Great Expectations
| Great Expectations | |
 First edition title page of Vol. 1 |
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| Author | Charles Dickens |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Chapman and Hall |
| Publication date | 1860 – 1861 (in serial form) & 1861 (in 3 volumes) |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 799 pp (hardback) |
Great Expectations is a book/novel by Charles Dickens first serialised in All the Year Round[1] from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. It is regarded as one of his greatest and most sophisticated novels, and is one of his most enduringly popular, having been adapted for stage and screen over 250 times.[2]
Great Expectations is written in a semi-autobiographical style, and is the story of the orphan Pip, writing his life from his early days of childhood until adulthood. The story can also be considered semi-autobiographical of Dickens, like much of his work, drawing on his experiences of life and people.
The action of the story takes place from Christmas Eve, 1812, when the protagonist is about seven years old, to the winter of 1840.[3]
Each installment in All the Year Round contained two chapters, and was written in a way that kept readers interested from week to week, while still satisfying their curiosity at the end of each one.
Contents |
Plot summary
The story is divided into three phases of Pip's life expectations.
The first stage of Pip's expectations:
Pip, a young orphan, lives a humble existence with his ill-tempered older sister and her strong but gentle husband, Joe Gargery. One day Pip meets an escaped convict and brings him food and a file to keep him alive. This convict is later caught again and sent away.
Pip is satisfied with his life and his warm friends until he is hired by an embittered wealthy woman, Miss Havisham, as an occasional companion to her beautiful but haughty adopted daughter, Estella. Pip falls in love with Estella. From that time on, Pip aspires to leave behind his simple life and be a gentleman. After years as companion to Miss Havisham and Estella, he spends more years as an apprentice to Joe, so that he may grow up to have a future working as a blacksmith.
This life is suddenly turned upside down when he is visited by a London lawyer, Mr. Jaggers, who informs Pip that he is to come into the "great expectations" of handsome property and be trained to be a gentleman on the behalf of an anonymous benefactor (whom he assumes to be Miss Havisham).
The second stage of Pip's expectations:
Pip travels to London. He arrives on a carriage near Mr. Jaggers' offices. After a stroll around the area, Pip is told by Mr. Jaggers that he will temporarily stay at the Barnard's Inn. Upon arriving, he finds Herbert Pocket (a relative of Miss Havisham), who informs Pip of Miss Havisham's past and how Estella was raised to take revenge on the male sex. With Mr. Pocket, Pip receives an education and tutoring in manners, fine clothing, and cultured society.
Whereas he always engaged in honest labour when he was younger, he now is supported by a generous allowance, which he frequently lives beyond. He learns to fit in this new milieu, and experiences not only friendship but rivalry as he finds himself in the same circles as Estella, who is also pursued by many other men, especially Bentley Drummle, whom she favours.
As he adopts the physical and cultural norms of his new status, he also adopts the class attitudes that go with it, and when Joe comes to visit Pip and his friend and roommate Herbert to deliver an important message, Pip is embarrassed to the point of hostility by Joe's unlearned ways, despite his protestations of love and friendship for Joe. At the end of this stage, Pip is introduced to his anonymous benefactor, Magwitch, the escaped convict he helped long ago. This again changes his world and ends this stage of his expectations.
The third stage of Pip's expectations:
From this point on, Pip's life changes from the artificially supported world of his upper class strivings and introduces him to realities that he must deal with, including moral, physical and financial challenges. He learns startling truths that cast into doubt the values that he once embraced so eagerly, and finds that he cannot regain many of the important things that he had cast aside so carelessly.
Pip attempts to smuggle Magwitch from England to Hamburg, Germany on a foreign steamer. This attempt fails when Compeyson guides police to the ship Magwitch is on. Magwitch seizes Compeyson and a fight in the water ensues. Compeyson dies and Magwitch is hit by the keel of the steamer ship which was to take him away and is arrested. Soon after, Mr. Wemmick marries Ms. Skiffins and Herbert leaves for Cairo, Egypt. Magwitch falls ill, and Pip tells him before he dies that his daughter (Estella) is still alive and that he loves her. Magwitch dies in peace, but Pip falls ill; yet, Joe tends to him and pays the debts that Pip has accumulated. Pip eventually travels with Herbert as a occupation in the Middle East.
The ending
Charles Dickens wrote two different endings for Great Expectations. Dickens changed the ending at the suggestion of a friend, the novelist Edward Bulwer Lytton, presumably for the sake of a happier ending. The majority of books being published currently contain the first ending, or both, with the Dickens' original with its own explanation.
Original ending: Pip meets Estella on the streets. Her abusive husband Drummle has died and she has remarried to a doctor. Estella and Pip exchange brief pleasantries, after which Pip states while he could not have her in the end, he was at least glad to know she was a different person now, somewhat changed from the cold-hearted girl Miss Havisham had reared her to be. The novel ends with Pip saying he could see that “suffering had been stronger than Miss Havisham's teaching and had given her a heart to understand what my heart used to be.”
Revised ending: Pip and Estella meet again at the ruins of Satis House:
'"We are friends," said I, rising and bending over her, as she rose from the bench. "And will continue friends apart," said Estella. I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place; and, as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of another parting from her.'
Themes and analysis
The main themes of the novel include gratitude, suffering, and social mobility. Pip appreciates the gentle Joe Gargery, but treats him with indifference after leaving for London. The failure of Pip to keep in contact with Joe never causes Joe to complain. Joe's selfless nature is frequently contrasted with Mr. Pumblechook's constant criticism of Pip's ingratitude. Suffering is depicted by many characters, including Miss Havisham and Pip, who suffer equally. Miss Havisham was jilted on her wedding day and tricked out of part of her money, while Pip suffers by never gaining Estella's love. Dickens uses Pip to bring attention to the increasing social stratification in Victorian London. Estella criticizes Pip for his working class background, and Pip in turn develops a contempt for his own family's lack of wealth. Pip constantly attempts to impress Estella by moving up the social ladder, though many of the benefits of this climb are dubious. The wealthy class is represented by the cruel Compeyson and Mr. Jaggers and the wasteful and indolent Miss Havisham. The working class is depicted in a constant state of oppression, despite the intelligence and honesty of many poor characters.
Other main issues in the text include parenthood (there are very few positive maternal figures in the story) and the influence that one generation's actions may have on subsequent generations. Dysfunctional family relationships in the novel result in resentment, particularly in the case of Estella's relationship with her cold-hearted guardian Miss Havisham. Revenge is another key theme. Late in the novel, the major adult characters who tried to seek revenge through others or have had serious problems in their youth regret their actions and try to make amends, suggesting that the events in a person's life may be consuming to the point of destruction, and that one's actions are irreversible and irrevocable. Another prominent theme is imprisonment, a familiar theme in Dickens' later novels (and in particular, in Little Dorrit), focusing on the sections which take place in the Hulks and Newgate Prison.~
Main characters in Great Expectations
Pip, the protagonist, and his family
- Philip Pirrip, nicknamed Pip, an orphan, and the protagonist. Pip is destined to be trained as a blacksmith, a lowly but skilled and honest trade, but strives to rise above his class after meeting Estella Havisham.
- Handel, Herbert Pocket's nickname for Pip (he is given this name from The Harmonious Blacksmith, a piece by Handel) which he uses to address Pip from their first formal meeting.
- Joe Gargery, Pip's brother-in-law, and his first father figure. Joe represents the poor but honest life that Pip rejects.
- Mrs. Joe Gargery, Pip's hot-tempered adult sister, who brings him up by hand after the death of their parents, but complains constantly of the burden Pip is to her. Orlick attacks her, and she is left disabled for the rest of her life, until Pip receives a letter saying she is dead. Late in the book, Pumblechook reveals that her true first name is Georgiana Maria (shortened to Georgiana M'Ria in the novel).
- Mr. Pumblechook, Joe Gargery's uncle, an officious bachelor who tells Mrs. Joe how noble she is to bring Pip up by hand and holds Pip in disdain. As the person who first connected Pip to Miss Havisham, he even claims to have been the original architect of Pip's good fortune. He is a corn merchant. Pip despises Mr. Pumblechook as Mr. Pumblechook constantly makes himself out to be better than he really is. He is a cunning imposter. When Pip finally stands up to him, Mr. Pumblechook turns those listening to the conversation against Pip.
Miss Havisham and her family
- Miss Havisham, wealthy spinster who takes Pip on as a companion, and whom Pip suspects is his benefactor. Miss Havisham does not discourage this as it fits into her own spiteful plans. She later apologizes to him. He accepts her apology and she gets badly burnt when her dress catches aflame from a spark which leapt from the fire. Pip saves her, but she later dies from natural causes and from injuries from the fire.
- Estella (Havisham), Miss Havisham's adopted daughter, whom Pip pursues romantically throughout the novel. Estella represents the life of wealth and culture that Pip strives for. Since her ability to love any man (or anyone for that matter) has been ruined by Miss Havisham, she is unable to return Pip's passion. She warns Pip of this repeatedly, but he is unwilling or unable to believe her.
- Arthur (Havisham), Miss Havisham's half-brother, who felt he was shortchanged in his inheritance by their father's preference for his daughter. He joined with Compeyson in the scheme to cheat Miss Havisham of large sums of money by gaining Miss Havisham's trust through promise of marriage to Compeyson. Arthur is haunted by the memory of the scheme and sickens and dies in a delirium, imagining that the still-living Miss Havisham is in his room, coming to kill him. Arthur has died before the beginning of the novel, and gambled heavily being drunk quite often.
- Matthew Pocket, a cousin of Miss Havisham's. He is the patriarch of the Pocket family but he is not one of her relatives who are greedy for Havisham's wealth. Matthew Pocket has a family of nine children, two nurses, a housekeeper, a cook, and a pretty but useless wife (named Belinda). He also tutors young gentlemen, such as Bentley Drummle, Startop, Pip, and his own son Herbert, who live on his estate.
- Herbert Pocket, a member of the Pocket family, Miss Havisham's presumed heirs, whom Pip first meets as a "pale young gentleman" who challenges Pip to a fist fight at Miss Havisham's house when both are children. He is the son of Matthew Pocket, Pip's tutor in the "gentlemanly" arts, and shares his apartment with Pip in London, becoming Pip's fast friend who is there to share Pip's happiness as well as his troubles. He has a secret relationship with a woman called Clara. Herbert keeps it secret because he knows his mother would say she is below his "station." She's actually a sweet, fairy-like girl who takes care of her dying drunk of a father.
- Camilla, an aging, talkative relative of Miss Havisham who does not care much for Miss Havisham but only wants her money. She is one of the many relatives who hang around Miss Havisham "like flies" for her wealth.
- Cousin Raymond, another aging relative of Miss Havisham who is only interested in her money. He is married to Camilla.
- Georgiana, another aging relative of Miss Havisham who is only interested in her money.
- Sarah Pocket is an aging relative of Miss Havisham who is only interested in her money.
Characters from Pip's youth
- The Convict, an escapee from a prison ship, whom Pip treats kindly, and who turns out to be his benefactor, at which time his real name is revealed to be Abel Magwitch, but who is also known as Provis and Mr. Campbell in parts of the story to protect his identity. Pip also covers him as his uncle in order that no one recognizes him as a convict sent to Australia years before.
- Abel Magwitch, the convict's given name.
- Provis - a name that Abel Magwitch uses when he returns to London, to conceal his identity.
- Mr. Campbell, a name that Abel Magwitch uses after he is discovered in London by his enemy.
- Mr. and Mrs. Hubble, simple folk who think they are more important than they really are. They live in Pip's village.
- Mr. Wopsle, The clerk of the church in Pip's town. He later gives up the church work and moves to London to pursue his ambition to be an actor, even though he is not very good.
- Mr. Waldengarver, the stage name that Mr. Wopsle adopts as an actor in London.
- Biddy, granddaughter of Mr. Wopsle's great-aunt; the latter runs an evening school in her home in Pip's village and Biddy becomes Pip's teacher. A kind and intelligent but poor young woman, like Pip and Estella, is an orphan, who is the opposite of Estella. Pip ignores Biddy's obvious love for him as he fruitlessly pursues Estella. After he realizes the error of his life choices, he returns to claim Biddy as his bride, only to find out she has married Joe Gargery. Biddy and Joe later have two children, one named after Pip which Estella mistakes as Pip's child in the "original ending."Love of Orlick."
- Clara, wife to Herbert Pocket. A very poor girl that lives with her father who has some strange sickness. She dislikes Pip the first time she meets him because he influences Herbert's spending, but she eventually warms up to him.
The attorney and his circle
- Mr. Jaggers, prominent London attorney who represents the interests of diverse clients, both criminal and civil. He represents Pip's benefactor and is Miss Havisham's attorney as well. By the end of the story, his law practice is the common element that brushes many of the characters.
- Mr. Wemmick, Jaggers's clerk, only called "Mr. Wemmick" and "Wemmick" except by his father, who himself is referred to as "The Aged Parent", "The Aged P.", or simply "The Aged." Wemmick is Pip's chief go-between with Jaggers and generally looks after Pip in London.
- Molly, Mr. Jaggers's maidservant whom Jaggers saved from the gallows for murder. She is revealed to be the former lover of Magwitch, and the natural mother of Estella.
Pip's antagonists
- Compeyson (surname), another convict, and enemy to Magwitch. A professional swindler, he had been Miss Havisham's intended husband, who was in league with Arthur to defraud Miss Havisham of her fortune. He pursues Abel Magwitch when he learns that he is in London and eventually dies.
- "Dolge" Orlick, journeyman blacksmith at Joe Gargery's forge. Strong, rude and sullen, he is as churlish as Joe is gentle and kind. His resentments cause him to take actions which threaten his desires in life, but for which he blames others. He ends up in a fistfight with Joe over Mrs. Joe's taunting and is easily beaten. This set in motion an escalating chain of events that lead him to secretly injure Mrs. Joe grievously and eventually make an attempt on Pip's life.
- Bentley Drummle, a coarse unintelligent young man whose only saving graces are that he is to succeed to a title and his family is wealthy. Pip meets him at Mr. Pocket's house, as Drummle is also to be trained in gentlemanly skills. Drummle is hostile to Pip and everyone. He is a rival to Pip for Estella's attentions and marries her. It is said he ill-treats Estella and took much from her.
- "The Spider", Mr. Jaggers's nickname for Bentley Drummle.
Pip is a young boy in a small town, with a sad childhood, but with great expectations.
Significant places in Great Expectations
The physical setting
- Rochester, Kent and surrounding countryside, Pip's childhood home
- London and environs in the early 19th century, primary location of the events of Pip's adult life
Real places referred to
- The hill, wetlands on the banks of the River Thames estuary in Kent near to Pip's boyhood home and town.
- The Hulks, Prison ships anchored off the marshes holding prisoners who are to be transported to Australia as punishment.
- Little Britain, old London neighbourhood of narrow streets and location of Mr. Jaggers's offices.
- Barnard's Inn: one of the minor Inns of Court, referred to in the text as "the dingiest collection of shabby buildings ever squeezed together in a rank corner as a club for tom cats", attached to Gray's Inn where Dickens had worked as a clerk.
- Newgate Prison, ancient prison near Mr. Jaggers's office, where criminals are imprisoned and executed. Also a location where debtors, such as Dickens' father, were imprisoned, though Dickens' father himself was imprisoned in the Marshalsea.
- The Temple, location of houses where Pip and Herbert live after they leave Barnard's Inn, and where Pip meets his benefactor. According to the text, "Our chambers were in Garden-court, down by the river." Garden Court still exists, nearby Temple tube station.
- St. James church in the opening scenes, on the Isle of Grain, to the north of Rochester
Fictional places in Kent
- The Forge, the workplace and home of Pip and his family, in Grain, to the North of Rochester. In the forge itself his substitute father Joe Gargery works as a master blacksmith. Pip later works there as his apprentice.
- Satis House, as in Latin "satis" meaning enough. Also known as Manor House, Miss Havisham's ruined mansion where she lives with her adopted daughter Estella, and where Pip serves for months as her periodic companion. The house is based on a real manor house off Rochester High Street, later owned by Rod Hull.
- The Three Jolly Bargemen, the public house and general meeting place of Pip's home town.
- The Blue Boar, inn/hotel in Kent, Pip stays here rather than staying with Joe and Biddy when he visits his home town. The descriptions match the Bull Inn on Rochester High St. There is also a Blue Boar Lane in the area.
Fictional places
- The Castle, Wemmick's fanciful home, where he lives with his father and receives Pip, located in Walworth.
Film, TV, and theatrical adaptations
Like many other Dickens novels, Great Expectations has been filmed several times, including:
- 1917 - silent, starring Jack Pickford, directed by Robert G. Vignola.
- 1922 - silent, made in Denmark, starring Martin Herzberg, directed by A.W. Sandberg.
- 1934 - starring Phillips Holmes and Jane Wyatt, directed by Stuart Walker.
- 1944 - starring John Mills as Pip and Jean Simmons as Estella, directed by David Lean.
- 1959 - starring Dinsdale Landen as Pip, Helen Lindsay as Estella and Derek Benfield as Landlord. (BBC television series)
- 1967 - starring Gary Bond and Francesca Annis.
- 1974 - starring Michael York and Sarah Miles, directed by Joseph Hardy.
- 1975 - Stage Musical (London West End). Music by Cyril Ornadel, starring Sir John Mills. Ivor Novello Award for Best British Musical.
- 1981 - starring Derek Francis, directed by Julian Amyes.
- 1981 - starring George Ndirangu, directed by b.dot njuguna.
- 1983 - an animated children's version, starring Phillip Hinton, Liz Horne, Robin Stewart, and Bill Kerr.
- 1989 - starring Anthony Hopkins as Magwitch and Jean Simmons as Miss Havisham, directed by Kevin Connor.
- 1998 - starring Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow, directed by Alfonso Cuarón.
- 1999 - starring Ioan Gruffudd as Pip, Justine Waddell as Estella, and Charlotte Rampling as Miss Havisham (Masterpiece Theatre—TV)
- 2000 - Parody episode of "South Park".
- 2008 - Stage version by Wimborne Drama [1] starring Rob Cording as older Pip, Penny Pearson as Miss Havisham and Michaela Slatford as older Estella. Directed by Paul Dodman.
Cultural references and spin-offs
- Great Expectations, the Untold Story (1986), starring John Stanton, directed by Tim Burstall is a spin-off movie depicting the adventures of Magwitch in Australia.
- In explaining the character Pip, the creators of South Park made a parody episode, "Pip". It initially followed the plot, but spun off on a tangent (one involving robot monkeys) that made Miss Havisham more villainous (by way of a brain-switching device) as a parody of the fact that Dickens had changed the ending to fit the fads at the time.
- Peter Carey's Jack Maggs is a re-imagining of Magwitch's return to England, with the addition, among other things, of a fictionalised Charles Dickens character and plot-line.
- Lloyd Jones's Mister Pip is set in Bougainville where, during a time of civil unrest, a white man uses Great Expectations as the basis for his lessons to the local children.
- The plot and characters of Great Expectations feature heavily in Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series. Miss Havisham is Thursday's friend and mentor, and Fforde draws from the manuscript to further along the story and give a glimpse of what goes on inside the world of Great Expectations when no one is reading it.
See also
References
- ↑ How Great Expectations
- ↑ Great Expectations Critical Overview
- ↑ Meckier, Jerome Dating the Action in Great Expectations: A New Chronology.
External links
- Online editions
- Great Expectations at Project Gutenberg
- Great Expectations - Searchable HTML version.
- Great Expectations - Easy to read HTML version.
- Great Expectations - Free eBook in PDF version.
- Great Expectations - PDF scans of the entire novel as it originally appeared in The Strand Magazine.
- Study guides
- Great Expectations - CliffsNotes
- Great Expectations - MonkeyNotes
- Great Expectations - Barron's Booknotes
- Great Expectations - BookRags
- Great Expectations - SparkNotes
- Other
- Original manuscript - held at Wisbech & Fenland Museum, Wisbech.
- "Byron, Shelley and Miss Havisham": an essay on the possible inspiration for Miss Havisham from TLS, March 26 2008.
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