Great Expectations

Great Expectations

1. Characters

   • Pip Pirrip
     • An orphan
     • Serves as an apprentice to a gentle blacksmith; Joe.
     • During work he is told he is of Great Expectations.
     • Pip grows haughty and extravagant in pursuit of a lifestyle gentle enough to meet a refined standards of Estella.
     • Ends up cruelly disloyal to Joe and Biddy
     • Pip tries to avoid his family because of their lower class.
     • He learns to judge people on their internal rather than superficial standards
     • He ends up redeeming himself by repenting sincerely and reforming his personal values.
   • Magwitch
     • Escaped convict
       • Escaped the prison ships
     • Meets Pip as a young boy in the churchyard
     • Inspired by Pip`s kindness
     • Devotes his life to Pip
     • Lived in and out of prison
     • His criminal record is largely due to unfortunate circumstances, not his character
     • He is kind, good-hearted and generous
     • Pip`s benefactor
   • Joe
     • Father figure for Pip
     • Married to Pip`s harsh sister
     • Has no formal education
     • Loyal, generous and kind.
     • Loving of Pip; even when he is ungrateful
   • Mrs Joe
     • Fiery, tyrannical, false and violent
     • Obsessed with social status and reputation
     • Attacked by Orlick for being vile
     • After attacked, she becomes patient and docile
   • Biddy
     • An orphan Pip meets at the school village.
     • She moves into the forge to look after Mrs Joe after the attack
     • Later she becomes a school teacher.
     • Humble, kind, moral, fiercely intelligent, absorbing knowledge without any formal education.
     • She is also sharply perceptive and sees through pretensions, calling Pip out on his delusions and snobbery long before Pip can recognise them.
   • Mr Jaggers
     • A famous lawyer in London
     • Pip`s guardian
     • Works for Miss Havisham
       • This is why Pip suspects that Miss Havisham is the benefactor
     • He is rational, sharp-minded and intimidating.
     • He prides himself on neither expressing nor responding to human emotion.
   • Estella
     • Adopted by Miss Havisham. Daughter of Magwitch.
     • Raised by Miss Havisham to "wreak revenge on the male sex"
     • She is proud, refined, beautiful and cold.
     • Unable to love
     • Miss Havisham had raised her to lack a true human heart.
   • Miss Havisham
     • Abandoned on her wedding day. She has ever since worn her gown.
     • She preserves herself
     • Shuts out the world for over 20 years
     • To exact her revenge on men, she adopts and raised a daughter, Estella, to be beautiful and desirable but completely heartless.
     • Miss Havisham is capricious, manipulative and bitter until the end unable to recognise anyones pain besides her own.
     • Raises Magwitch`s daughter.

2. Plot

   • Chapters 1-6
     • Christmas eve; afternoon
     • Pip goes on a walk to see his Parent`s graves.
     • On his walk he meets an escaped convict called Abel Magwitch
     • Magwitch asks Pip to steal a file and some wittle. Magwitch said if he didn`t then he would be eaten alive.
     • Guns fire to show that they have found the convicts.
     • Pip steals food and equipment for Magwitch and suffers from "wild fancies" caused by his guilt.
     • When Magwitch is caught fighting with Compeyson, he takes the blame for ip`s crime.
   • Chapters 51-59
   • Chapters 7-13
     • Pip and Joe`s limited education is compared.
     • Miss Havisham requests Pip to visit her.
     • Mr Pumblechook takes Pip to meet Miss Havisham.
     • Estella bullies Pip and makes him cry.
     • He then meets Estella and falls in love.
     • She makes Pip question his class when she calls him "a common labouring boy".
     • Pip starts an apprenticeship with Joe which he resents.
     • Estella is sent away to learn how to become a lady.
     • Pip admits to Biddy that he wants to become a gentleman.
   • Chapters 14-19
     • 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 Mr Joe fighting and Mrs Joe being disabled.
     • Mrs Joe becomes a nicer person and Biddy moves in to take care of her.
     • Jagger`s invites Pip to come to London to become a gentleman of Great Expectations from a secret benefactor.
   • Chapters 20-26
     • Pip lives with Herbert Pocket, Miss Havisham`s nephew and learns how to become 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 does not realise Molly is Estella`s Mother.