english

english

1. the plot

   • Christmas Eve, afternoon: Pip meets the convict (Abel Magwitch) who asks him to steal a file and wittles for him. Joe and Mrs Joe are introduced. Joe is lovely and Mrs Joe is shown to hit Pip for no reason. Guns signal escaped convicts; Pip steals food and equipment and suffers from “wild fancies” caused by his guilt. When Magwitch is caught fighting with Compeyson, he confesses Pip’s crime
   • Pip and Joe’s limited education is compared. Miss Havisham requests Pip to visit. Mr Pumblechook takes Pip to meet Miss Havisham. He then meets Estella and falls in love. Estella bullies Pip and makes him cry. She highlights his poor breeding by calling him “a common labouring boy”. Pip starts an apprenticeship with Joe which he resents. Estella is sent away to learn how to be a lady. Pip confesses to Biddy that he wants to become a gentleman.
   • Pip is shown to look down on Joe and his lack of education. Joe is shown to be kind and thoughtful towards Pip. Mrs Joe is assaulted by Orlick which results in Joe fighting and Mrs Joe being disabled. She becomes a nicer person and Biddy moves in to care for her. Jaggers invites Pip to become a gentleman in London with “great expectations” from a secret benefactor.
   • Pip lives with Herbert Pocket, Miss Havisham’s nephew and learns how to be a gentleman. He thinks Miss Havisham is his secret benefactor. He learns Miss Havisham’s wedding story. Jaggers shows Pip, Molly his housekeeper as a bullied, low woman he saved. Pip doesn’t realised Molly is Estella’s mother.
   • Biddy writes to Pip asking if Joe can visit him in London. Pip is condescending to Joe and looks down on him in front of Henry. Pip starts to think that is is Pumblechook that is his patron. He visits Miss Havisham and declares his love for Estella. He waits for Estella in London where she is visiting.
   • Pip and Herbert accumulate large debts. Mrs Joe dies. Pip comes of age (November) and becomes responsible for his finances. Pip escorts Estella to Miss Havisham where he learns of her engagement to Bentley Drummond. He quarrels with Miss Havisham and Estella then leaves broken hearted. Pip is now 23. Magwitch returns and reveals he is Pip’s benefactor.
   • Magwitch stays with Pip under the name Provis to disguise his identity. Jaggers confirms that Magwitch is the benefactor. Herbert advises Pip to get Magwitch out of the country. They learn about Magwitch’s life. Pip declares his love for Estella again but she is set to marry Drummond.
   • Pip feels he is being watched. Pip dines with Jaggers and learns that Estelle is married. Wemmick explains that Molly is Estella’s mother and that Magwitch is her father. Pip reminded Magwitch of Estella which his why he decided to help him. Miss Havisham confesses all and is killed in a fire at her house.
   • Jaggers explains Estella’s adoption and advises Pip to keep it a secret. Magwitch’s escape is thwarted. Compeyson is drowned and Pip is reconciled to his benefactor. Pip’s wealth is forfeited to the crown. Magwitch is convicted and sentenced to death. Pip tells him of Estella. Pip becomes ill and is arrested for debt but rescued by Joe. Joe marries Biddy. Eleven years later Pip returns to Miss Havisham’s house and finds Estella

2. key words

   • Epiphany Benefactor Apprentice Bildungsroman Maturity Adulthood Naive Eccentric Realisation Ignorant Protagonist Antagonist Malevolent Social class Social Mobility

3. the characters

   • Pip Pirrip The Bildungsroman’s protagonist, an orphan who serves as an apprentice to a gentle blacksmith, Joe. When he unexpectedly comes into a fortune, Pip grows haughty and extravagant in pursuit of a lifestyle genteel enough to meet the refined standards of Estelle. Confusing personal integrity with public reputation, Pip is cruelly disloyal to Joe and Biddy, avoiding them because of their lower class. Still, Pip learns to judge people on their internal rather than superficial standards and redeems himself by repenting sincerely and reforming his personal values.
   • Miss Havis ham The wealthy daughter of a brewer, Miss Havisham was abandoned on her wedding day by her fiance (Compeyson) and, traumatized. She preserves herself and her house in wedding regalia, shutting out the world for over twenty years. To exact her revenge on men, Miss Havisham adopts and raises Estella to be beautiful and desirable but completely heartless. Miss Havisham is capricious, manipulative, bitter and until the novel’s end unable to recognise anyone’s pain but her own.
   • Magwitc h (Provis) The escaped convict that Pip meets in the churchyard as a young boy. Inspired by Pip’s kindness as a young boy, Magwitch devotes his life savings to Pip. Cruelly swindled by Compeyson, he has lived in and out of prison. His criminal record is largely due to unfortunate circumstances, not character. He is kind, good-hearted and generous.
   • Biddy An orphan Pip meets at the village school. Biddy moves into the forge to look after Mrs Joe after the attack. Later she becomes a school teacher. She is humble, kind, moral and fiercely intelligent, absorbing knowledge without any formal education. She is also sharply perceptive and sees through everyone’s pretensions, calling Pip out on his delusions and snobbery long before Pip can recognise them.
   • Joe Joe is the father figure for Pip. Married to Pip’s harsh sister. Joe has no formal education but possess a deep sense of integrity and an unfailing moral compass. Joe is loyal, generous and kind. He acts lovingly to Pip, even when he is ungrateful.
   • Mr Jagge rs A famous lawyer in London, Mr Jaggers is Pop’s guardian and middle man between him and is patron. Mr Jaggers also works for Miss Havisham. He is rational, sharp-minded and intimidating. He prides himself on neither expressing nor responding to human emotion.
   • Mrs Joe Mrs Joe is fiery, tyrannical and false. Obsessed with social status and reputation. Attacked by Orlick for being vile, her temperament changes and she becomes patient and docile.
   • Estell a The adopted daugher of Miss Havisham, Estella is proud, refined, beautiful, and cold, raised by Miss Havisham to “wreak revenge of the male sex”. Miss Havisham has raised her to lack a true human heart and she is unable to love.

4. great expectation

   • Great Expectations: A bildungsroman novel told through the narrative voice of Pip