Great Expectations

Pip goes to Cairo and Estella marries someone else. There are two endings of the book. Charles Dickens was advised by a friend to make the ending a little happier, so he revised it. However, in...

The title of Charles Dickens's second-to-last work in which he writes with what critics term "extravagant didacticism" and stylistic decorations that "exceed all bounds" indicates the grand...

The relationship between Pip and Estella in Great Expectations is incredibly complex and goes through many different stages. When they first meet as children, Estella treats Pip with scorn,...

The main themes in Charles Dickens's popular 1861 novel Great Expectations are class differences, crime and injustice, and dreams and aspirations. Class differences One of the main themes in the...

When Pip first meets Magwitch in the marshes as a young boy, he is terrified at the sight of a man with a leg iron. The convict threatens Pip and demands that he bring him a file and food.Pip is...

Joe is the husband of Pip's much older sister. He is a blacksmith, a humble occupation, somewhat like being a car mechanic today. When Pip's parents die it is the kind-hearted Joe, rather than...

Pip’s expectations are broken down into a cycle of how he experiences the world. Stage One: Childhood and the Rise to Riches Pip has almost no expectations when the book opens. He agrees to help...

"I little thought," said Estella, "that I should take leave of you in taking leave of this spot. I am very glad to do so." "Glad to part again, Estella? To me, parting is a painful thing. To me,...

Miss Havisham is an eccentric old lady who is always dressed in her wedding dress. She is described as being "faded" - everything about her is old and decaying. Her hair is white and...

One cannot answer this question without first thinking about Miss Havisham. She was jilted as a young woman and never recovered from the loss; because of her disappointment in love, she has groomed...

Pip lies to Mrs. Joe and Uncle Pumblechook because he does not want to tell them what happens at Miss Havisham’s house. He does not think they will understand. When Pip returns home from Miss...

Pip reaches London in chapter 20 of Great Expectations after much eager anticipation. His departure is a great event—not only for him but also for Joe and Biddy and various members of the...

At the graveyard at the beginning of chapter 1, Pip hears a man telling him to stand still or "I'll cut your throat." A man appears, dressed in "coarse grey" with a "great iron on his leg." Pip...

Out of all the film adaptations of Great Expectations, the 1946 David Lean version tends to receive the most celebration. The film is quite close to the spirit of the original novel, capturing the...

Biddy was a former classmate of Pip's, and she acts as a foil to Estella and is the overlooked potential love of Pip. She represents everything that Pip should seek in a wife but misses out on due...

Pip is a complex character. His parents die when he is young and he is raised by his abusive sister and Joe, who is loving yet simple. Raised in an environment in which his sister often beats him...

In Stage Two, Chapter XXVII, Pip receives a tardy message from Joe, who asks to visit Pip. And, even though the message, written by Biddy, expresses Joe's wish that Pip "excuse it [the visit] for...

"Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens is a bildungsroman that is divided into three important stages of the life of Pip, the main character. As an ingenuous boy, Pip lives with his shrewish...

Estella married Drummle because she knew he was a terrible person and everyone would be perplexed and hurt that she married him. She was more interested in hurting her suitors, because there were...

The context of this quote is that Pip has just come home from his first day at Miss Havisham's house. Mrs. Joe and Mr. Pumblechook want to know all about it. Pip feels incapable of explaining what...

Miss Havisham is an eccentric lady who lives a life of seclusion. She has a reputation for being strange, and few have actually seen the inside of her house. [Everybody] for miles round had heard...

In Chapter Eleven of Great Expectations, Pip is wandering around Miss Havisham's yard when he encounters a "pale young gentleman" with "red eyelids" and "light hair." Rather unexpectedly, this...

The fairy-tale theme in this novel is most apparent in its depiction of a rags-to-riches situation with the character of Pip. Pip is born in humble, rural, working-class surroundings but then...

Pip has many expectations, but I think the main expectation in Dickens' novel, and the one to which the title refers, is that Miss Havisham is going to do something wonderful for him. When he...

The most important moral lessons from the book are: being a good person is more important than wealth; good deeds will come back to benefit you; bad deeds will come back to haunt you; family is the...

To describe a scene is to show it through the five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. Pip's visit to Mr. Wemmick's home is perhaps the most whimsical chapter in the novel and Dickens...

Pip and Miss Havisham have a complicated relationship. She relies on him because she needs someone for Estella to practice on. Although she hates all men, and presumably boys, she does seem to...

Charles Dickens uses humor and pathos both singly and together. Although the novel has many serious themes, Dickens makes the narrative more compelling through the constant interjection of humorous...

The nature of Pip's and Joe Gargery's relationship is one of the protective properties of love. The orphaned Pip comes to live with the older sister, Mrs. Gargery, who abuses him, both physically...

On the one hand, Pip is tempted to show him off to Trabb's boy, yet at the same time he worries that Trabb's boy might reveal some of Pip's humble past and the Avenger would ridicule him...

Estella explicitly says that she has "no heart" in chapter 29: "You must know," said Estella, condescending to me as a brilliant and beautiful woman might, "that I have no heart—if that has...

In Chapter 8 of "Great Expectations" Pip arrives at Satis House after having been brought by Uncle Pumblechook at the request of Miss Havisham. He is there to play with Estella, who haughtily...

1. Another significant event in Pip's journey to maturity, is his detour after having gone with Joe to Miss Havisham to sign the papers of indenture. Afterwards, Pumblechook, "that basest of...

On the face of it, it might seem rather noble of Miss Havisham to take in the offspring of a couple of common criminals. But in actual fact, there are less selfless motives at work. Ever since she...

Biddy is a perfect contrast to both Estella and Pip. She is a patient, sweet, kind, simple girl who is completely happy with her social status. Like Pip, Biddy is an orphan. Unlike Pip, she does...

Miss Havisham commands Pip and Joe to meet with her in order to sign over Pip as an apprentice to Joe. From the time Pip is young, Miss Havisham invites him to her house to watch him play with...

Though some critics have argued that Great Expectations isn’t a pure bildungsroman in that it incorporates a number of other genres, it nonetheless displays the basic qualities one would associate...

I used to think, with a weariness on my spirits, that I should have been happier and better if I had never seen Miss Havisham's face, and had risen to manhood content to be partners with Joe in...

Wemmick is clearly a dual personality. He is "wooden" at the office, having "a post-office mouth" that merely takes in the information, sorting it, and sending out what is necessary. In many...

While short stories usually have a singleness of setting, conflict and climax, in novels there are often multiple settings and conflicts. Such is the case, of course, with Charles Dickens's Great...

Having spent time with Pip in her great-aunt's school, Biddy becomes childhood friends with Pip, especially because both are orphans and are emotionally neglected in their homes. Then, when Mrs....

Mr. Jaggers was a lawyer from London, sent by Pip’s benefactor to inform him and Joe on the offer made and the conditions of the said offer. The lawyer first informed Joe of the offer to relieve...

In one respect, Great Expectations is a social satire that criticizes the social justice of the Victorian Age as well as the fawning admiration of the rising middle class for what he perceived as a...

Pip meets the convict in the marshes in a cemetery. Pip’s meeting of the convict was a fortuitous event, for sure. The day starts fairly ordinarily. Since most of Pip’s family is dead, including...

Much of the humor in Great Expectations comes from Dickens's detailed descriptions of his larger-than-life characters. For instance, Uncle Pumblechook is described as "a large, hard-breathing,...

Miss Havisham wants to gain revenge on the whole of mankind for being jilted on her wedding day all of those years ago. She doesn't deliberately set out to fool Pip as to the true identity of his...

Molly, Mr. Jaggers's housekeeper, is a minor character with a big secret: she is Magwitch's wife and Estella's mother. Molly had been accused of murder, but Jaggers was able to get her acquitted,...

The two convicts Pip encounters are Abel Magwitch and his partner, the evil gentleman conman Compeyson. When Pip first meets them, he is a small boy. He is visiting his family tombstones in the...

"Great Expectations" is significant also as a Bildungsroman, or the "novel of maturation." And it is for this reason, Dickens's novel is often included in school anthologies. The moral lessons...

In Great Expectations, the names employed by Dickens are significant because they help to convey his key ideas. Here are some examples: Pip - the word, Pip, means the seed of a fruit and, just like...