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UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL AUTÓNOMA
DE HONDURAS

Foreign Languages Program|

Reading Seminar Class 1800 II-PAC 2022

Teacher’s name:
Rosa Oneyda Palacios

Name of the Assignment:
Book Analysis

Book’s name:

Great Expectations

Author:
Charles Dickens

Presented by:

Emily Gisell Peralta Hernandez 20181030853

Date:

August 17th 2022.

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Below I will present my book analysis of the book Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. The book shows us how sometimes it is necessary for a person to experience a series of humiliations to grow, and each humiliation forces them to redefine themselves to become whole. At the beginning of the novel, Pip is innocent, with no thoughts of "great expectations" because no one ever suggested to her that she was unusual. Great Expectations is the thirteenth novel by Charles Dickens and the penultimate completed novel by him. It describes the upbringing of an orphan nicknamed Pip (the book is a bildungsroman, a coming-of-age story). It is the second Dickens novel, after David Copperfield, narrated entirely in the first person.

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Great Expectations works on a number of levels: as a critique of Victorian society and as an exploration of memory and writing. However, it is perhaps more importantly a search for true identity. The moral theme of Great Expectations is quite simple: affection, loyalty, and conscience are more important than social advancement, wealth, and class.

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Great Expectations follows the childhood and youth of Pip, an apprentice blacksmith in a country town. The main events are that he receives a large fortune (their high expectations of him) from a mysterious benefactor and moves to London, where he enters high society. He thinks he knows where the money came from, but it turns out he's sadly wrong. The story also follows Pip's dealings with Estella, a young woman whom he adores but cannot reciprocate her love.

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Kent and London, England, the action of Great Expectations takes place in a limited geography between a small village at the edge of the North Kent marshes, a market town in which Satis House is located, and the greater city of London. The protagonist, Pip, grows up in the marsh village. Eventually he becomes a frequent visitor to Satis House, located in the market town. Upon inheriting a good deal of money, he moves to London, where he is taught to be a gentleman. Throughout the novel, Pip travels between these three locations in pursuit of his great expectations.

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What light is thrown on the story by its title?
The title of Dickens’ Great Expectations is appropriate. The title of Charles Dickens' book "Incredible Expectations" recommends to Pip's "extraordinary assumptions," which are complex and continually evolving. His high expectations are reflected in his longing of turning into a man of honor, which he gets looking like his abundance. His longing for a specific bone chilling star called Estella is one more appearance of his yearnings.
Did you enjoy reading the book?
I enjoyed the book and I think it is my all time favorite because he writes in a way that sympathizes with the characters and puts you in there position to experience what they experience a masterpiece of a book. It is a fully satisfying read. It has a strong engrossing plot, is a well developed romance, and has a lot to say about the human condition and in particular class struggles and corruption. It is Dickens at his most mature and yet still desperate for signs of fairness and justice in the world.
What aspects of the book gave you pleasure, and why?
One of the aspects that I liked the most was the characters since it contains such memorable characters.
It's hard to think of any other author except Shakespeare who could create so many characters that are so vivid, so different, and so realistic that we can hardly help but think of them as real human beings. The first thing I want to highlight about the novel is its beginning, I loved it. I wasn't surprised that Dickens had such a brilliant style, but I was surprised that he was so accessible and had such a sense of humour, despite the melancholy tone of the story. A story that is not lacking in moral lessons or profound social criticism; It tells us about expectations, ambition, class differences and, above all, the search for an identity of its own.
Does the story chiefly offer escape? purpose?
The purpose of Great Expectations is to demonstrate how expectations can set a person on the wrong course and cause them to ignore what really matters. Pip’s expectations lead him down the wrong path and keep him from discerning which people truly care about him, and he eventually learns not to rely on his expectations of others.

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Mrs. Joe Gargery: Pip’s older sister who raises Pip with her husband, Joe and becomes this overbearing and strict mother figure to Pip. She later suffers a blow to the head, which she must stay in bed for until her death. She is portrayed as harsh and demanding, also very ambitious trying to be more than just the blacksmith’s wife.

Jaggers: The powerful well-respected lawyer who alerts Pip of his awaiting fortune in London and becomes his guardian. As a criminal lawyer, he must consort with some nasty criminals and later washes his hands obsessively to keep his job from corrupting him. Jaggers bases his decisions solely on facts and reasoning but before the novel is over, he seems to somewhat care for Pip.

Wemmick: He is Jagger’s law clerk and befriends Pip while giving him guidance and companionship from time to time. Wemmick is an odd character that is detached and unemotional at work but loving and tender away from his job. His possessions are all “portable”.

Herbert Pocket: Herbert first appears as an odd young child who Pip meets at the Satis House where he challenges Pip to a casual fistfight almost jokingly. Later, Pip encounters him again as he is the son of Pip’s tutor and the two become instant friends who share an apartment as well as their joys and sorrows. Herbert is also ambitious and hardworking who falls for a lower-status but kind girl named Clara.

Biddy: A girl of the same social class as Pip moves into his home to take care of Mrs. Joe after her attack. Sweet and intelligent Biddy befriends Pip and teaches him all that she had learnt in school. Pip wishes that he could love Biddy, rather than Estella because she actually brings him joy but he never really does.

Dolge Orlick: He was one of Joe’s blacksmith labourers who is stupid but very jealous of others and hurts them simply for his own pleasure. He had attacked Mrs. Joe and left her disabled and many years later, tried to kill Pip but was unsuccessful.

Uncle Pumblechook: An uncle figure in Pip’s life who is very arrogant and obsessed with social class and wealth. He is responsible for Pip’s job with Miss Havisham’s and later tries to take credit for his success and it was believed Miss Havisham was the secret benefactor.

Compeyson: Magwitch’s criminal partner who is educated unlike that of Magwitch. He later becomes Magwitch’s enemy and captures him at the end of the novel despite the fact that he also died. Compeyson is also the man who stood up Miss Havisham on their wedding.

Bentley Drummle: He is another one of Matthew Pockets’ students along with Pip and Herbert but is very harsh and cruel towards those he feels are socially below him, which is almost everyone. He eventually marries Estella but abuses her and dies about a decade later.

Matthew Pocket: The only relative of Miss Havisham’s who does not stick around for her money. When she dies, she ends up leaving all her wealth to him because he was the only one who truly cared for her and warned her about Compeyson. He is an intelligent and kind man whose main job is to tutor Pip, his son Herbert, Drummle and Startop.

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Protagonist: Pip

The narrator and protagonist who recounts his life story of growing up in England, beginning in Kent and later moving to London. Pip is a very passionate, romantic and ambitious young man who tries to better himself because he is ashamed of his origins. Fortune and fame eventually find him although he now realizes that those things cannot make him happy or more importantly, obtain Estella’s love.

Antagonist:
Estella

She is a beautiful young girl around Pip’s age who had been adopted and raised by the wealthy but strange Miss Havisham. She is the object of Pip’s love and desires but she treats him with only contempt and cruelty, repeatedly telling him that she has no heart.

Miss Havisham
She is a very wealthy but crazy old woman who lives at Satis House near Pip’s village. She had been stood up on her wedding day and now raises the beautiful Estella to try to get “revenge on all men” for her own broken heart. Pip had believed that she was his secret benefactor to promote his social class.

Abel Magwitch (Provis/Mr.Campbell)

A fearsome criminal who escapes from prison and terrorized the young Pip to bring him food. Awed by Pip’s kindness, he returns as Pip’s secret benefactor and funds his education and living expenses, allowing him to climb the social ladder. He wants Pip to be everything he himself couldn’t be and turns out to be Estella’s birth father.

Joe Gargery

He is Pip’s brother-in-law who married his sister Mrs. Joe and stays with her out of love for Pip. He is the village blacksmith and is uneducated which makes him of lower class, but shows his pure goodness when Pip expresses disdain for Joe after becoming a gentleman.

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In the original conclusion, Pip remains single and Estella remarries after Drummel's death. Great Expectations was Dickens's 13th and final finished novel before his death, and critics have called it his best romance and most honest story.

Great Expectations is a learning novel, that is, one where the main character experiences a series of events that make him grow as a person. This novel is considered Dickens's great novel because in it the writer displays his narrative quality and all his critical acumen. The fact of being one of his shortest novels does not detract from the depth of the themes it deals with, nor the complexity of its narrative structure.

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The point of view is in the first person, Great Expectations is written in the first person, with Pip acting as the protagonist and narrator of the novel. Pip does not narrate the events as they happen, but rather she reviews her life and tells the story based on what she remembers, a style known as flashback narration. As Charles Dickens uses a first-person narrative in this book, it is important to remember that the events that take place and all the other characters are seen through Pip's eyes and this can affect our view of them.

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Great expectations by Charles dickens( 15, 2022 ) page 12 of 12.
https://www.fulltextarchive.com/book/-Great-Expectations-by-Charles-Dickens/12/