What is the exposition of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens?

As part of the plot in a work of literature, the exposition gives readers information about characters, setting, and initial conflicts.  In the early chapters of Great Expectations, Charles Dickens introduces readers to his protagonist, Pip (who is a young child at the time), and the people who influence his life. 

From the moment we meet Pip in the graveyard, we understand that he is an extremely sensitive child who is clearly upset by being alone and in the presence of his deceased, buried parents and siblings.  Already shivering and about to cry, Pip is accosted by a convict, who demands that Pip return the following day with food and a file and that he not tell anyone of this encounter.  Traumatized, Pip returns home to his abusive sister, who is raising him "by hand," and her husband Joe. 

As Dickens is a master of character development, the exposition he provides in first few chapters of the novel (with the focus on Pip's fear of the convict and fear of his sister) establishes Pip as an overly-sensitive child who obsesses over things that are seemingly beyond his control.  This information, though it may seem to accompany the isolated incident with the convict, is essential to readers' understanding of Pip's character--and will also help readers understand Pip's reactions to his interactions with Miss Havisham, Estella, Magwitch, Herbert, Biddy, and Joe, among others.  Thus, Dickens is able to lay the groundwork for his bildungsroman--with the focus on his protagonist, Pip, from page one of the novel. 

Discuss the title of the novel Great Expectations.

I like to discuss the title of the novel by comparing it to another Dickens work, David Copperfield.

Every character in the novel has great expectations, but the title has a deeper meaning.  When Dickens wrote the book, he was a very different person than when he wrote David Copperfield and Oliver Twist.  In those stories, love is bright and blooming with possibility.  In Great Expectations, a darkness has settled in.  Dickens had been deeply disappointed by love, and by life.

Both Great Expectations and David Copperfield are considered Dickens’s autobiographies, but they were written at very different points of his career.  When he wrote David Copperfield, Dickens was a promising young author very much in love and with the world before him.  The book demonstrates that optimism, with the character of Dora and David, but recognizes Dickens’s settling for comfort instead of passion because Dora dies and David ends up with Agnes. 

The passion of young love is represented by Estella, whom Pip desperately loves to the point of obsession.  From a young age, Miss Havisham manipulates him into loving her.

Miss Havisham watched us all the time, directed my attention to Estella's beauty, and made me notice it the more by trying her jewels on Estella's breast and hair. (ch 9, enotes pdf p. 62)

Unfortunately, Dickens’s Agnes did not work out.  Dickens married Catherine Hogart and they had many children together, but he wasn’t happy with her.  Just as Miss Havisham was disappointed by love, the promise of young love turned to decay for Dickens.

The most prominent object was a long table with a tablecloth spread on it, as if a feast had been in preparation when the house and the clocks all stopped together. An épergne or centre-piece of some kind was in the middle of this cloth; it was so heavily overhung with cobwebs that its form was quite undistinguishable; and, as I looked along the yellow expanse out of which I remember its seeming to grow, like a black fungus…. (Ch 9, p. 59)

Just as Dickens’s great expectations for love and life not realized, those of Pip, Estella and Miss Havisham crumble and decay.  Yet even near the end of his life, Dickens maintained some optimism.  Herbert Pocket and Wemmick both find love, but it is the comfortable love and not the passionate, as is Joe and Biddy’s love.  Estella, Pip, and Miss Havisham, the passionate ones, all suffer.  Similarly, Magwitch, who also had great expectations, lives only just to see them realized before he too is destroyed.

Read more about David Copperfield here: http://www.enotes.com/david-copperfield/summary

You can learn something of the significance of the title by understanding Dickens’ own upbringing. Refer to the biographical section of e notes. Go to the Study Guide section and skip to the biography.

Some of Pip’s experiences mirror those of Dickens. Dickens resented the life he had working in a factory (especially as he had had designs on being an actor) and he knew he deserved something better. Pip when he was young and working at the forge, dreamed of his fortune and how it would be to be a ‘gentleman.’

In the novel itself, Pip’s “expectations” go in stages. First he fantasizes about how it would be to be a gentleman. Little does he know that a good deed will earn him an inheritance that will set him on his way to realizing his dream.

Unfortunately for Pip, in the second instance he actually abandons his ‘real’ friends in the pursuit of this life and the new set of expectations it brings with it.

Then there’s London and all the expectations that that creates. Even the other characters consistently try to match their own expectations. Miss Havisham, bent on avenging her damaged honor, raises Estella for the specific purpose of making men feel her own pain. Her expectations can never truly be met. Magwitch (Pip’s benefactor) is intent on making Pip ‘great’. Ironically, Pip imagines how life would have been back at the forge.

The readers’ expectations change as the plot twists thereby drawing everyone in to the conflict between expectations and the realization that each step in the process to attaining that which you strive towards only creates its own new set of expectations.

The title of Dickens's classic, Great Expectations, is certainly one that is pregnant with meaning. While it can denote grand hopes and desires, it can also be an exclamation as in the expression "Great Caesar's ghost!"  As it is spoken by the cynical Mr. Jaggers, the latter denotation as of "Good grief!" may have been his intent when he uttered the two words since, unlike Pip, he is aware of the source of Pip's newfound wealth.  Indeed, the double entendre is present in the utterance of these words as an allusion to their source:  There are grand hopes from a convicted convict, hopes that seem rather farfetched and worthy of exclamation, indeed.

For Pip, his aspirations to become a gentleman are many and beyond the reach of the dreams created in his little room after his first visit at Satis House. His grandiose plans to become successful and to marry Estella, for instance fall to chance.  At the end of Chapter IX, Pip reflects upon the role of destiny since, at times, his expectations become what Sir Phillip Sidney in his Astrophil and Stella sonnets refers to as 

. . . that friendly foe,

Great Expectations . . .

It is this friendly foe that causes Pip to write,

Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.

Thus, his guilt born in the graveyard on the marshes forms the chains that bind Pip as much to his illusionary hopes--"great expectations" held by himself and by others such as Magwitch and Joe and Pumblechook--as to his rejection and prodigal return to Joe at the narrative's end--"Great Expectations!" What ridiculous happenings!

What is the plot of Great Expectations?

The story of Great Expectations follows Pip, a lower-class orphan raised by his abusive sister and her kindhearted blacksmith husband, Joe. The novel opens with a significant episode in Pip's life: he brings food and a file to an escaped convict he encounters in a graveyard, terrified the man will kill him if he does not.

As a boy, Pip is also introduced to Miss Havisham, a wealthy spinster jilted at the altar in her youth, and Estella, her lovely ward. Estella is cold and snobby, but Pip falls madly in love with her. However, due to his lowly status, Pip has little hope of ever winning her hand.

Years later, Pip gains a stroke of luck when he learns that he has a mysterious benefactor. Though originally intended to become Joe's apprentice, he decides instead to go to London to become a gentleman. He believes his benefactor is Miss Havisham and that her intention is to make him good enough to marry Estella. Unfortunately, Pip becomes snobby toward his low-born loved ones, and he carelessly runs up debts while living with his new friend Herbert Pocket.

In time, Pip reencounters the escaped convict from his childhood. He learns that the man's name is Abel Magwitch and that Magwitch is his benefactor. After gaining a fortune in Australia, Magwitch wanted to help Pip rise in life because the boy was so kind to him. He is on the run from the authorities and his former accomplice, Compeyson (who Pip learns is the man who jilted Miss Havisham long ago). Meanwhile, Estella marries the brutish Bentley Drummle to spite her other suitors and Miss Havisham, whom she resents for warping her into a cold, manipulative person with "no heart."

Pip and Herbert arrange for Magwitch's escape, but the ex-convict is caught by the authorities and sentenced to death. Magwitch is at peace with death, but the end of his life also marks the end of Pip's fortune. Humbled, Pip reconciles with Joe and his former friends, then learns about the mercantile business with Herbert. The story ends years later with Pip reencountering Estella, now widowed and humbled herself. It is implied that the two may finally be able to marry, just as Pip always wanted, though not in the circumstances he expected.

Can you provide a brief summary of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens?

Great Expectations is a tale of a boy's maturation into a man as he moves from a country boy to being a gentleman.

STAGE I

In the beginning, a strange incident occurs near the graves of Pip's parents: a coarse man in grey takes hold of Pip and shakes him upside down to find whatever is in his pockets. Shivering, he orders Pip to bring him food the next day and a file so he can remove the chain on his leg. The following day Pip brings food and drink that he has stolen from the cupboard; the man eats and drinks, then he makes a strange clicking sound in his throat as he looks oddly at Pip. Shortly thereafter, the convict is recaptured, and Pip leaves his home on the marsh for the first time because his uncle Pumblechook takes him to play with the beautiful young Estella at the wealthy Miss Havisham's home, Satis House. There he is quickly made to feel inferior as Estella calls him "coarse" and "common." Hurt and ashamed, Pip returns home to view his beloved Joe in a diminished light because now he yearns to become a gentleman. But, after some time, one dark night the burly man that Pip encountered at Satis House appears to inform Pip that he has "great expectations." Pip now has a benefactor who will finance his education, so he says good-bye to Joe and his sister and travels to London.

STAGE II

In London Pip meets his roommate, Herbert Pocket, the son of his tutor, Matthew Pocket. Pip and Herbert become fast friends, but they soon get into financial trouble. Even so, Pip becomes haughty and when the good and kind Joe visits, Pip is embarrassed by Joe's backward ways. So, Joe leaves a note for Pip and departs; after reading it, Pip feels guilty, but he does not contact Joe or visit his home on the marshes. Instead, he continues to try to impress Estella who is still cruel to him. Estella goes to France to study; when she returns she is even colder, and Pip learns that Estella has not been groomed for him, but only to be cruel to all men. Sadly, Estella is also cruel to Miss Havisham, whose heart is broken a second time. "But to be proud and hard to me!" she tells her ward in disbelief after she has doted upon Estella for years. 

One night a dangerous-looking man appears at Pip's lodging and reveals that he is the convict Provis (really Magwitch), and it is he who has been financing Pip's evolution to a gentleman. Having believed that Miss Havisham has been his benefactor all this time, Pip is appalled to know he has been spending a criminal's money, and vows to take no more.

STAGE III

In this stage Pip begins his moral regeneration after having lost sight of his values in the second stage. He returns to Satis House and asks Miss Havisham for some money in order to put Herbert in business; while there, he learns that Estella will marry the brutal Bentley Drummel. Pip begs her not to, but she will not listen. So, Pip departs but returns to check on Miss Havisham, who has moved too close to the fire, causing her decaying dress to be consumed in flames. Pip rescues her, but she dies and he is badly burned himself. While he is delirious with fever, Joe sits beside Pip's bed speaking to him lovingly about old times. 

Some time later, Magwitch tells Pip his life story, and Pip begins to feel pity for the ophaned boy who had to survive by stealing and was exploited by Compeyson; so, he and Herbert devise a plan to get Magwitch out of the country. On the day they rent the rowboat, Compeyson, who was a second convict that night on the marsh, is in another boat and points Magwitch out to the police. In the ensuing struggle, Magwitch is hurt and never recovers, but Pip is able to tell him of his daughter, who is, ironically, Estella. 
Since the money Magwitch possessed is that of a convict, it is confiscated by the British crown, so Pip returns for a time to the forge where Joe and Biddy have married. Like the prodigal son, Pip begs forgiveness of his true friend Joe, who merely replies, "Ever the best of friends, Pip." Later, Pip is offered a job with Herbert and returns to London; back on the marsh Biddy gives birth to a boy that she and Joe christen Pip. Some years later, Pip and the tragic Estella meet and reconcile.

What are your expectations of the novel Great Expectations by Charles Dickens?

I would expect a book with this title to be about someone who expects great things.  I would expect an ambitious, and possibly greedy, main character.  Since life is full of disappointments, I would expect that this character does not get straight to his great expectations, but rather stumbles some along the way.

Great Expectations is the story of one young man's great expectations.  He expects to be a gentleman, to be wealthy and educated, and to be married to the woman of his dreams.  You can expect many twists and turns in the plot.  Pip has no reason to expect any of this from his life (he is an orphan living with his sister and brother-in-law) in relative poverty.  He is rescued by a benefactor who sends him to school, etc.

Discuss the theme of Great Expectations.

The importance of reality as opposed to mere appearance is arguably the most significant theme in Great Expectations. Most of the characters on display are not quite what they seem, their true characters being radically at odds with their appearances. For instance, when we first encounter Abel Magwitch—along with Pip—we immediately take him for a violent, psychopathic convict—a dangerous, scary man who looks like he could do some serious harm. In actual fact, however, it turns out that old Abel has a real heart of gold, as can be seen in his generous patronage of Pip.

Then there’s Estella, who devotes herself to the shallow world of high society, with its obsession with how people act, dress, and behave. Yet despite her superior airs and graces, Estella is in fact the daughter of two criminals, one of whom, as we will discover in due course, is none other than Abel Magwitch. Once we are apprised of the particulars of Estella’s lowly background we gain a much more rounded portrait of her than the cruel, snobby young lady who greeted young Pip with such cold contempt when he used to come round to Satis House to play.

But no discussion of the theme of reality’s superiority over appearance would be complete without mentioning the story’s protagonist, Pip. He’s spent most of his life trying to be someone he isn’t. He wants to escape from the humble blacksmith’s cottage on the bleak Romney Marshes and head off to London to establish himself as a gentleman.

In due course, and thanks to Magwitch’s largesse, that’s precisely what he does. But in the process he becomes separated from his true self, a humble, decent young man possessed of deep love and loyalty for the people he cares about. Pip comes to realize that his single-minded obsession with becoming a gentleman turned him into a crashing snob towards Joe, the person who means more to him than anyone else in the world. And he feels truly ashamed of himself for it.

But thankfully he eventually comes to his senses and realizes that what he really is, deep down inside him, cannot be captured by any amount of wealth, fine clothing, or high social status.

How does Dickens explore the theme of "expectations" in Great Expectations?

The idea of "expectations" relates to Dickens's overarching theme in this and many other of his works:  the haves vs. the have-nots and the social classes they inhabit.  Pip spends much of the novel trying to overcome his poor childhood and the scorn with which society views him.  He wants to be what Englishmen at that time called a "gentleman", a term that basically meant you inherited some money, went to the best schools, and owned property.  As Pip struggles to attain his dreams of success and love, Dickens portrays society's elite as being those who have simply inherited wealth, but have little or nothing else to offer, while he gives his characters who have worked hard a certain wisdom and character.  The underlying premise is that in stark contrast to English values and beliefs, in fact social status has nothing to do with a person's value or character, a lesson Pip finally learns as he discovers the unexpected nobility of Magwitch's character.