Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Key Facts

Full title: Great Expectations

Author: Charles Dickens

Type of work: Novel

Genres: Bildungsroman, social criticism, autobiographical fiction

Language: English

Time and place written: London, 1860-1861

Date of first publication: Published serially in England from December 1860 to August 1861; published in book form in England and America in 1861

Publisher: Serialized in All the Year Round; published in England by Chapman & Hall; published in America by Harper & Brothers

Narrator: Pip

Climax: A sequence of climactic events occurs from about Chapter 51 to Chapter 56: Miss Havisham?s burning in the fire, Orlick?s attempt to murder Pip, and Pip?s attempt to help Magwitch escape London.

Protagonist: Pip

Antagonist: Great Expectations does not contain a traditional single antagonist. Various characters serve as figures against whom Pip must struggle at various times: Magwitch, Mrs. Joe, Miss Havisham, Estella, Orlick, Bentley Drummle, and Compeyson. With the exception of the last three, each of the novel?s antagonists is redeemed before the end of the book.

Setting (time): Mid-nineteenth century

Settings (place): Kent and London, England

Point of view: First person

Falling action: The period following Magwitch?s capture in Chapter 54, including Magwitch?s death, Pip?s reconciliation with Joe, and Pip?s reunion with Estella eleven years later

Tense: Past

Foreshadowing: Great Expectations contains a great deal of foreshadowing. The repeated references to the convict (the man with the file in the pub, the attack on Mrs. Joe) foreshadow his return; the second convict on the marsh foreshadows the revelation of Magwitch?s conflict with Compeyson; the man in the pub who gives Pip money foreshadows the revelation that Pip?s fortune comes from Magwitch; Miss Havisham?s wedding dress and her bizarre surroundings foreshadow the revelation of her past and her relationship with Estella; Pip?s feeling that Estella reminds him of someone he knows foreshadows his discovery of the truth of her parentage; the fact that Jaggers is a criminal lawyer foreshadows his involvement in Magwitch?s life; and so on. Moreover, the weather often foreshadows dramatic events: a storm brewing generally means there will be trouble ahead, as on the night of Magwitch?s return.

Tone: Comic, cheerful, satirical, wry, critical, sentimental, dark, dramatic, foreboding, Gothic, sympathetic

Themes: Ambition and the desire for self-improvement (social, economic, educational, and moral); guilt, criminality, and innocence; maturation and the growth from childhood to adulthood; the importance of affection, loyalty, and sympathy over social advancement and class superiority; social class; the difficulty of maintaining superficial moral and social categories in a constantly changing world

Motifs: Crime and criminality; disappointed expectations; the connection between weather or atmosphere and dramatic events; doubles (two convicts, two secret benefactors, two invalids, etc)

Symbols: The stopped clocks at Satis House symbolize Miss Havisham?s attempt to stop time. The many objects relating to crime and guilt (gallows, prisons, handcuffs, policemen, lawyers, courts, convicts, chains, files) symbolize the theme of guilt and innocence. Satis House represents the upper-class world to which Pip longs to belong; Bentley Drummle represents the grotesque caprice of the upper class; Joe represents conscience, affection, loyalty, and simple good nature; the marsh mists represent danger and ambiguity.

SETTING

The action of Great Expectations takes place in a limited geography between a small village at the edge of the North Kent marshes, a market town in which Satis House is located, and the greater city of London. The protagonist, Pip, grows up in the marsh village. Eventually he becomes a frequent visitor to Satis House, located in the market town. Upon inheriting a good deal of money, he moves to London, where he is taught to be a gentleman. Throughout the novel, Pip travels between these three locations in pursuit of his great expectations.

CONFLICT

Protagonist

The protagonist of this novel is Philip Pirip, called Pip. Pip is a sensitive child, orphaned and living under the care of his sister and her husband. His sister resents him and continually reminds him that he is a burden. His brother-in-law, Joe, is kind to him; in fact, he is the only one who shows Pip any love.

An encounter in his childhood leads Pip to aid an escaped convict. In order to repay Pip, the convict secretly bestows him with large sums of money, so that Pip's dream of becoming a gentleman is realized. Pip changes on acquiring wealth and status; his childhood home and friends are embarrassing to him. In trying to live up to his own great expectations, he loses his sense of judgment and begins to value material possessions and gentlemanly pretensions more than kindness and friendship. On realizing that his patron is a convict, and that he has forsaken everyone who loved him in this false attempt to be a gentleman, Pip mends his way of life and returns to his good-natured self, more mature as a result of his experience.

Antagonist

The antagonist in this novel is not a person as much as it is an expectation, or rather, a set of expectations. Pip is led into making grave mistakes based on his false expectation of being a gentleman, his false expectation of marrying Estella, and his general false expectation of rising above his past. In the process of living out these expectations, Pip hurts the people who have been kindest to him -- namely Joe and Biddy. In the end, he learns that all his aspirations have been based on a false presumption that he could rise above his past and be something better than Joe or Biddy. His wealth comes from a convict, and his newfound airs of being a gentleman dissolve in the realization that things are not what he has thought. He learns that true worth comes from inside a man, and turns away from his once-great expectations.

At times, actual characters seem menacing or dangerous, qualities usually associated with antagonists. Orlick, for example, is Pip's first enemy. He resents Pip and seriously wounds Mrs. Joe. Later, he tries to kill Pip. Drummle, for his part, is known as the "Spider." He baits Pip continually and steals Estella away as his wife, only to abuse her. Compeyson haunts Pip and Magwitch, eventually causing Magwitch serious wounds and successfully aiding the police in capturing him. These three, more than any other characters, provide the texture of the dramatic tension in the novel.

Estella and Miss Havisham occupy a special place in the dramatic breakdown of the novel as well. For some time, both are mildly threatening characters; Estella with her alternating cruelty and kindness and Miss Havisham with her morbid dress and rotten cake. Bitterness has led Miss Havisham to train Estella in coldness. And Estella herself warns Pip with certainty that she can only hurt him and that she is not capable of returning his love. In the end, Miss Havisham repents of her bitterness and Estella and Pip part as friends, but roles of these two women in sustaining the dramatic tension of the novel cannot be ignored.

Climax

The climax occurs when Pip learns the identity of his benefactor. In that moment, all his great expectations dissolve into shame of the convict and disgust with himself for his gradual change. He knows now that he is not destined to marry Estella, nor is he any less common than he was as a blacksmith's apprentice. As well, he is obligated to protect his benefactor out of loyalty and gratitude. The foundation of assumptions and expectations on which he has built his life is completely shaken.

Outcome

Pip lays aside his expectations of greatness. He protects his benefactor and realizes that this convict has been more loyal to him than he has been to Joe. He makes sure he will not have access to any more of the convict's money and acknowledges the dignity of laboring for his own keep. He apologizes to Joe and Biddy for his lack of loyalty to them. Finally, eleven years later, he meets Estella and is able to part from her as friends.

THEMES

The major themes in the novel are all related to ambition, i.e. "great expectations." Some issues explored under this umbrella theme are greed, envy, pride, arrogance, ingratitude and unkindness. The primary lesson Pip learns is that uncommon-ness on the inside is more important than uncommon-ness on the outside. He learns contentment and humility and returns to the kindness and generosity that characterized him when he was young. The themes are related to and presented in the Bildungsroman genre, which is explained in the "Background" section of this guide.

MOOD

Great Expectations is regarded as Dickens "grotesque tragicomic" conception, probably because of the mix of comedy and tragedy that adorns most of his novels. The opening of the novel is a perfect example of the dual mood. There are moments of touching tragedy and sadness, such as young Pip in a cemetery surrounded by his dead family, and Pip being mistreated by his only surviving relative, Mrs. Joe.

At the same time, there is lighthearted comedy, such as when Mr. Pumblechook and Mr. Wopsle weave their tales of how the thief must have stolen the pork pie, when all the time, it was no thief but Pip. Though some of the comic mood is sustained throughout the book, it is definitely not the predominant mood. In fact, the darker moods dominate the text, with mystery and danger always lurking beyond the next page. Miss Havisham presents a grotesque mystery, as does Jaggers' housekeeper Molly. The unknown and the dreaded are always present, especially toward the end of the novel, when grave events and serious complications completely envelop the plot.

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