Great Expectations

1. Great Expectations A Bildungsroman A novel which focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood.

2. THEMES Universal ideas explored in a literary work The moral theme of Great Expectations IS: Affection, loyalty, and conscience are more important than social advancement, wealth, and class.

3. I. AMBITION AND SELF-IMPROVEMENT MORAL SOCIAL EDUCATIONAL

4. II. SOCIAL CLASS • WRETCHED CRIMINAL • POOR PEASANTS OF THE MARSH COUNTRY • THE MIDDLE CLASS • THE VERY RICH • Note: Dickens ignores the nobility and the hereditary aristocracy in favor of characters whose fortunes have been earned through commerce.

5. A symbol of Pip’s inner struggle to reconcile his own inner moral conscience with the institutional justice system. Just as social class becomes a superficial standard of value that Pip must learn to look beyond in finding a better way to live his life, the external trappings of the criminal justice system (police, courts, jails, etc.) become a superficial standard of morality that Pip must learn to look beyond to trust his inner conscience. MAGWITCH III. Crime, Guilt, and Innocence

6. MOTIFS Recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

7. DOUBLES DRAMATIC SYMMETRY CONVICTS INVALIDS BENEFACTORS PIP’S LOVES ADULTS SELFISHLY MOLDING YOUTH Bonus: Havisham + Compeyson = Pip + Estella

8. Comparing characters to inanimate objects • Mrs. Joe looks as if she scrubs her face with a nutmeg grater • The features of Mr. Wemmick are compared to a letter-box

9. SYMBOLS Objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

10. SATIS HOUSE • Symbolizes Pip’s romantic perception of the upper class and many other themes of the book. • Rotting wedding dress: symbol of death and degeneration. • Dress and Feast: Miss Havisham’s past • Stopped Clocks: her determined attempt to freeze time • The Brewery: the connection between commerce and wealth • The crumbling, dilapidated stones of the house + the darkness and dust: the general decadence of the lives of its inhabitants and of the upper class as a whole.

11. MISTS ON THE MARSHES • The setting almost always symbolizes a theme… and sets a tone that is perfectly matched to the novel’s dramatic action. • DANGER AND UNCERTAINTY

12. BENTLY DRUMMLE • Provides an important contrast with Pip and represents the arbitrary nature of class distinctions. • (Drummle provides Pip with proof that social advancement has no inherent connection to intelligence or moral worth.) • Drummle is a wealthy lout, while Joe is a poor, good man… this realization helps him eventually see the worth of Magwitch AND to eventually discard his immature fantasies about wealth and class in favor of a new understanding that is both more compassionate and more realistic.

13. TEST REVIEW • How were Pip and Joe “brought up by hand”?

14. How does Pip feel about himself after his first meeting with Miss Havisham and Estella?

15. What does the following quote mean? “Pause you who read this and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.”

16. Who claimed to be the founder of Pip’s fortunes? Who actually was?

17. What did Pip do for Herbert? How did his good deed eventually come back to him?

18. What are the two sides of Wemmick’s character Describe them….

19. Why did Orlick try to kill Pip?

20. Pip says, “I only saw him as a much better man than I had been to Joe.” Explain how this shows Pip’s personal growth.

21. What happened to Pip’s “great expectations”?

22. How did Pip carry on with his life?

23. DISCUSS • What is the point of Great Expectations? • What do you think Charles Dickens intended us to gain from reading his novel?