daughter of a gypsy and a convict. A more humorous variety of irony comes in the shape of Matthew Pocket, who writes books advising parents on how to raise their children but has no time for his own kids.

I will give you two examples of both irony and humor, in chapters 1 and chapter 2.

Pip’s encounter with the convict in chapter 1 is full of irony and humor.  All of the irony does not become apparent until later, when we find out the full effect of this terrifying event.  The event that defines Pip’s childhood also defines his adult life, since Magwitch sends him the money for his “great expectations.”  Although Pip is frightened, the reader’s reaction is more humor.

Another example of both humor and irony is Tickler in chapter 2, the name for Mrs. Joe’s cane. 

Tickler was a wax-ended piece of cane, worn smooth by collision with my tickled frame. (ch 2)

The name Tickler is very ironic, and some might find it funny (although it is bitter humor) that the cane would be named Tickler.

The episode in which Pip attends the production of Hamlet with the foolishly deluded Mr. Wopsle as Hamlet is humorous. The entire description of Pip's attendance at this ridiculous performance is hilarious. Chapter XXXI opens with this satiric observation,

ON OUR ARRIVAL in Denmark, we found the king and queen of that country elevated in two arm-chairs on a kitchen-table, holding a Court.

Pip chronicles Wopsle's pathetic performance as he is unprepared and completely discombobulated:

The royal phantom also carried a ghostly manuscript round its truncheon, to which it had the appearance of occasionally referring, and that, too, with an air of anxiety and a tendency to lose the place of reference which were suggestive of a state of mortality.

The audience become raucous and hurls vegetables at the farcical performance of the ridiculously pretentious "Mr. Waldengarver" that Pip even has to laugh at "from ear to ear." After the play, Pip tries to leave without encountering Wopsle, but is halted by a man "heavy of eyebrow" and ends up having dinner with the actor who is so unrealistic that he feels his performance adequate. 

There is humour in even in some of the  darkest moments of the novel. I have a fondness for Wemmick and his father, but I particularly enjoyed Pip fainting with fear as the soldiers arrive at the door. He believes they are to take him for assisting the convict, when of course they are innocent to his involvement. There is much humour - and tragedy- in such miscommunication and presumption.

Charles Dickens has probably created more memorable characters than any other author in literary history.  Who can forget Scrooge, Madame DeFarge, Fagin, Tulkinghorn, Gradgrind, Bounderby, and David Copperfield, among others?  Of course, Great Expectations contains many memorable characters and caricatures.

CHARACTERS

Miss Havisham -As the eccentric aristocrat who seeks revenge upon the entire male sex by training her protege Estella to be cruel and heartless, Miss Havisham knows "nothing of the days of the week nor the months of the year" and exists in a decaying world with decaying memories.

Mr. Jaggers - A character modeled after a particularly unscrupulous lawyer with whom Dickens was acquainted, Mr. Jaggers operates just on the line of the law.  His opinion of boys is that they are "a bad lot," and he defends people mostly for the money.  He is overbearing and supercilious, even somewhat sadistic as he enjoys the interplay of Drummle with the other young men, Startop and Pip.  Washing his hands frequently like Pontius Pilate, Mr. Jaggers speaks curtly, revealing nothing:  "Take nothing on appearances; take everything on evidence." 

Magwitch - The man in coarse grey on the marshes, Magwitch is the convict who has grown up in the streets of London, living in a social prison of a sort.  Trapped by his poverty, Magwitch is taken in by the deceptive Arthur Havisham and the devious Compeyson, who exploits Abel Magwitch.  When he and Compeyson are put on trial, Magwitch is given a heavier sentence because he is ragged and Compeyson is dressed as a gentleman, demonstrating the unfair practices of the criminal justice system against which Dickens railed.

Estella -  With a name meaning "star," Estella is a manufactured character, a girl from the lower classes who is raised as a lady to be cruel and wreak Miss Havisham's revenge upon the male gender.  She is heartless and incapable of feeling even for Pip and Miss Havisham.  Her identity as the daughter of Magwitch and Molly, another ex-convict is later discovered by Pip. 

Pip - As the main character of the novel, Pip grows from a boy, who becomes embarrassed that he is "coarse," to a young man with pretensions, and, finally, to a man who realizes that the values he pursues are false.  So, Pip returns to the forge from London where he has been a gentleman.  There at the forge, Pip finds the meaningful love of Joe Gargery, a love he has not appreciated until now.  

CARICATURES

Uncle Pumblechook - A ridiculous corn chandler who covets what Dickens considered a frivolous aristocracy and wishes to attain their status, Pumblechook puts on airs at the house of Joe and wherever he goes.  He barely feeds Pip who stays with him prior to going to Miss Havisham's, but boasts at the Boar's Inn of being Pip's menton after Pip becomes a gentleman.

Mr. Wopsle - Another exaggerated character, Mr. Wopsle's mother hold a farcical school where Biddy teaches Pip.  He goes to London to act, but is a ludicrous figure in the drams in which he acts.

Mrs. Sarah Pocket - "A dry, brown corrugated old woman with a face that may have been made out of walnut shells," she envies the aristocracy and spends her days reading about titles and coats of arms while her children tumble about her in mayhem.  Mrs. Pocket is a toady who has been with Miss Havisham for years, just waiting for her to die in order to receive an inheritance meant for her husband, Matthew Pocket.