Charles Dickens' Great Expectations Essay

No novel is complete without a good ending. Although the introductory and middle portions are important as well, the conclusion is what the reader tends to remember most. When Charles Dickens wrote Great Expectations, he crafted a work that is truly excellent the whole way through. From the moment Pip is introduced until he and Estella walk out of the garden in the final chapter, this book exhibits an uncanny ability to keep the reader wanting more. There is, however, some debate regarding the final portion of the novel. The ending that Dickens originally wrote for Great Expectations is noticeably different than the one that was subsequently published. It seems

This quote introduces where Pip spends a great deal of his time as a child. The Satis House is the home to two main characters in this novel; Miss Havisham and Estella. Miss Havisham, a frantic yet wealthy woman is Estella’s adoption mother. She is raising Estella, a beautiful young girl to become a weapon against men as revenge against the Compeyson, the man who deserted her on her wedding day. As soon as Pip sees the stunning Estella, he completely falls in love and ignores the fact that she is a cruel girl who is just using him. In fact, most of Pip’s life decisions are based upon Estella. Pip first meets the two in their rotting mansion, the Satis House when he is asked to come over and play with Estella. This house is (very) symbolic of Miss Havisham. They are both decaying from inside and out. The house is filled with objects that symbolize Miss Havisham. As an example, her wedding cake from her wedding with Compeyson is on the feast table rotting. In addition, all the clocks are stopped at twenty minutes to nine- the time she found out that Compeyson fled from her. Pip remembers the house as a dark prison. This house also brings the theme self-improvement. As soon as Pip sees the house along with Estella, he longs to be a wealthy

1. Why does Pip feel the need to lie about Miss Havisham when he is questioned about her by Mrs. Joe and Mr. Pumblechook? Why is he confident Mr.Pumblechook will not correct his story? Pip feels the need to lie about Miss Havisham because he feels that they won’t believe him and doesn’t want to publicly humiliate her. He is certain Mr. Pumblechook will not correct his story because he does not know her.

Home in today’s society can be described in many ways, but is ultimately expressed as more of a feeling of safety and love. Sonsyrea Tate claims "You can leave home all you want, but home will never leave you." In essence, the feeling of home is a part of the character and who he/she will become. In Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, Pip examines the true meaning of home and how the subjective opinion of home can reflect who a person becomes. He illustrates this idea using recurring appearances of home-like symbols, the way Pip’s definition of home changes throughout the novel, and how he shows Pip’s acquired feelings after moving into higher society.

To begin with, Pip shows the danger of only pursuing class, as he realizes that money does not make him happy. To illustrate, Charles Dickens begins Pip’s awareness of social class in his novel, Great

2. Briefly describe the convict. What evidence is there that the convict has "human" qualities and is not merely a criminal? The convict is a fearful man all in coarse gray, with a great iron on his leg, no hat, with

Charles Dickens, author of Great Expectations, provides a perfect example of the hope of class mobility. The novel portrays very diverse and varied social classes which spread from a diligent, hardworking peasant (Joe) to a good-natured middle class man (Mr. Wemmick) to a rich, beautiful young girl (Estella). Pip, in particular, elevates in the social pyramid from a common boy to a gentleman with great expectations. With his rise in society, he also alters his attitude, from being a caring child to an apathetic gentleman. During this process, Pip learns how he should act and how to become a real gentleman. Social mobility and wealth, furthermore, carves a disposition and how a character is looked upon.

“And as to the condition on which you hold your advancement in life—namely, that you are not to inquire or discuss to whom you owe it—you may be very sure that it will never be encroached upon, or even approached by me, or by any one belonging to me.” (Dickens, 177). This excerpt foretells the main theme of the novel, Pip’s journey of self-improvement.

Men and women can be in prison for doing terrible things. Although, some inmates are greeted by loved ones with happiness. It always fascinated me how these men and women could have such loving relationships even though they are locked up for doing a crime. When I see inmates expressing their love to visitors it really makes me think, “Is there some good in the worst of men?” In the novel Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, any reader can see Dickens’s claim that there is some good in the worst of men.

In the Victorian society, men and women were very separated and unbalanced.Due to this, many Victorians compared the two genders to‘separate spheres’, only coming together at breakfast and again at dinner. Most men were highly expected to provide sufficiently for their family, their role in the family was to help provide the money .Since the men were more superior than the women, they received more rights like the right to vote. In the novel Great Expectations, Charles Dickens uses the characters in the book to portray the gender roles, social classes and the changing of classes in the Victorian era.

Great Expectations’ main character, Phillip Pirrip- generally known as Pip- had a rough upbringing as a child. His sister, Mrs. Joe had “brought him up by hand”, after their parents and five brothers had all been laid to rest many years ago. Another character, Herbert Pocket experienced a bizarre childhood, though in a different manner. Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations develops through the novel following Pip, a young “common boy” who grew up in the countryside. As he matured so did his love for a girl of higher class, Estella. However, being a common boy, Pip was not good enough for his Estella, thus once he was given an opportunity to become a gentleman in London he seized it without much hesitation. Charles Dickens’ had his own

In Charles Dickens’ novel, Great Expectations, the main character named Pip suffers through a conflict of confusing good and bad people. He repeatedly disregards the people that love and care for him and instead chooses to care for people who do not care for him. When making these choices, Pip senses that he is making the wrong decisions and therefore confuses good and bad and also confuses himself.

Charles Dickens is one of the most influential writers in history and was “born in Landport, now part of Portsmouth, on February 7th, 1812”(Priestly 5). Despite being the successful writer that he was in life, Dickens had very humble beginnings and because his Father, John Huffman Dickens, “lacked the money to support his family adequetly” , Dickens lived in poverty through out most of his childhood (Collins). Matters only got worse, however, when Dickens’s Father had to “spen[d] time in prison for debt” causing Dickens to have to “work in a London factory pasting labels on bottles of shoe polish” (Collins). It was a horrible experience for him, but it also helped him to no doubt feel pity for the poor, which is

One stormy night, Pip is home alone and is visited by a man who seems

The literary criticism “Patterns of Communication in Great Expectations” is an effective literary criticism, it proves there is evidently more communication between characters in the novel than most critics let onto. Ruth M. Vande Kieft, who is the author of this piece, suggests that the majority of the characters in Dickens novels have a substantial amount of communication among themselves. But, the dialogue in the novel depicted is not what we typically observe in the majority Victorian novels. Vande Kieft uses evidence in her writing from Dorothy Van Ghent, who suggests there is little interaction and the majority of the main characters attempts fail when they do try and communicate amongst each other. This article is effective in showing examples of certain patterns between the many characters in the novel. The article was also effective because it showed a different way of looking at communication in the way writers aim for when writing stories. This literary criticism was an interesting because it made me think about other novels that I have read and how Vande Kieft would have depicted them. In Great Expectations, we saw a different pattern in how characters communicate. Most family communication patterns are usually easy to follow. Although this novel was easy to read, I understand where critics state the contrary. I valued this work because of the examples stated throughout, and I will analyze some of the examples stated in my paper.