Great Expectations

By Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

A Study Guide

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Type of Work Setting Characters Narration

Plot Summary Themes Conflicts Tone and Humor

Climax Use of Anaphora Other Figures of Speech Study Questions

Essay Topics Biography of Dickens Complete Text on One Page Complete Text: Chapter by Chapter

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Study Guide Compiled by Michael J. Cummings.© 2012

Type of Work
.......Great Expectations is a coming-of-age novel, also known as an apprenticeship novel
or Bildungsroman. Such a novel centers on the lessons a person learns growing from youth to
adulthood. The term Bildungsroman comes from the German words bildung (education, formation)
and roman (novel). Thus, Great Expectations a is novel centering on the moral, psychological, and
social development of the main character, named Philip Pirrip, or Pip.

Setting
.......The time is the first half of the nineteenth century. Capitalism was gaining sway, but many people
continued to live on inherited wealth. Sharp divisions existed between upper and lower classes.
.......The action begins in the county of Kent in Southeastern England. The main character's village
home is about twenty miles from the North Sea and subject to mists that roll in from the shore. The
action shifts to London, where the main character, Pip, begins receiving an education and social
guidance. The action then alternates between London and Pip's village and its environs.

Characters
Pip (Philip Pirrip): Narrator and main character in the novel. He is an orphan with a humble
background in a village in the county of Kent, England. From the perspective of an adult, Pip tells the
story of his boyhood, adolescence, teenage years, and adulthood. The narration centers on Pip's
development from a raw and uneducated youth with false values to a mature adult with the right values.
Pip is a likable character even when he strays along the way to manhood.
Mrs. Georgiana Maria Gargery: Pip's sister, who is twenty-one years old than her brother. With the
help of her husband, Joe Gargery, she rears Pip in her home. However, because she is a nagging,
shrewish woman, she makes life unpleasant for her little brother. Pip refers to her as Mrs. Joe.
Joe Gargery: Husband of Pip's sister. He is a big, strong blacksmith with a gentle heart. He treats Pip
well while rearing the boy as if he were his son.
Abel Magwitch: Escaped convict who confronts Pip at the beginning of the novel and demands food
and a file. Later, he plays a major role in Pip's life. When he arrives in London, Magwitch goes by the
name of Provis.
Miss Havisham: Wealthy and eccentric spinster who lives a reclusive life after her husband-to-be
defrauds her and abandons her on the day he is to marry her. To gain revenge against men in general,
she rears her beautiful adopted daughter, Estella, to tantalize males but not to commit to any of them.

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Compeyson: Smooth-talking swindler who pretends to love Miss Havisham in order to get at her
money.
Arthur Havisham: Half-brother of Miss Havisham. He conspires with Compeyson to swindle Miss
Havisham.
Estella: Adopted daughter of Miss Havisham. Though she is proud and cold, Pip falls in love with her.
Jaggers: Miss Havisham's solicitor. He handles her legal and business matters. Jaggers becomes Pip's
guardian after a benefactor begins supporting the youth after he travels to London.
John Wemmick: Bill collector for Mr. Jaggers. He becomes a good friend of Pip and helps him and
advises him on how to escape London with Magwitch.
The Aged: John Wemmick's father.
Miss Skiffins: Wemmick's fiancée and later his wife.
Uncle Pumblechook: Joe Gargery's uncle. He arranges for Pip to play with Estella at Miss Havisham's
mansion.
Matthew Pocket: Cousin of Miss Havisham. He becomes Pip's tutor when the youth resides in London.
Belinda Pocket: Matthew Pocket's wife.
Herbert Pocket: Young man who resides with Pip in London and becomes his best friend. He is
Matthew Pocket's son.
Dolge Orlick: Mean-tempered journeyman blacksmith in Joe Gargery's shop. He hates Pip and
later has a confrontation with him in which he threatens to shoot him with a gun.
Startop: Pupil of Matthew Pocket who becomes a friend of Pip.
Molly: Servant of Jaggers. She and Magwitch had a long affair, and Molly bore his child, Estella.
Clara Barley: Herbert Pocket's fiancée and later his wife. Her home is one of Magwitch's hiding places.
Old Bill Barley: Clara Barley's father. She takes care of him until he dies, then marries Herbert.
Mrs. Whimple: Proprietor of the house where Clara Barley lives.
Mr. Wopsle: Clerk at the village church and friend of the Gargerys.
Mr. Hubble: Wheelwright and friend of the Gargerys.
Mrs. Hubble: Mr. Hubble's wife.
Sergeant: Officer leading soldiers in pursuit of Magwitch and another escaped convict on Christmas
Day when Pip is a child.
Mrs. Camilla: Herbert Pocket's sister and a cousin of Miss Havisham. She is one of several relatives of
Miss Havisham who pretend to be concerned about her so that she will remember them in her will.
Raymond Camilla: Mrs. Camilla's husband.
Sarah Pocket: Relative of Miss Havisham. Her feelings toward Miss Havisham are the same as Mrs.
Camilla's.
Georgiana: Another greedy relative of Miss Havisham.
Pepper (the Avenger): Boy Pip hires for chores at Barnard's Inn.
Clarikker: Young merchant. Pip secretly uses his money to get Herbert Pocket a position with Clarikker.
Trabb: Village tailor who outfits Pip's with suitable attire before he goes to London.
Trabb's boy: Son of Trabb.
Sally Compeyson: Compeyson's wife.
Mrs. Brandley: Woman with whom Estella resides while in London.
Mrs. Coiler: Fawning neighbor of Matthew and Belinda Pocket.
Estella's Maid: Woman who attends Estella while she is residing with Mrs. Brandley.
Watchman: Man who keeps watch at the Temple, one of Pip's lodging places in London.
Coachman: Driver who takes Pip to Jaggers' office.
Clerk: Employee in Jaggers' office who greets Pip when the latter arrives to confer with the lawyer.
Clients of Jaggers
Servants
Narration
......Pip narrates the story in first-person point of view from the perspective of a mature adult looking
back on his childhood and the mistakes he made growing up.
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Plot Summary
By Michael J. Cummings.© 2012
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.......When he was a small child, Philip Pirrip was unable to pronounce his full name, so he called
himself Pip. Everyone else did too. He never saw his father, Philip, or his mother, Georgianna; both
were already in their graves when he was still a baby.
Pip is now six. Five of his brothers—Alexander, Bartholomew, Abraham, Tobias, and Roger—also
lie at rest. However, his sister—who is twenty-one years older than Pip—is alive and well and married to
a blacksmith named Joe Gargery. She and Joe are rearing Pip at their home in a village in Kent, about
twenty miles from the sea. The churchyard where Pip's parents and siblings are buried is about a mile
from the Gargery home. Because Mrs. Gargery (whom Pip calls Mrs. Joe) is a whining nag who makes
life wretched for both Joe and Pip, they become partners in misery.
Toward evening one Christmas Eve, an escaped convict in prison gray confronts Pip while the boy
is looking at the tombstones in the cemetery. The convict tells Pip to fetch him food and a file to cut
through his shackles. If Pip does not do as he bids, the convict says, “Your heart and your liver shall be
tore out, roasted, and ate" (Chapter 1).
On Christmas morning, Pip secretly provides him a pork pie, cheese, mincemeat, bread, some
brandy, and the file. While the Gargerys are at dinner in the afternoon with their guests—Mr. Wopsle,
the church clerk; Mr. Hubble, the wheelwright; Hubble's wife; and Joe's Uncle Pumblechook, a corn
chandler in a nearby town—Mrs. Gargery reminds everyone of what she has endured to rear Pip. The
adult Pip, in narrating the tale, says,
[She] then entered on a fearful catalogue of all the illnesses I had been guilty of, and all the acts of
sleeplessness I had committed, and all the high places I had tumbled from, and all the low places I had
tumbled into, and all the injuries I had done myself, and all the times she had wished me in my grave,
and I had contumaciously refused to go there. (Chapter 4)
At about two-thirty, soldiers enter the property, and a sergeant announces to the diners that he is
searching for two escaped convicts. When the soldiers venture forth to find their quarry, Joe, Mr.
Wopsle, and Pip follow them. Several villagers tag along. The pursuers pass the churchyard and enter
the marshes beyond. There, they find both men in the bottom of a ditch. The younger convict accuses
the older convict (the one whom Pip had encountered) of trying to kill him. But Pip's convict tells them
he was holding the other convict for the soldiers. To support his story, he shows them the remnant of
his shackles, saying he could have fled if he so desired. He tells the soldiers that he stole food and
brandy from a nearby home, but at no time does he give Pip away. Pip is relieved, for he will not have to
explain the missing pork pie and other items. The soldiers take the escapees into custody, and Pip and
the others return home.
One day, Pumblechook visits a woman named Miss Havisham to pay his rent. She is a spinster
who inherited most of the fortune of her father, a wealthy brewer. Miss Havisham asks Pumblechook
whether he knows of a boy who could come to play with her adopted daughter, Estella. Pumblechook
recommends Pip.
Shortly thereafter, Mrs. Joe orders Pip to go to the Havisham residence, a run-down mansion called
Satis House. Miss Havisham, a mysterious eccentric, always wears a wedding dress, a relic from the
day twenty-five years before that her fiancé abandoned her on their wedding day. Time for her stopped
on that day. In fact, she left everything in her house just as it was on that day—even the wedding cake,
which is still sitting on a table. Later, her lawyer, Mr. Jaggers, assisted her in the adoption of her
daughter.
When Pip first stands before Miss Havisham, he notices that her watch and the clock in her room
are both stopped at twenty minutes to nine—the time when her husband-to-be abandoned her.
To gain revenge against the opposite sex, Miss Havisham has trained Estella to treat males
disdainfully. Pip becomes the brunt of this disdain during his visits. Nevertheless, Pip falls in love with
the beautiful girl, who is bedecked in fine clothes and jewelry. Pip dreams of becoming a well-to-do
gentleman worthy of marrying her.
On his second visit, Pip waits in an outer room while four relatives of Miss Havisham—Sarah
Pocket, Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Camilla, and a woman identified as Georgiana—conclude a visit. The
occasion is Miss Havisham's birthday. Once a year, these relatives visit Miss Havisham—always on her
birthday—to kowtow to her in order to enhance their chances of receiving a bequest in her will. Miss
Havisham, well aware of their motivations, treats them coldly and answers their questions curtly.
However, one relative—Matthew Pocket—stays away. He is concerned about Miss Havisham's welfare
but does not wish to become a hypocrite.
Later, on the grounds of the estate, Pip encounters a boy who asks Pip who gave him permission
to be on the grounds. Pip says Estella did. Then the boy says, “Come and fight" (Chapter 11). The boy
pulls Pip's hair and head-butts him in the stomach. Pip then thrashes the boy, knocking him down
several times. Bruised and dazed, the boy surrenders.
Pip makes repeated visits to Miss Havisham's, sometimes pushing her around in a wheelchair. But
after eight months, his visits end when Miss Havisham asks Joe to apprentice Pip in the blacksmith
shop. Pip is deeply disappointed. He had thought his visits to Miss Havisham's were preparations for
him to become a gentleman. After Miss Havisham pays Joe for allowing the boy to visit her home, Pip
starts work in the shop. Joe is an honest and upright man who is as strong as an ox but kind and gentle
in his dealings with Pip.
Meanwhile, Pip has been attending a school operated by Mr. Wopsle's great-aunt—who teaches
him next to nothing. Pip learns more from Biddy, Mr. Wopsle's great-aunt's granddaughter. She is about
Pip's age and, like Pip, an orphan. Pip passes on what he learns to Joe, who has no education.
There is a sinister presence at Gargery's forge, a journeyman blacksmith named Orlick, about
twenty-five. He is a very strong man who lives in the marshes at the sluice keeper's place. Orlick is, as
Pip puts it, always “slouching" (Chapter 15)—slouching into work, slouching out at quitting time, and
slouching on Sundays against a barn, a stack of hay or straw, or on the nearby sluice gates. He does
not like Pip. When Pip first started at the shop as a young boy, Orlick would tell him frightening stories
about the devil. Now, he apparently thinks Joe hired Pip to replace him eventually and thus likes him
even less.
One day, Joe grants Pip a half-day off. When Orlick says he should also get a half-day off, Joe
assents. Mrs. Joe, who is listening outside the house, pokes her head through a window and scolds Joe
for granting Orlick's wish. She calls Orlick “the worst rogue between this and France" (Chapter 15).
Orlick then calls her a “foul shrew" (Chapter 15). They exchange more insults, and Mrs. Gargery
berates Joe for not defending her. Joe then stands up to Orlick. They fight, and Orlick ends up in coal
dust on the floor with a slit in a nostril.
Later, peace prevails, with Joe and Orlick sharing beer while going about their work.
In the evening, after Joe arrives home from the Three Jolly Bargemen (a tavern) at around ten
o'clock, he finds his wife unconscious on the floor with injuries inflicted to the head and spine by a blunt
instrument. Next to her is a convict's leg iron, apparently the weapon that the assailant had used. The
purpose of the attack and the name of the attacker remain a mystery in the ensuing days, although Pip
suspects Orlick as the assailant. Mrs. Joe recovers, but her injuries have seriously impaired her
memory and her ability to speak and hear. The Gargerys take on Biddy to help out around the house.
After several years pass, a London lawyer named Jaggers—the same Jaggers who is Miss
Havisham's attorney—visits Pip and Joe to announce that Pip has “great expectations" (Chapter 18).
Pip is to receive what Jaggers calls “a handsome property" (Chapter 18) from a benefactor whose name
is to remain “a profound secret" (Chapter 18) until the benefactor chooses to reveal it in person to Pip.
Pip is to get an education in London and money to sustain himself. Pip thinks the benefactor is Miss
Havisham and that she intends for him to marry Estella. But Jaggers warns him to keep to himself all
speculation about the source of his boon. Jaggers offers Joe compensation for the loss of Pip's
services, but Joe refuses it. His concern is for Pip's future, not for himself. Pumblechook tries to take
credit for the happy turn of events.
After Pip arrives in London, he begins his education under the tutelage of Matthew Pocket (an
aforementioned relative of Miss Havisham). Mr. Jaggers's law clerk, John Wemmick, escorts Pip to his
new quarters at Barnard's Inn. There he takes up residence with Pocket's son, Herbert, an assistant in a
countinghouse (office or building in which a company maintains financial records). It turns out that he
was the boy Pip fought in Miss Havisham's yard. They become close friends while Herbert helps teach
Pip the ways of a gentleman. Pip still longs to marry Estella. When he is discussing her with Herbert,
the latter informs him that Miss Havisham has taught her to entice men into falling in love with her, then
to reject them cruelly.
When Pip returns home one day to visit Satis House at Miss Havisham's request, he is surprised
to see that it is Orlick who opens the gate for him. He had been hired as a porter by Miss Havisham. He
exchanges words with Orlick, then goes up to Miss Havisham's room. He sees a stunningly beautiful
young woman with Miss Havisham, and it takes him a moment to realize it is Estella.
She is as proud as she is beautiful and, says Pip, “she treated me as a boy still" (Chapter 29).
Nevertheless, Pip worships “the very hem of her dress" (Chapter 29). She had just returned from
France and would soon be embarking for London. Pip had always thought of himself as crude and
common in regard to his humble upbringing. But he hopes his education and money will make him
worthy of Estella. She understands his aspirations and says to him while they are walking in the garden,
“What was fit company for you once, would be quite unfit company for you now" (Chapter 29).
Pip had considered visiting Joe before returning to London, but Estella's remark makes him
abandon all thoughts of doing so.
Although Pip has been ignoring the Gargerys and Biddy, he does visit Joe a short time later. The
occasion is the funeral for the woman who made his life miserable in his youth—his sister, Mrs.
Gargery.
Meanwhile, Pip has informed Jaggers that Orlick is an unsavory character who should not be in a
position of trust at Miss Havisham's. A short time later, Orlick is fired.
As time passes and Pip pursues his education in London, he and Herbert live well and spend
freely. Debts build. Pip continues to think of Estella. While in London, she resides with Mrs. Brandley, a
widow, who has a daughter older than Estella. Mrs. Brandley had been a friend of Miss Havisham
before the latter became a reclusive eccentric. Whenever Pip sees Estella, she toys with him, makes
light of his feelings for her, and uses him to tease other men interested in her—and there are many of
them. Pips says of their relationship,
I saw her often at Richmond, I heard of her often in town, and I used often to take her and the Brandleys
on the water; there were picnics, fete days, plays, operas, concerts, parties, all sorts of pleasures,
through which I pursued her,—and they were all miseries to me. I never had one hour's happiness in
her society, and yet my mind all round the four-and-twenty hours was harping on the happiness of
having her with me unto death. (Chapter 38)
When Pip is twenty-two, he and Herbert move to the garden court of the Temple, a building
complex named for the Knights Templar. One evening, when Herbert is in Marseilles on business, Pip
receives a surprise visitor at his residence—the convict he helped years before. His name is Abel
Magwitch, but says he prefers to be called Provis. He reveals that he is Pip's benefactor. After Pip gave
him food and a file on that Christmas Day long ago, he vowed to help the boy. While in New South
Wales, Australia, he accumulated considerable wealth as a sheepherder and began repaying Pip with
money to sustain him in London.
"Yes, Pip, dear boy," Magwitch says, "I've made a gentleman on you! It's me wot has done it! I
swore that time, sure as ever I earned a guinea, that guinea should go to you. I swore arterwards, sure
as ever I spec'lated and got rich, you should get rich. I lived rough, that you should live smooth; I
worked hard, that you should be above work" (Chapter 39).
The news shocks Pip, who recalls, "The abhorrence in which I held the man, the dread I had of
him, the repugnance with which I shrank from him, could not have been exceeded if he had been some
terrible beast" (Chapter 39).
Now Magwitch needs Pip's help. Under penalty of death, he was never to return to England and
now is on the run from police. After Herbert returns from Marseilles, Magwitch tells him and Pip that he
is also being tracked by a former criminal associate named Compeyson, who recruited Magwitch long
ago to assist him in a life of crime. Magwitch tells the young men that
Compeyson's business was the swindling, handwriting forging, stolen bank-note passing, and such-like.
All sorts of traps as Compeyson could set with his head, and keep his own legs out of and get the
profits from and let another man in for, was Compeyson's business. He'd no more heart than a iron file,
he was as cold as death, and he had the head of the Devil afore mentioned. (Chapter 42)
There was a third man who threw in with Compeyson, Magwitch says. His name was Arthur. He
helped Compeyson bilk a wealthy woman of her money. Arthur, who was in poor health, became
gravely ill and hallucinated about the woman and later died. Herbert, whose father (Matthew Pocket) is
Miss Havisham's cousin, knows who Arthur was: Miss Havisham's half-brother. He also knows that
Compeyson was the man who, with the help of Arthur, wooed and abandoned Miss Havisham after
defrauding her of money.
When the law catches up with Magwitch and Compeyson, Magwitch—who has a record—gets a
stiff sentence of fourteen years in prison. Compeyson, who is educated and smooth-talking, gets only
seven years. Magwitch and Compeyson became deadly enemies after Magwitch realized how truly evil
Compeyson was.
While Magwitch hides out in accommodations provided by Pip, Pip learns from Estella on a visit to
Satis House that she plans to marry Bentley Drummle, who comes from a wealthy family in
Somersetshire. Pip describes him as a “sulky fellow" who is “heavy in figure, movement, and
comprehension" and is “idle, proud, niggardly, reserved, and suspicious" (Chapter 29).
When Pip returns to London, Wemmick warns him that Magwitch's trackers—including
Compeyson—are closing in. Herbert Pocket, aware of the situation, has relocated Magwitch to the
home of his fiancée, Clara, who rents her dwelling from a kindly woman named Mrs. Whimple. By this
time, Pip has begun fiercely protecting the downtrodden Magwitch and plans to help him escape from
London. Meanwhile, Estella marries Drummle.
When Pip next visits Satis House, Miss Havisham apologizes for scheming against him with
Estella, saying, “"What have I done! What have I done!" (Chapter 49). She is deeply regretful of her
wrongdoing. Pip comforts her. After leaving the house, Pip decides to return to check on the distraught
woman. As he enters the room, Pip says as he looks back to his past,
I saw her seated in the ragged chair upon the hearth close to the fire, with her back towards me. In the
moment when I was withdrawing my head to go quietly away, I saw a great flaming light spring up. In
the same moment I saw her running at me, shrieking, with a whirl of fire blazing all about her, and
soaring at least as many feet above her head as she was high. (Chapter 49)
She had drawn too close to the fire, and her wedding dress went up in flames. Pip throws his cloak over
her to smother the flames and suffers burns to his hands and left arm. Later, a surgeon attends to Miss
Havisham. She is delirious and keeps repeating, “What have I done!" (Chapter 49). When her servants
inform Pip that Estella is in Paris, he arranges for the surgeon to write to her.
After Pip returns to London, Herbert Pocket tends to Pip's burns while bringing him up to date on
the situation with Magwitch, who will soon be making his escape attempt. Herbert says Magwitch
revealed details about his past, one of which was that a woman bore him a child, a girl, when she was
with Magwitch over a five-year period. This same woman had been accused of murder. Jaggers
defended her in a trial in which Magwitch was not present. He feared that his testimony would
jeopardize her chances of acquittal—perhaps because it might in some way cast her in a bad light. She
was, in fact, acquitted. After the trial she disappeared with the child. Pip later learns that the woman,
Molly, was in the employ of Jaggers. Because she did not want the baby girl, Jaggers chose her as
Miss Havisham's adoptee. The girl was, of course, Estella.
As Pip's burns heal, he and Herbert prepare for Magwitch's escape—by sea to the European
continent They will take him down the Thames in a boat, then wait for a steamer bound for Hamburg,
Germany.
Meanwhile, Pip receives a letter to go to the sluice house in the marshes beyond the Gargery
home. The letter says, "If you want information regarding [Magwitch], you had much better come and
tell no one, and lose no time. You must come alone" (Chapter 52).
When he arrives at the sluice house and enters, the room is dark, save for a lighted candle.
Suddenly, someone throws a noose around his neck and the candle goes out. The man is strong and
Pip cannot break loose; he is handicapped by his burn injuries. After tying Pip to a wall, the man strikes
flint against steel to light the candle. Pip then sees his assailant, Orlick, who has been drinking. He
displays a gun and says he's going to kill Pip for speaking against him. He plans to burn his body.
......."You was always in Old Orlick's way since ever you was a child," Orlick says (Chapter 53). "You
goes out of his way this present night. He'll have no more on you. You're dead."
Orlick admits that he killed Mrs. Joe because of her treatment of him.
When all seems lost, Pip shouts out as loudly as he can. He then hears others answer his call for
help. They rush in and tussle with Orlick, but he escapes. Pip's rescuers are Trabb's boy (Pip's
identification for the son of the local tailor), Startop (a friend of Pip and Herbert), and Herbert. Herbert
had picked up the letter that Pip left behind and suspected it could spell trouble for Pip. He enlisted the
help of Startop and picked up Trabb's boy after nearing the sluice house.
Upon returning to London, Pip, Herbert, and Startop take Magwitch down the Thames as planned.
However, Compeyson—who has been continuing to track Pip and Magwitch—has alerted the police.
With Compeyson, they pull up in a boat alongside their quarry. The steamer then rams Pip's boat.
Magwitch and Compeyson end up in the river. They fight, and Compeyson drowns. The police round up
Pip, Magwitch, and the others.
Magwitch receives a death sentence. He accepts it as just punishment for his past wrongdoing.
While in jail, he becomes ill and dies—but not before Pip informs him that his daughter, Estella, is alive
and well.
.......Meanwhile, Pip, who had always managed his money poorly while enjoying the good life with
Herbert, is subject to arrest for bad debts. He too becomes ill, but Joe Gargery comes to his aid. He not
only nurses him back to health but also pays off his debts. Elsewhere, Miss Havisham dies and leaves
most of her estate to Estella. Matthew Pocket receives a considerable sum: four thousand pounds. Her
kowtowing relatives receive meager bequests of from five to twenty-five pounds each. Orlick,
meanwhile, ends up in the county jail after breaking into Pumblechook's house, stealing his money, and
tying him to a bedpost.
Pip later returns home, thinking Biddy would make a good wife for him. But Biddy marries Joe. Pip
asks them to forgive him for all the trouble he has caused them over the years, and they heartily give
him their blessing.
Pip then takes employment abroad with Herbert. (Earlier, Pip had secretly used his resources to
get Herbert a position with Clarikker, a merchant. Pip now joins the firm.) Pip thrives financially while
living an upstanding, frugal life.
Years pass. Pip returns to England to visit Joe and Biddy, who now have a little boy. Toward
evening he goes over to Satis House to muse about old times. There, to his surprise, he encounters
Estella. Her husband, who had maltreated her, has died. She says she has thought often of Pip and
says, “suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your
heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but—I hope—into a better shape. Be as considerate
and good to me as you were, and tell me we are friends" (Chapter 59).
"We are friends," Pip says (Chapter 59).
They walk off, hand in hand. Pip says, “I saw no shadow of another parting from her" (Chapter 59).

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Themes
Discovering the True Values in Life

.......As he is growing up, Pip looks down on his humble origins and sets his sights on becoming a
materially successful gentleman in the world of the social elite. There is nothing wrong with money or
life among the privileged. But Pip thinks they are what will make him a man. He spends lavishly at times
and dislikes acknowledging his roots or visiting home. But he learns the hard way that what really
matters in life is loyalty, common decency, moral fiber, courage, and genuine love. A man can be a
blacksmith, like Joe, and still be a superior human being.
.......Magwitch and Estella also reject the false values that guided them earlier in life.

Revenge

.......Revenge motivates Miss Havisham, Compeyson, and Orlick. After being abandoned by her
husband-to-be on the day of her wedding, Miss Havisham seeks revenge against men in general.
Compeyson seeks revenge against Magwitch, who turned against Compeyson. Orlick beat Mrs.
Gargery for criticizing him and plots to kill Pip. He never liked Pip. His hatred for him deepened after
Pip's report on him to Jaggers caused him to lose his job as a porter at Miss Havisham's.

Prevailing Against Adversity

.......Fate deals bad hands to Pip, Magwitch, Estella, and Biddy. Pip, Magwitch, and Biddy grew up
without the guidance of biological parents. Estella was abandoned by her mother—Jaggers' servant,
Molly—and never met her father, Magwitch. Of Biddy, Pip says, "She was an orphan like myself; like
me, too, had been brought up by hand" (Chapter 7).
All four thus are handicapped from the beginning. But all four rebound from their reversals and
misfortunes and eventually succeed in their own way. Magwitch, a hardened criminal, makes a fortune
in business and becomes a loving and generous benefactor to Pip. After becoming a young man with
great expectations, Pip disdains his humble origins and ignores Joe and Biddy. But he eventually
discovers that money and social standing are far less important than love, loyalty, and kindness. Estella
was reared to make men miserable. But she suffers at the hands of a man, Bentley Drummle, and
learns that her purpose in life is to love. After Drummle dies, she and Pip reunite for what appears to be
a promising future.

Redemption

.......Miss Havisham, Magwitch, Pip, and Estella redeem themselves from their past wrongdoing or
wrongful attitudes.

True Nobility in a Class-Divided Society

.......In England of the nineteenth century, class divisions were sharp. The upper classes generally
looked upon the lower classes as vulgar and unworthy of their attention. In fact, Pip uses the phrase
"coarse and common" six times in the novel to bemoan the social status of himself and others in his
stratum. In Great Expectations, two characters above all others—Joe Gargery and Abel Magwitch—
prove that true nobility lies in the heart, not in money or social standing. Pip adopts their attitude after
realizing that he was chasing false values.

Loyalty
.......Joe Gargery remains loyal to Pip throughout the novel even though Pip ignores him for a time.
Magwitch also remains loyal to Pip even though Pip is at first repelled by the presence of Magwitch after
the latter arrives in London. The example that Joe and Magwitch set helps Pip to overcome his
disloyalty and other shortcomings.

Villainy

.......Villainy stalks the novel in the forms of the mean-spirited, spiteful, and vengeful Compeyson and
Orlick. Like modern sociopaths, they show no signs of reforming.
.......Compeyson looms over the whole of the plot in that it was he who led Magwitch deep into a life of
crime and he who defrauded Miss Havisham and abandoned her, causing her to despise men. She, in
turn, ensnared Estella in a scheme to gain revenge against men in general.
.......Orlick is a monstrous malefactor who murders Mrs.Gargery even though he had no greater motive
than a heated argument. He would have murdered Pip if Herbert, Startop, and Trabb's boy had not
happened on the scene in the nick of time.
.......Compeyson drowns in a fight with Magwitch, and Orlick ends up in jail after burglarizing
Pumblechook's house.

Conflicts
.......The main conflicts generally center on (1) Pip and the people who scheme against him, including
as Miss Havisham, Estella, and Orlick; (2) Pip and the guilt he sometimes feels about ignoring Joe in
favor of pursuing his own misguided goals; (3) Magwitch and Compeyson; and (4) Miss Havisham and
the male world.

Tone and Humor

.......The tone is generally serious, but touches of humor punctuate the action. Following are examples
of Dickens' humor.

"Where will you put me?" [Magwitch] asked, presently. "I must be put somewheres, dear boy."
"To sleep?" said I. (Chapter 39)

At last, the old woman and the niece came in,—the latter with a head not easily distinguishable from her
dusty broom,—and testified surprise at sight of me and the fire. (Chapter 40)

Climax
.......The climax occurs when Magwitch announces that he is Pip's benefactor. This revelation jolts Pip
out of his unrealistic dreams for himself and sets him to thinking about what really matters in life. The
adult Pip, in recalling the moment, says,

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
practise on when no other practise was at hand; those were the first smarts I had. But, sharpest and
deepest pain of all,—it was for the convict, guilty of I knew not what crimes, and liable to be taken out of
those rooms where I sat thinking, and hanged at the Old Bailey door, that I had deserted Joe. (Chapter
39)
But while remorseful for abandoning Joe for a lowly convict, Pip also begins to sympathize with the
downtrodden Magwitch and takes dangerous risks to hide Magwitch and eventually to help him escape.

Anaphora
.......Dickens uses anaphora frequently to provide emphasis, balance, and rhythm in his wording.
Anaphora is the repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of word groups occurring one
after the other. In Great Expectations, the first instance of anaphora occurs in the sixth paragraph of
Chapter 1, when Pip describes Magwitch with subordinate clauses.

.......A fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg. A man with no hat, and with broken
shoes, and with an old rag tied round his head. Aman who had been soaked in water, and smothered in
mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars. (Chapter 1)
Here are other examples of anaphora.

Sometimes, she would coldly tolerate me; sometimes, she would condescend to me; sometimes,
she would be quite familiar with me; sometimes, she would tell me energetically that she hated me.
(Chapter 12)

Why should a man scrape himself to that extent, before he could consider himself full dressed? Why
shouldhe suppose it necessary to be purified by suffering for his holiday clothes? (Chapter 27)

.......Home had never been a very pleasant place to me, because of my sister's temper. But, Joe had
sanctified it, and I had believed in it. I had believed in the best parlor as a most elegant saloon; I had
believed in the front door, as a mysterious portal of the Temple of State whose solemn opening was
attended with a sacrifice of roast fowls; I had believed in the kitchen as a chaste though not
magnificent apartment; I had believed in the forge as the glowing road to manhood and independence.
(Chapter 14)

.......Crowding up with these reflections came the reflection that I had seen him with my childish eyes to
be a desperately violent man; that I had heard that other convict reiterate that he had tried to murder
him; that I hadseen him down in the ditch tearing and fighting like a wild beast. (Chapter 39)

When I opened the shutters and looked out at the wet wild morning, all of a leaden hue; when I walked
from room to room; when I sat down again shivering, before the fire, waiting for my laundress to
appear; I thought how miserable I was. (Chapter 40)

.......I saw in this, wretched though it made me, and bitter the sense of dependence and even of
degradation that it awakened—I saw in this, that Estella was set to wreak Miss Havisham's revenge on
men, and that she was not to be given to me until she had gratified it for a term. I saw in this, a reason
for her being beforehand assigned to me. Sending her out to attract and torment and do mischief, Miss
Havisham sent her with the malicious assurance that she was beyond the reach of all admirers, and
that all who staked upon that cast were secured to lose. I saw in this, that I, too, was tormented by a
perversion of ingenuity, even while the prize was reserved for me. I saw in this, the reason for my
being staved off so long, and the reason for my late guardian's declining to commit himself to the formal
knowledge of such a scheme. In a word, I saw in this, Miss Havisham as I had her then and there
before my eyes, and always had had her before my eyes; and I saw in this, the distinct shadow of the
darkened and unhealthy house in which her life was hidden from the sun. (Chapter 38)
In all his ways of sitting and standing, and eating and drinking—of brooding about, in a high-shouldered
reluctant style—of taking out his great horn-handled jack-knife and wiping it on his legs and cutting his
food—of lifting light glasses and cups to his lips, as if they were clumsy pannikins—of chopping a
wedge off his bread, and soaking up with it the last fragments of gravy round and round his plate, as if
to make the most of an allowance, and then drying his finger-ends on it, and then swallowing it—in
these ways and a thousand other small nameless instances arising every minute in the day, there was
Prisoner, Felon, Bondsman, plain as plain could be. (Chapter 40)

What a doleful night! How anxious, how dismal, how long! (Chapter 45)

It matters not what stranded ships repairing in dry docks I lost myself among, what old hulls of ships in
course of being knocked to pieces, what ooze and slime and other dregs of tide, what yards of ship-
builders and ship-breakers, what rusty anchors blindly biting into the ground though for years off
duty, what mountainous country of accumulated casks and timber. (Chapter 46)

I looked at those hands, I looked at those eyes, I looked at that flowing hair; and I compared them
with otherhands, other eyes, other hair. (Chapter 48)

Other Figures of Speech

Alliteration

Flopson, by dint of doubling the baby at the joints like a Dutch doll, then got it safely into Mrs
Pocket's lap. (Chapter 23)

"Still you see, as far as it goes, a pair of pigeons are portable property, all the same." (Chapter 32)

I was always full of fears for the rash man who was in hiding. (46)

There, we found, sitting by a fire, a very old man in a flannel coat: clean, cheerful, comfortable, and
well cared for, but intensely deaf. (Chapter 25)

Hyperbole
As to forming any plan for the future, I could as soon have formed an elephant. (Chapter 40)
Irony

.......Irony occurs frequently in the novel. Here are examples.

 Miss Havisham rears Estella to torment men. But it is a man, Bentley Drummle, who ends up
tormenting Estella in their bad marriage.
 Herbert Pocket, the boy who fights with Pip in Miss Havisham's yard, becomes Pip's best friend.
 When Pip leads the life of a gentleman in London, it is a convict who is paying the bill.
 Pip's "great expectations"—becoming a man of wealth and position—are not at all great. They
blind him to what really matters in life.

Metaphor
The day came creeping on, halting and whimpering and shivering, and wrapped in patches of clouds
and rags of mist . . . . (Chapter 43)
Comparison of the day to a traveler dressed in rags

[The bedroom] was a sort of vault on the ground floor at the back, with a despotic monster of a four-post
bedstead in it, straddling over the whole place, putting one of his arbitrary legs into the fire-place and
another into the doorway, and squeezing the wretched little washing-stand in quite a Divinely Righteous
manner. (Chapter 45)
Comparison of the bed to a tyrannical monster

Simile
At the best of times, so much of this elixir (tar water) was administered to me as a choice restorative,
that I was conscious of going about, smelling like a new fence. (Chapter 2)
Comparison of the way Pip smells to smell of a new fence

I couldn't warm my feet, to which the damp cold seemed riveted, as the iron was riveted to the leg of the
man I was running to meet. (Chapter 3)
Comparison of the way the cold attached itself to Pip's feet to the way the shackles were riveted to
Magwitch's legs.

In his working clothes, Joe was a well-knit characteristic-looking blacksmith; in his holiday clothes, he
was more like a scarecrow in good circumstances. (Chapter 4)
Comparison of Joe to a scarecrow

"I have brought you, Mum, a bottle of sherry wine—and I have brought you, Mum, a bottle of port wine."
Every Christmas Day he presented himself, as a profound novelty, with exactly the same words, and
carrying the two bottles like dumb-bells. (Chapter 4)
Comparison of the bottles to dumbbells

With that, she (Mrs. Gargery) pounced upon me, like an eagle on a lamb, and my face was squeezed
into wooden bowls in sinks, and my head was put under taps of water-butts, and I was soaped, and
kneaded, and towelled, and thumped, and harrowed, and rasped, until I really was quite beside myself.
(Chapter 7)
Comparison of Mrs. Gargery to an eagle and Pip to a lamb

We walked to town, my sister leading the way in a very large beaver bonnet, and carrying a basket like
the Great Seal of England in plaited straw. (Chapter 13)
Comparison of the basket to the Great Seal

It was an unhappy life that I lived; and its one dominant anxiety, towering over all its other anxieties, like
a high mountain above a range of mountains, never disappeared from my view. (Chapter 47)
Comparison of an anxiety to a high mountain

Paradox

When we came to the river-side and sat down on the bank, with the water rippling at our feet, making it
all more quiet than it would have been without that sound, I resolved that it was a good time and place
for the admission of Biddy into my inner confidence. (Chapter 17)
Personification

The sky was just a row of long angry red lines. (Chapter 1)
The sky takes on a human quality, anger.

A fire had been lately kindled in the damp old-fashioned grate, and it was more disposed to go out than
to burn up, and the reluctant smoke which hung in the room
seemed colder than the clearer air. (Chapter 11)
The fire has an inclination; the smoke exhibits reluctance.

Sleep refused to come near me. (Chapter 38)

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Study Questions and Essay Topics
1....Who is the most admirable character in the novel? Who is the least admirable? Explain your
answers.
2....Pip, Magwitch, and Biddy are orphans. In the England of Dickens's day, what provisions did society
make for the care of orphans?
3....To what extent did Dickens base the story of Pip on his own life?
4....In an essay, write a psychological profile of Miss Havisham. To support your thesis, use passages
from the novel, as well as Internet and library research.
5....How influential is the environment on the behavior of the characters?
6....Write an essay that compares and contrasts the ambitious characters (for example, Pip, Herbert,
and Wemmick) with the characters who lack ambitions (for example, Miss Havisham, Estella, and Sarah
Pocket).
7....What effect does earning money (vis-a-vis inheriting it or stealing it) have on the characters?
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