This does not make difference whether she fails or gets success in her venture.
Perhaps, the novelist wishes to explore that the women of middle class family
always are in the mood rising to the level of capitalists that always keeps them in
the heyday of their development or sometimes on the edge of their ruin. Miss
Havisham realizes her fault in end and repents from the deepest core of her
heart:

What have I done! What have I done!” She wrung her hands and crushed her white
hair, and returned to this cry over again. “What have I done! Until you spoke to her
the other day, and until I saw in you a looking-glass that showed me what I once
felt myself, I did not know what I had done. What have I done! What have I done!”
and so again, twenty, fifty times over, what had she done! (Dickens 209)

The final attraction of the novel is remorse and recrimination, which becomes a
tool to forgive all the characters for their faults and readers cannot grumble
about any character in the novel. In spite of Pip’s neglecting Joe and biddy from
the very beginning, he comes with all the praise in his favour and he becomes a far
better person than he had been earlier. In fact, it becomes a milestone of Pip’s
character that he is safe from the tornadoes of riches when his expectations lose
their greatness and in the end, he gains a deep knowledge of life. Besides this, he

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has friends like Herbert Pocket, Jaggers and Wemmick and he earns a lot of money
to pay his debts. This way, each character performs double duties: one their very
nature and the other their transformation into a benign human.

Thus, the novel is a depiction of inner and outer conflicts of bourgeois and
proletariat class and their impact on the society. Sediman rightly states:

Today (a different formation on the public sphere) could be realized only on a

different basis, as a rationalization of the exercise of social and political power
under the mutual control or rival organizations committed to public in their internal
structure as well as in their dealings with the state and with one another. (Seidman
233)

Though, in the modern times, there is no special distinction between bourgeois and
proletariat in developed countries and both of them assume the lives of both. The
fact still remains that both of them are dependent on each other, for bourgeois
gain their profits out of them while proletariat re dependent on these bourgeois
because they cannot earn and survive without them. So, even if conscious working
class fails to materialize as hoped by Karl Marx, we cannot necessarily think that
working class people will further be radicalized in the years ahead.

Realistic Elements of Great Expectations

Great Expectations is overall a realist novel. It focuses on the internal state of Pip
and shows moral ambiguity throughout the novel. However, it also contains gothic
descriptions and sensational elements.

One of the biggest characteristics that defines Great Expectations as a realist

novel is the exploration of the character’s internal states, specifically Pip. We see
Pip struggle internally throughout the novel. Pip feels guilt throughout the novel.
From the beginning, he wants more from life and more than what he has. He feels
guilty that he is ashamed of his home: “It is a most miserable thing to feel
ashamed of home” (v. 1 ch. 14). He even knows that the working life he was born
into may be better, and it “had nothing to be ashamed of, but offered me

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sufficient means of self-respect and happiness” (v. 1 ch. 17). However, we see him
change once he has the opportunity for more and to become a gentlemen, He notes,
“As I had grown accustomed to my expectations, I had insensibly begun to notice
their effect upon myself and those around me” (v. 2 ch. 15). Pip’s internal struggle
of how gaining expectations has changed him throughout the novel demonstrates
the realistic characteristic.

Another major factor is the complicated and ambiguous nature of this novel.
Instead of categorizing elements as black and white or good and evil, certain
elements of this story are ambiguous and hard to determine. For instance, Pip’s
secret benefactor turns out to be a convict. While it may seem that this is bad and
Pip should no longer have anything to do with him, it’s more complicated than that.
Pip is shocked and repulsed when he finds out who his benefactor is. However, he
Pip feels like he owes Magwitch, so Pip helps him try to run and hide. By the end,
Pip tries his hardest to appeal Magwitch’s sentence when Magwitch is ill an a
prisoner, and Pip visits him everyday. If this novel were addressing things as black
and white, Magwitch would be a bad guy and Pip would not care for him. When he
dies, Pip, says, “O Lord, be merciful to him, a sinner!” As it is, the reader, and Pip,
sympathizes with Magwitch the convict, thus showing that the situation is
ambiguous and complicated.

While this novel is largely a realist novel, it does depart from the realism tradition
and contain some gothic and sensationalism elements. We have some dark and
gloomy scenes and settings, which is a gothic characteristic. Miss Havasham and
the Satis house are very gloomy and eerie. The outside is dreary and there are
chains on the door. There is no daylight inside. Miss Havisham herself is very
gloomy: she is dressed in a wedding dress from long ago: “I saw that everything
within my view which ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its
luster…I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had been put upon the rounded
figure of a young woman, and that the figure upon which it now hung loose, and had
shrunk to skin and bone.” Everything about this setting, person, and situation is
very gloomy, which reflects gothic elements.

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We also see some sensational elements in this story. While most of the novel
focuses on the ordinary (Pip is a very ordinary boy in the beginning), there are
some parts that emphasize the strange. The fact that Pip’s benefactor is a convict
is shocking and not ordinary–most realist novels don’t deal with convicts. The
mystery of who is Pip’s benefactor is also a sensational element.

'Great Expectations' as a Bildungsroman Novel: Pip’s Moral

Regeneration

Great Expectations can be said as a study of human psychological development and

a Bildungsroman novel. This is Dickens’s distinctive style plot that while developing
plot structure he, at the same times, externalizes the inner workings in Pip’s
psyche. To serve the purpose, his adoption of first person narration, of course,
plays a good part both in developing plot and facilitating the readers to have a
close glimpse of the central figure in the novel, Pip. In one sense, this grand and
huge novel, voluminous can be called a work dealing with the moral regeneration of
Pip.

The outliving may be like this- Pip gets a chance from an unknown benefactor
(Magwitch) to be a gentleman, his original moral strength and values are dimmed/
blurred/ clouded coming in contact with a London higher class embedded in money,
show, pride and revenge and false gentility. However, Pip being a snob at this time
can not detect the dark side of this luxurious social class and keeps himself aloof
from his real well-wishers and childhood friends like Joe, Biddy, and pays respect
and homage to people like Miss Havisham, Jagger. Gradually through the novelist’s
dramatic techniques of suspense, humor, dialogue and denouement, the knots of
the incidents are opened and Pip recognizes his real benefactor ( Magwitch – a
criminal and convict) and thus is cursed of his snobbish behavior. His moral
regeneration starts. The clouds which covered his original goodness pass away and
once again he enables to see man as man recognizing the proper worth of basic
humanity. At last he retains his original power of morality and returns to his real
friends (Joe, Biddy, and his real home, the forge).

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From his early boyhood Pip was good, gentle, and morally strong. He does not show
any sign of villainy and notoriety at his boyhood. His conscience always keeps awake
under the proper guidance of Joe and Biddy. He develops a strong moral sense and
good values. However whenever he is forced to commit an evil deed or to tell a lie;
he suffers a mental disturbance. In the marsh scene, he is terrified at Magwitch’s
ill treatment and he is forced to commit crimes: to steal a file and some food from
his sister’s house. Under Magwitch’s threat he promises that he must do so. But
after stealing food and a file, he becomes restless and uneasy. He can not get rid
of his guilt feelings. He thinks that he has betrayed Joe and his sister. However,
he retains his basic humanity and shows pity for an outcast by giving the file and
some food and drink to him. Though Pip provided the demanded things to the
convict under Magwitch’s force, Pip shows deep compassion for him. This is quite
obvious when in the course of their conversation while Magwitch takes the food to
the marsh, Pip confesses:

“Pitying his desolation, and watching him as he gradually settled down upon the pie,
I made bold to say, `I am glad you enjoy it.'

`Did you speak?'

`I said I was glad you enjoyed it.”

Such a humble life Pip leads in the village with his great friend Joe. He is
apprenticed to Joe, the blacksmith. Though he is unhappy to live with his cruel
sister, he certainly had consolation as he got love and affection from Joe Gargery.

In fact, Pip’s confrontation with Miss Havisham and Estella and their circle is the
turning point in the development of his personality. So, far he had been unconscious
about class distinction – he was indifferent that he belonged to a “commoner’s
class“. Going to the Satis House he feels for the first time in his life his
inferiority complex which was absent in his simple innocent life style. The
occasional visits to the Satis House, playing cards with Stella, her scorn of his

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coarse hands and unpolished manners made him utterly uneasy and disturbed. He
lost mental peace and calm. In one hand, he becomes fascinated with Estella’s
physical charm and beauty; on the other hand, he is hurt by her scorn and continual
torture concerning his belonging lower social class. One seems to be at his horns of
dilemma. After a long period of mental torture and frustration, he comes to the
point that he must be a gentleman to win his scornful beloved.

In fact, Estella enkindled a fire in his heart to ascend to the social ladder to
become a gentleman. Afterwards, Pip’s meeting with Magwitch on the marshes and
his help to the latter with food and file is the turning point in Pip’s rising as a
gentleman. Magwitch later on works on his project of making a gentleman of Pip
through his lawyer Mr. Jaggers.

Thus, Pip has been taken to London to be brought up as a perfect London gentleman
according to the wish of the convict Magwitch, his benefactor. But, Pip is kept to
be in the dark concerning the supposed identity of his benefactor. However, the
young man is, to some extent, feels relaxed and ease thinking that Miss Havisham
is his real benefactor and Estella is supposed to be married to him. Gradually, he
starts his lessons and other necessary instruction with Mr. Herbert Pocket at
London. Very soon he acquires the outward appearance of a “gentleman” along with
his growing snobbery. He has undergone a lot of change in his outlook. Previously,
he was a commoner who became the butt of extreme scorn and criticism by Estella.
Now, he thinks that he has developed a gentlemanly attitude and etiquette. He
begins to feel a kind of uneasiness and incongruity for his past life with Joe and his
sister at the smithy. His snobbery is made to be exposed on the occasion of Joe’s
London tour.

When Biddy, by writing a letter, informs Pip that Joe is coming at London, Pip
cannot be happy: rather a growing discomfort seizes him. Inwardly, he does not
hope Joe’s coming to meet him at London where Pip lives with a sophisticated
society. Pip’s snobbishness rises to such an extent that he once thinks that if it
would be possible, he could bid Joe away offering him some money. When Joe
meets him, Pip shows a cold and disinterested attitude to him. He feels a sense

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embarrassment for Joe’s clumsy behavior, loose coat, and old hat. However, Joe
clearly recognizes Pip’s treatment of him, and decides not to settle down in his
room for the night. Similarly, Pip’s snobbery is obvious when he, on visiting his home
town, does not settle down on the smithy with Joe, rather takes a room at an inn.
He always feels that if he took shelter at the forge, his newly developed
gentlemanliness would be hurt. Thus, Pip betrays his childhood friend Joe and
Biddy and his original morality is dammed for the time being. He terms Joe as
stupid and common. He has grown into a false man with coming in contact with
money and fortune.

Pip holds on to the dream of having Estella until he finds out that she is marrying
Drummle. At this moment all of his hopes for Estella are rushed. His self-deception
about gentleman and his hope of getting Estella lead to another Pip. He now begins
to realize what a horrible man he has become, and that he has shunned all who
really care for him. His utterance: “I wish I had never left the forge” shows his
moral regeneration.

Pip also begins to spend too much money and goes into debt even with his secret
benefactor giving him money. Through the novelist’s dramatic techniques of
suspense, humor, dialogue and denouement the knots of the incidents are opened
and Pip recognizes his real benefactor- Magwitch a criminal and convict and all his
dreams are shattered. He cannot believe a criminal had been supplying him with
money all this time.

His moral regeneration starts in this stage. The clouds which covered his original
goodness pass away and once again he enables to see man as man recognizing the
proper worth of basic humanity. Pip tries to repair all his relationships with people
he mistreated and loved. Pip finds Herbert a good job even if it means Pip using
some of his own money. Pip also tries to help Magwitch escape. Although Magwitch
does not escape, Pip makes Magwitch happy before he dies telling him that he has a
daughter and that he is in love with her. Pip also helps Miss Havisham discover the
error of her ways. She is happy Pip has shown her this and would like to give Pip
some money to help him with his debts. Pip does not take the offer and knows that

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he himself must work hard to pay off his debts. Pip then goes to his home in the
marshes. Joe pays off all his debts and their relationship is now repaired. Pip also
meets Little Pip, the symbol of rebirth. Pip fixed all his problems and was never
again faced with them because he decided to live with the people he loved, Joe and
Biddy, his family.

Pip’s behavior as a gentleman has caused him to hurt the people who care about him
most. Once he has learned these lessons and matures into the man.

Influence of Biddy and Estella on Pip in 'Great

Expectations'

In Dickens’s Great Expectations, we find throughout the novel the hero, Pip, learns
through sufferings. He develops and gets maturity through society, through the
development of his selfhood, and his realization of which people actually cares
about him. Pip would not have to worry about any of these issues if it were not for
Estella’s influence in his life. the influence of Biddy is also not less important from
moral point of view.

At the beginning we see him as a naive but after meeting with Estella, Pip has
completely changed. It is the turning point of his life when he first meets with her.
So, Estella displays an enormous power over his thinking unlike Biddy. But the
influence of Biddy is more admirable than Estella. Biddy is always pleasing to him
whereas, Estella is always tormenting to him. After, the meeting with Estella Pip
becomes ambitious, whereas from Biddy he gets practical preparation for his
future life. So, it is seen that the influence of Biddy and Estella on Pip is very far-
reaching which will be clearer in the later discussion. There are marked gaps in
their 1st meeting, their family bond and their treatment with Pip. When Pip first
meets with Biddy, she is presented as Mr. Wopsele’s great-aunt’s grand daughter,
and helps her grandmother run the evening school. An orphan girl live Pip, she is
rather bedraggled in appearance in early day, her hair always wanting brushing and

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her shoes mending. However, Biddy’s appearance and manner improve as she grows
up. When Mrs. Joe is assaulted, Biddy moves into Joe’s household as her attendant.
In this novel, she also shares the quality of compassion, simplicity, self respect etc.
This dignified caring attitude of Biddy is contrasted with the self-seeking,
selfishness of Estella who wishes to use or flatter Pip for her own ends.

Estella is the daughter of Magwitch, a convict, and Molly, a servant for Jaggers.
Although her roots are extremely common, she is raised in nobility because M.
Havisam adopts her. She is the tool of M. Havisam to destruct the male hosts.
When Pip first meets her he immediately overwhelmed noticing her pretty grown
hair and her manner, though she is in fact about the same age he is. She despises
the coarse ways of the common laboring boy Pip, but ironically Pip falls in love with
her. Before meeting with her, Pip never realizes that anything could be wrong, or
that there could be anything might need to change. After the meeting, Pip now
begins to question everything in life. She sets a struggle between Pip’s personal
ambition and his discontent, which Biddy teaches Pip the error of his ways and
shows that being common is not so bad.

Biddy is gentle, sympathetic, and kind-hearted to Pip. She is much more realistic
and self-controlled in her emotions than he is and can see his faults. When on a
Sunday afternoon walk on the marshes he tells Biddy that he wants to be
gentleman and why she gives him sensible advice. She tells him that Estella is not
worthy of his love and he should not live his life to please her. She also says that
indifference can work more than an active nature or feigned love for strategic
purposes. In this way, she tries her best to instill realism in Pip. On the other hand,
Stella’s beauty leads him to fall indirectly into Miss Havisham’s trap and he tries to
change himself to have a chance with Stella. In Pip’s youth the feelings of guilt and
shame continue in his way to become a gentleman to win Estella and achieve his
ambition, which leads him to enhance embarrassment for Pip. He gradually more
aware and ashamed of Joe’s limitations, especially his illiteracy and his lack of
social ease who is actually the best sole model he has.

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Pip does not want to be seen around the forge, especially for Estella. He feels
depressing particularly by the thought that Estella might see him there. Later,
when Pip receives his great expiations, he automatically assumes that the
expectations come from M.H. and Estella is expected in these expectations. Pip
thinks that he has to become a gentleman for Estella. Because of this, he begins to
look down upon Joe when Joe meets with him in London. He terms Joe as stupid and
common. So, we see that because of Estella’s influence, he begins to become what
he thinks a gentleman should be. But his decision proves wrong, as he starts to
grow within a false modesty, gentility etc. He has become so blind by the false
inspiration of M.H that he even does not see the hollowness behind it. She inspires
him to love Estella. He can do nothing but follow M.H’s orders as he begins to
believe that after obeying her, he will get Estella.

Pip holds on to the dream of having Estella until he finds out that she is marrying
Drummle. At this moment all of his hopes for Estella are rushed. His self-deception
about gentleman and his hope of getting Estella lead to another Pip. He now begins
to realize what a horrible man he has become, and that he has shunned all who
really care for him. His utterance: “I wish I had never left the forge” shows his
moral regeneration.

At an early stage of life, when Pip is raw and unfeeling enough, he could tell Biddy
that he loved her if his inspirations had not stood in the way. Now at this middle
age of his life, purged by his various experiences and trials, he grows into an
awareness of Biddy’s true nature. At the end of the novel, he hopes to go his old
home on the marches, to marry Biddy and perhaps to return to work in the forge
with Joe. Later when he finally come his village he is struck seeing that she is
married with Joe. Then he realizes his own faults, that she too is a person in her
own right, with her own desires and feelings. In this way, Biddy helps to reveal Pip’s
growing snobbery.

At the end of the novel, we see Estella and Pip, meet at the old Satis-House when
they are both very changed from their past. Pip is over Estella, out of money, and
has full respect for Joe and Biddy. Estella too has learned from her sufferings and
has become a wiser person, able to understand Pip.

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