Creating Memorable Characters in Great Expectations Essay

Great Expectations tells the ultimate rags to riches story of the Orphan Pip. Dickens takes his readers through life changing events that ultimately mold the identity of the main character. Dividing these events into sections will provide the basis for interpreting which events had the most profound effect on Pip’s identity towards the end of the novel. These life-changing events provide the catalyst for the development of Pip’s character from childhood, his adolescence, maturing into a social gentleman, and finally becoming a self-aware man of society.

  Many critics prefer the original ending to the revised version because it is the ending that Dickens himself decided to write without consulting anyone. Many people believe that since Bulwer-Lytton gave Dickens input on the second ending that it is not as true. Although Dickens may have inadvertently been plagiarizing, the original ending is the way that Dickens felt the novel should end, as opposed to the way Bulwer-Lytton felt it should end.

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.

Written during the Victorian Era (1850-1900) Charles Dickens's Great Expectations has echoes of Victorian Morality all throughout the novel. When looked up in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, morality is defined as "the evaluation of or means of evaluating human conduct as a set of ideas of right and wrong and as a set of customs of a given society, class, or social groups which regulate relationships and prescribes modes of behavior to enhance the groups survival." Although the Victorian Era occurred over one hundred years ago, the given definition is clearly portrayed through the use of several morally different characters. These characters are shown over a lengthy period of time and at many different stages in

   No novel boasts more varied and unique character relationships than Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. This essay will serve to analyze three different relationships, paying special attention to the qualities that each uphold. Dickens created three types of character relationships: true friends, betrayed friends, and loving relatives.

The names of the characters in the story Great Expectations symbolize who they are and how they act. In Great Expectations there is a great deal of symbolism throughout the book as there is in life. There are symbols of isolation, manipulation, and wanting to be something else. These are all seen in the book through the characters of Estella, Abel Magwitch, Miss Havisham, Pip, and Biddy.

Charles Dickens uses his own opinions to develop the larger-than-life characters in Great Expectations. The novel is written from the point of view of the protagonist, Pip. Pip guides the reader through his life, describing the different stages from childhood to manhood. Many judgments are made regarding the other characters, and Pip's views of them are constantly changing according to his place in the social hierarchy. For instance, Pip feels total admiration that, later, turns to total shame for the man who raised him, Joe Gargery. The primary theme in this novel questions whether being in a higher social and economic class helps a person to achieve true happiness. This idea is shown through Pip's innocence at the forge, visits

In “Everyday Uses” Alice Walker used the idea of Maggie and Dee, who had different experiences in their life. In the story the Mama decides to give one of her daughters the quilts, but the other daughter believes she is more deserving of the quilts. The Mama understood that Maggie would understand the true value of what the quilts mean to their family. Dee does not listen to her mother who tried to tell her the garments used to make the quilt. Dee still left with one of the quilts, but left telling her mother she does not understand her own heritage and needs improvement. Both daughters showed what family means to each of them.

Most readers are appalled at the cold-hearted and cruel ways of Estella, but any criticism directed at her is largely undeserved. She was simply raised in a controlled environment where she was, in essence, brainwashed by Miss Havisham. Nonetheless, her demeanor might lead one to suspect that she was a girl with a heart of ice. Estella is scornful from the moment she is introduced, when she remarks on Pip's coarse hands and thick boots. However, her beauty soon captivates Pip and she is instilled as the focal point of his thoughts for much of the remainder of the novel. The fact that Pip becomes infatuated with her is also not Estella's fault. By no means is there any evidence that she loved him. She does not flirt with

As a boy, Dickens himself grew up with a father who didn’t make a lot of money and lived a lower class lifestyle. When we was only 12 he was forced to work in a factory so he could make the money he needed to bail his dad out of jail. Therefore in Great Expectations, he shows how he sympathizes with the lower class. The main way Dickens shows how he feels about the classes is through pip. One example of Dickens's expressing his feelings towards the class differences is through Pip’s realizations towards the end of the book. “...pondering, as I went along, on all I had seen, and deeply revolving that I was a common labouring-boy; that my hands were coarse; that my boots were thick; that I had fallen into a despicable habit of calling knaves Jacks; that I was much more ignorant than I had considered myself last night, and generally that I was in a low-lived bad way.” (113). By Pip realizing that being accepted into the upper class depends on how he actually lives not just how he appears, Dickens shows his belief that class is determined by more than just surface qualities. Similarly, this shows how Dickens believes that the class status of a person doesn’t always show a person's true personality. To illustrate his view of class education differences Dickens uses Pip’s transition from a uneducated blacksmith to a gentleman. Dickens also shows how he feels about the class wealth difference through a difference between Miss Havisham, and Joe and Pip. Miss Havisham had plenty of money but didn’t live the happiest life. On the other hand, Pip and Joe were rather poor and didn’t have a lot of money, but always found a way to pay off debts and live a decently enjoyable life (36). This proves how Dickens thinks that, while the classes might be determined by things like money, wealth isn’t a necessity to having a good life. While some

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

be seen when Joe covers for Pip when he is late home or when he says

Since it was first published over 150 years ago, Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations has come to be known as a timeless and remarkably moving work of literature. It is considered to be one of Dickens’ most recognizable works, and is celebrated for its meaningful, universally-believed themes. In order for this novel to be properly understood, a thoughtful analysis of its major themes must be given.

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.