Great Expectations
Greatexpectations vol1.jpg
Title page of Vol. 1 of first edition, July 1861
Author Charles Dickens
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Series Weekly: 1 December 1860 ? 3 August 1861
Genre Realistic fiction, social criticism
Publisher Chapman Hall
Publication date 1861 (in three volumes)

Great Expectations is Charles Dickens' thirteenth novel. It is the second novel, after David Copperfield, to be fully narrated in the first person.[N 1] Great Expectations is a bildungsroman, or a coming-of-age novel, and the story genre is Victorian Literature.[1] It depicts the growth and personal development of an orphan named Pip. The novel was first published in serial form in Dickens' weekly periodical All the Year Round, from 1 December 1860 to August 1861.[2] In October 1861, Chapman and Hall published the novel in three volumes.

Great Expectations was to be twice as long, but All the Year Round's managements constraints limited the novel's length. Collected and dense, with a conciseness unusual for Dickens, the novel represents Dickens' peak and maturity as an author. Great Expectations was written, according to GK Chesterton, in "the afternoon of his life and glory," and the penultimate novel Dickens completed, preceding Our Mutual Friend.

It is set among the marshes of Kent and in London in the early-to-mid 1800s.[1] From the outset, the reader is "treated" by the terrifying encounter between Pip, the protagonist, and the escaped convict, Abel Magwitch.[3] Great Expectations is a graphic book, full of extreme imagery, poverty, prison ships, "the hulks," barriers and chains, and fights to the death.[3] It therefore combines intrigue and unexpected twists of autobiograhical detail in different tones. Regardless of its narrative technique, the novel reflects the events of the time, Dickens' concerns, and the relationship between society and man.

The novel received mixed reviews from contemporary critics: Thomas Carlyle speaks of "All that Pip's nonsense,"[4] while GB Shaw praised the novel: "All of one piece and Consistently truthfull."[5] Dickens felt Great Expectations was his best work, calling it "a very fine idea,"[6] and was very sensitive to compliments from his friends: "Bulwer, who has been, as I think you know, extraordinarily taken by the book."[7]

Great Expectations has a colourful cast that has remained in popular culture: the capricious Miss Havisham, the cold and beautiful Estella, Joe the blacksmith who is always kind and generous, the dry and meek Uncle Pumblechook, Mr Jaggers, Wemmick and his dual personality, and the eloquent and wise friend, Herbert Pocket. Throughout the narrative, typical Dickensian themes emerge: wealth and poverty, love and rejection, and the eventual triumph of good over evil.[3] Great Expectations has become very popular and is now taught as a classic in many English classes. It has been translated into many languages and adapted many times in film and other media.

Contents

Development history[edit]

Charles Dickens, circa 1860.

As Dickens began writing Great Expectations, he undertook a series of hugely popular and remunerative reading tours. He had separated from his wife, Catherine Dickens, and was keeping secret an affair with a much younger woman, Ellen Ternan. However, the genesis of Great Expectations is not glorious, artistically, and the idea of romance and economic circumstances dictated the novel's design and implementation.

Beginning[edit]

In his Book of Memoranda, begun in 1855, Dickens wrote names for possible characters: Magwitch, Provis, Clarriker, Compey, Pumblechook, Horlick, Gargery, Wopsle, Skiffins, some of which become familiar in Great Expectations. There is also a reference to a "knowing man," a possible sketch of the future Bentley Drummle.[8] Another evokes a house full of "Toadies and Humbugs," forshadowing the visitors to Satis House in Chapter 11.[9][8] In addition, Margaret Cardwell speculates the "premonition" of Great Expectations from a 25 novembre 1855 letter from Dickens to W. H. Wills, in which Dickens speaks of recycling an "odd idea" for the Christmas special "A House to Let" and "the pivot round which my next book shall revolve."[10][11] The "odd idea" concerns an individual who "retires to an old lonely house?resolved to shut out the world and hold no communion with it."[10]

In a 8 August 1860 letter to Earl Carlisle, Dickens reported his agitation that arrives whenever he prepares a new book.[8] A month later, in a letter to Forster, Dickens announced that he just had a new idea.[12]

Plot summary[edit]

On Christmas Eve, around 1812,[13] Pip, an orphan who is approximately six years old, encounters an escaped convict in the village churchyard while visiting the graves of his mother and father, as well as those of his siblings. The convict scares Pip into stealing food for him, and a file to grind away his shackles, from the home he shares with his abusive older sister and her kind, passive husband Joe Gargery, a blacksmith. The next day, soldiers recapture the convict, and another, while they are engaged in a fight; the two are returned to the prison ships whence they escaped.

Miss Havisham, a wealthy spinster, who wears an old wedding dress and lives in the dilapidated Satis House, asks Pip's "Uncle Pumblechook" (who is actually Joe's uncle) to find a boy to play with her adopted daughter Estella. Pip begins to visit Miss Havisham and Estella, with whom he falls in love, with Miss Havisham's encouragement. Pip visits Miss Havisham multiple times, and during one of these visits, he brings Joe along. During their absence, Mrs. Joe is attacked by a mysterious individual and lives out the rest of her life as a mute invalid.

Miss Havisham with Estella and Pip. Art by H. M. Brock

Later, as a young apprentice at Joe Gargery's blacksmith shop, Pip is approached by a lawyer, Mr. Jaggers, who tells him he is to receive a large sum of money from an anonymous benefactor and must leave for London immediately where he is to become a gentleman. Concluding that Miss Havisham is his benefactress, he visits her and Estella, who has returned from studying on the Continent.

Years later, Pip has reached adulthood and is now heavily in debt. His benefactor is revealed to be Abel Magwitch, the convict he helped, who was transported to New South Wales where he eventually became wealthy. There is a warrant for Magwitch's arrest in England and he will be hanged if he is caught. A plan is therefore hatched for him to flee by boat. It is also revealed that Estella is the daughter of Magwitch and Mr. Jaggers's housemaid, Molly, whom Jaggers defended in a murder charge and who gave up her daughter to be adopted by Miss Havisham.

Pip confronts Miss Havisham with Estella's history. Miss Havisham stands too close to the fire which ignites her dress. Pip is burned while saving her, but she eventually dies from her injuries, lamenting her manipulation of Estella and Pip.

Magwitch makes himself known to Pip

A few days before the escape, Pip is attacked by Joe's journeyman, Orlick, who was responsible for the attack on Mrs. Joe. Pip is saved, and prepares for the escape. During the escape, Magwitch kills his enemy Compeyson. Magwitch is captured and sent to jail, where he dies shortly before his execution, while being told Estella is alive. Barely alive, Magwitch responds with a squeezing of Pip's palm. Pip is about to be arrested for unpaid debts when he falls ill. Joe nurses him back to health and pays off his debts.

At the end of the original version Pip meets Estella on the streets; she has remarried after her abusive husband has died. Pip says that he is glad she is a better girl from what she was before, the coldhearted girl Miss Havisham reared her to be and that "suffering had been stronger than Miss Havisham's teaching and had given her a heart to understand what my heart used to be." Pip remains single.[14]

Revised ending[edit]

Following comments by Edward Bulwer-Lytton that the ending was too sad, Dickens rewrote the ending so that Pip now meets Estella in the ruins of Satis House after the death of her husband; it is ambiguous whether Pip and Estella marry or if Pip remains single. John Forster and several early 20th-century writers, including George Bernard Shaw and George Orwell, felt that the original ending was "more consistent with the draft, as well as the natural working out of the tale"[this quote needs a citation]; modern literary criticism is split over the matter.

Characters[edit]

Pip and his family[edit]

Miss Havisham and her family[edit]

From Pip's youth[edit]

Mr Jaggers and his circle[edit]

Antagonists[edit]

Other characters[edit]

Style and theme[edit]

Great Expectations is written in first person and uses some language and grammar that has fallen out of common use since its publication. The title Great Expectations refers to the 'Great Expectations' Pip has of coming into his benefactor's property upon his disclosure to him and achieving his intended role as a gentleman at that time. Great Expectations is a bildungsroman, a novel depicting growth and personal development, in this case, of Pip.

Some of the major themes of Great Expectations are crime, social class, empire and ambition. From an early age, Pip feels guilt; he is also afraid that someone will find out about his crime and arrest him. The theme of crime comes in to even greater effect when Pip discovers that his benefactor is in fact a convict. Pip has an internal struggle with his conscience throughout the book. Great Expectations explores the different social classes of the Georgian era. Throughout the book, Pip becomes involved with a broad range of classes, from criminals like Magwitch to the extremely rich like Miss Havisham. Pip has great ambition, as demonstrated constantly in the book.

Film, TV, and theatrical adaptations[edit]

Like many other Dickens novels, Great Expectations has been filmed for the cinema or television several times, including:

Stage versions have included:

Cultural references and spin-offs[edit]

Works[edit]

Text[edit]

French translations[edit]

General sources[edit]

Specific sources[edit]

About the life and work of Charles Dickens[edit]

About Great Expectations[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Bleak House presents a double narrative with two narrators; The two narratives alternate between a third-person narrator and a first-person narrator, Esther Summerson, but the former is predominant.

References[edit]

Portal icon Charles Dickens portal
  1. ^ a b "Great Expectations by Charles Dickens CliffsNotes - Study Guide and Help". Cliffsnotes.com. Retrieved 2012-10-30. 
  2. ^ "How Great Expectations". Umd.umich.edu. Retrieved 2012-10-30. 
  3. ^ a b c Charles Dickens 1993, p. 1, introduction.
  4. ^ Mark Cummings, ed., The Carlyle Encyclopedia, Cranbury, N. J., Asociated University Presses, 2004, p.122.
  5. ^ George Bernard Shaw, Charles Dickens; Modern Crtical Views, Harold Bloom ed, New York, Infobase Publishings, 2006, p.60.
  6. ^ "The Grotesque and Tragicomedy in Dickens? Great Expectations". Retrieved 2012-11-06. 
  7. ^ Ian Brinton. "Dickens Bookmarks 12 - Great Expectations". Retrieved 2012-11-06. 
  8. ^ a b c Template:Harvsb
  9. ^ Fred Kaplan ?d., Dickens's Book of Memoranda, 1981.
  10. ^ a b Charles Dickens, letters, Letter to Wilkie Collins, 6 September 1858.
  11. ^ (Charles Dickens 1993, p. xiv), introduction by Margaret Cardwell
  12. ^ Charles Dickens, Letters, Letter to John Forster, mid-September 1860 (?).
  13. ^ Meckier, Jerome Dating the Action in Great Expectations: A New Chronology.
  14. ^ "The ending of "Great Expectations"". 

External links[edit]

Online editions
Other