Great Expectations Analysis

You will need a flashlight when visiting the world of Great Expectations. The novel is pretty much glued together by darkness. Even Pip’s apartment in London looks like it is weeping soot whe...

We suppose it’s as good a time as any to tell you that Charles Dickens loved the theater, he was a playwright himself, and so infused his works with a sense of the theatrical. He in a way creates...

This is no diary, folks. It’s a memoir. It’s Pip recalling his whole life’s story at once. By our calculations, Pip the narrator is about 57 when he tells this story. He recounts...

If we were asked to describe the plot of Great Expectations in ten words or less, we could say this: "a very long story about a boy who grows up." Or we could say this: "a three-part story about un...

How would you feel if you picked up your diary and read it aloud for all of the world to hear? Yup, we would be mortified too. Do you ever replay embarrassing or traumatizing moments from the past...

Dickens's likes to create little rooms with his sentences, rooms that are so inviting and interesting that you feel that if you don’t go inside and explore right away, you will be missing out...

My, what big ears you have. What big teeth you have. What great expectations you have. The title refers to Pip’s "great expectations" which are many dimensional and ever-evolving. His great e...

Brace thyself. There are TWO different endings to Great Expectations. We know, we know. But before you go running away, let us discuss just how amazing having two endings can be.The original is sim...

Fitting Great Expectations into a classic plot analysis is difficult. Because it was a serialized novel, Dickens had to keep his readership coming back for more. There are so many exciting, cliff-h...

Pip wants a to be a gentleman and find his sailboatBooker says that when we first meet our protagonist in this stage, "they are likely to be in some state which lays them open to a shattering new e...

Pip is innocent and cute and loves Joe ... until he meets Estella.Pip is a moody, self-conscious teenager who loses his fortune and inherits a convict. Rats.Pip can see clearly now, in spite of rai...

Dickens was sent to work in a blacking factory as a child when his father went to prison for bad debt. He experienced the terrible factory conditions he would later write about in novels. People wh...

With the exception of a few tame smooches, there’s not much action in Great Expectations. Miss Skiffins won’t even let Wemmick put his arm around her waist. Woowee. But remember, folks,...

William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Pip and Herbert go to see Mr. Wopsle in a production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. (2.31)Mr. Wopsle buys The History of George Barnwell, and he, Pip, and Mr. Pumblecho...