being a good person is more important than having wealth.  Pip is concerned more about being a gentleman than being a good person.  Pip tells Biddy that he has “particular reasons for wanting to be a gentleman” (ch 7, p. 89).  He wants to marry Estella.  Yet as a gentleman, all he seems to do is run up bills and run around in London with his new friends.  Biddy is the calm, patient one.  She is the good person.

Good deeds come back to benefit you.  Some people call this karma.  It’s like a boomerang.  When Pip helps Magwitch, he benefits from it because Magwitch gives him all his money to make him a gentleman.  If Pip had not helped the poor convict by bringing food and a file, he would never have had his expectations.

“They shall be yourn, dear boy, if money can buy 'em. Not that a gentleman like you, so well set up as you, can't win 'em off of his own game; but money shall back you!” (ch 39, p. 217)

Every bit of money Magwitch earned went to Pip, because Magwitch was so grateful for what Pip did for him.

Just as good deeds benefit you, bad deeds also come back to you.  Magwitch eventually got back at Compeyson, in a way.  Estella got back at Miss Havisham.  Miss Havisham treated her badly, turning her into a cold, emotionless wreck.  Then she wondered why Estella did not have any affection for her.

"[Look] at her, so hard and thankless, on the hearth where she was reared! …where I have lavished years of tenderness upon her!” (ch 38, p. 206)

Estella tells Miss Havisham that she is what Miss Havisham made her.  She is cold because Miss Havisham made her cold.

Pip comes to realize that family is the most important thing in life, but he realizes it too late.  He turns his back on his home, mostly Joe, because he feels that he is better than Joe.  He only realizes later what he was missing.

Joe became a little less easy with me. In my weakness and entire dependence on him, the dear fellow had fallen into the old tone, and called me by the old names … that now were music in my ears. (ch 57, p. 315)

Now that they are both adults, and Pip has gained and lost his fortune, he realizes that he had the best wealth of all in a kind family like Joe and Biddy.

Finally, when one is really in love, class does not matter.  Pip is concerned with making himself a gentleman so he can marry Estella.  It was the wrong goal and for the wrong reason.  Estella could never love him, regardless of his class.  She cared about him, at the end, even though he was poor—but she still could not love him.

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 learns about his great expectations from Mr. Jagger, Pip naturally assumes that it is Miss Havisham who is his benefactor. He guesses that she wants to turn him into a gentleman, then have him marry Estella, and finally leave him all her money, so that he can enjoy a life of ease and luxury with a beautiful wife. In the process of becoming a "gentleman" he experiences some disillusionments, but there are incidental to the main expectation that he is going to be married to Estella and inherit a fortune. Neither Miss Havisham nor her lawyer Mr. Jagger say anything to discourage him. Jaggers has to keep silent for professional reasons. Miss Havisham's motives are harder to understand. She knows what Pip expects of her and doesn't tell him the truth. But he is in for a terrible shock when Magwitch, his real benefactor, shows up on a cold, rainy night. Dickens must have planned that scene from the time he began writing the novel. Pip's whole life and perspective are changed by the fact that his social status was dependent on one person rather than another.

One lesson is that money does not buy happiness.  Pip assumes that he is miserable because he is poor, and Estella will care for him once he is rich.  Neither is true.  Money does not make Pip happy, it only confuses him.  Everyone wants him to become a gentleman, but he learns that gentlemen are not necessarily happy, and it is not necessarily right for him.

Another lesson is that love is painful.  Most of the cases of romantic love are passionate and one-sided.  All of the passionate loves in this book turn out badly.  It is almost as if Dickens is saying to us that love is a myth.  Find someone you are comfortable with, and you'll be happy.  Chase someone you're passionate for, and you'll be miserable.

What a broad question! I guess your answer to this is obviously going to depend on what you personally "took" from the novel, but for me my two lessons are based around the nature of a true "gentleman" and secondly the danger of trying to manipulate and interfere with somebody else's life.

One of the central themes of the novel is based on the difference between gentlemen and gentle men. The difference is key. We have characters such as Compeyson who are clearly gentlemen and yet are shown to be lacking in any true moral fibre - just because they know how to dress and act in high society does not make one a gentleman, Dickens seems to be arguing. On the other hand, we have a character such as Joe, who laughably does definitely not fit into the character of "gentlemen" - just take his first visit to Pip in London - and yet is imbued with such dignity and gentleness as to clearly denote him of being of higher moral calibre than characters such as Compeyson, and even of Pip himself. Money and social understanding are not the only exclusive ingredients to produce gentlemen - the message is clear.

Secondly, the novel shows the danger of interfering in somebody elses life and trying to force another person into the shape of your choosing. Whilst this is exhibited in the relationship between Magwitch and his desire to "make" Pip into a Gentlemen, it is most clearly exemplified in Miss Havisham's creation of Estella as a heart breaker so she can vicariously have her revenge on Compeyson and, indeed, on all males, because of her being jilted. Miss Havisham succeeds so well that Estella is unable to love anyone - not even her maker. Miss Havisham's grief at this discovery and her final realisation of the magnitude of her crime in this regard clearly indicates the dangers of trying to make others into things we want them to be.

Another very important lesson that the reader can learn from having read Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is the lesson that Mr. Jaggers dictates to Pip on more than one occasion: 

Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence.  There's no better rule.

Pip has been deceived by the stellar appearance of Estella and has fallen in love with what he has perceived to be a young woman of breeding and class.  He further deludes himself into believing that Estella will love him.  Likewise, he is impressed with Miss Havisham because of her wealth, and he deceptively believes that it is she who is his benefactor.  And, because Estella has called him "common," Pip believes himself inferior to her just as he considers Joe to be inferior and common.  Because Pip has judged by appearances, he accuses himself in Book the Second of being a self-swindler as he avoids Joe by staying at the Blue Boar upon his return to the marsh:

All other swindlers upon earth are nothing to the self-swindlers, and with such pretenses did I cheat myself.

Still another lesson the reader can attain from Dickens's classic is the meaning of real love and friendship.  This lesson is best demonstrated in the character of Joe.  From the beginning of the novel, Joe displays a golden heart, open for a poor, neglected orphan.  He shelters Pip from the wrath of his sister, he instructs Pip in moral values, he praises the boy when he learns his school lessons, he never derogates Pip.  Always he loves him generously, even when Pip is embarrassed to be in his company.  For, then, Joe tells Pip that he will not visit him in London since he "belongs on the forge."  When Pip avoids seeing Joe, the man yet loves him, coming to treat his burns from the fire that have consumed Miss Havisham's decaying dress.  Joe comforts Pip with the tender words that he has always used, "Ever the best of friends, Pip, old chap.  Ever the best of friends."

What better example of loving friendship is there than in the character of Joe Gargery?

I suppose the first lesson is that money or status can really change a person and that we should not let it do that.  In the book, Pip gets money and status and that really makes him a very different person.

The second lesson I would take from the book is that we should be more grateful to those who help us.  Pip gets help from Magwitch and from Joe but he disdains both of them for a long time.  It is only at the end of the book that he comes around.  To me, the fact that he treated the two of them the way he did is pretty disgraceful.

The moral theme of “Great Expectations” is very basic.  It is an old moral theme that has been around as long as man has walked on this earth.  Pip, and the reader, learns that affection, loyalty, and conscience are more important than social advancement, wealth, and class. Charles Dickens creates this theme and the novel is based on Pip learning this very lesson.  Pip spends the novel exploring ideas of ambition and self-improvement. Pip is an idealist and if he can think it up, and if it is better than what he has, he wants it. When he first sees Satis House, he decides he wants to be a wealthy gentleman; when he thinks of his immorality, he tries to be better; when he realizes that he cannot read, he longs to learn how. Pip's desire for self-improvement creates “great expectations” about his future.

The lesson of Great Expectations is that kindness is the highest virtue. People show they are true ladies or gentlemen to the extent they exhibit kindness and mercy.

Joe and Biddy are the great example of this, especially Joe. He is a humble village blacksmith, but he is unwavering in his kindness and loyalty to Pip. Joe treats him with gentleness and respect when he is a child, a contrast to the other adults around him. Later, Pip experiences a period of snobbery when he is raised in social status and wealth to live as a gentleman. He becomes ashamed of Joe for his working-class ways and tries to avoid him. Nevertheless, Joe never gives up on Pip and is there for him in his hour of need. As Pip matures, he becomes deeply ashamed of his former snobbery and develops a new awareness that value resides in a person's heart and character, not their wealth or outward appearance.

Estella and Miss Havisham are the flip-side of this moral equation. In her pain and grief, Miss Havisham tries to get revenge on men by raising Estella to be snobbish, heartless, and unkind. Later, Miss Havisham is deeply grieved that Estella can't love her, especially when Estella explains that this is because Miss Havisham has raised her to be cold and unloving. What goes around comes around, be it Joe's kindness and generosity or Miss Havisham's warped, pained soul which leaves her unloved by the person she cares about most in the world.

There are many possible moral lessons that you can take away from this book, but the main push is centered around the fact that money can't bring you happiness.  The only thing that can truly bring you happiness is loving relationships with your family and friends.  Think of Pip's experiences as a whole, and how after his inheritance, he was always miserable because he felt guilty for alienating Biddy and Joe.  He got into debt quickly, felt constantly pressured because of it, and had no purpose or direction in life.

It was only after his money was no longer that he was able to reconcile himself to his family and find a profession that gave him happiness and purpose.  With the money, he felt no drive to succeed of his own merit, and was embarrassed by those in his life that weren't up to his "station".  Dickens seems to make the point that kindness (as in kindness to Magwitch), family and friends, and personal achievement are the sources of happiness in this world, and how money just makes people pretentious, vain and often immoral.

To evaluate the novel as a whole, look at things like the theme or moral, the writing style, the characterization, and its success through the years.  I provided some links below that might be helpful to you as you do this.  I hope that these thoughts helpd; good luck!

Some concepts worth considering are these:

Drive, ambition, motivation: Pip is willing to lose his whole family to become more than he was. Likewise, Miss Havisham tries to get Estella to despise all men like she does and ends up destroying the person Estella could have been.

Class structure: Pip feels so much better than his family once he moves to London. He loses his friendship to Joe for a time because of this. Miss Havisham significantly makes class structure seem important to Pip.

Guilt and innocence: Miss Havisham feels significant guilt about what she does to Estella, but only just before she dies: "What have I done?" she confesses.

Truth and lies: The secrets that are kept from individuals about their families are too significant to miss in this piece. Read the attached piece of enotes site for more ideas.