Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens. It was first published in serial form in All the Year Round[1] from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. It has been adapted for stage and screen over 250 times.[2]
Great Expectations is written in the style of bildungsroman, which follows the story of a man or woman in their quest for maturity, usually starting from childhood and ending in the main character's eventual adulthood. Great Expectations is the story of the orphan Pip, writing about his life from his early childhood until adulthood and attempting to become a gentleman along the way. The novel can also be considered semi-autobiographical of Dickens, like much of his work, drawing on his experiences of life and people.
The main plot of Great Expectations takes place between Christmas Eve 1812, when the protagonist is about seven years old (and which happens to be the year of Dickens' birth), and the winter of 1840.[3]
Plot summary
On Christmas Eve of 1812, Pip, an orphan aged 7, encounters an escaped convict in the village churchyard. The convict scares Pip into stealing him some food and a file to grind away his leg shackles. This is the first time in Pip’s life he’s felt truly guilty. This is an important event in the book because the convict will never forget the kindness (albeit forced) that Pip showed to him. The convict, however, waits many years to fully show his gratitude.
Pip lives in a small house with his extremely unkind sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery, and her markedly kinder blacksmith husband, Joe Gargery. Both husband and wife are referred to as Joe and Mrs. Joe respectively throughout the book. Everyone assumes that, when Pip’s older, he’ll follow in Joe’s footsteps and become a blacksmith. This does not please Pip at all. A while after Pip’s encounter with the convict, Pip gets invited to the house of a rich old woman named Miss Havisham, who lives in the village.
After this first meeting, Pip frequently visits Miss Havisham and her adopted daughter Estella, with whom he harbours a feeling of attraction. One day, Miss Havisham tells Pip that he must not come there again because the time has come for his apprenticeship with Joe to begin. Pip spends little time as a blacksmith though, soon after he has started the apprenticeship, a London lawyer, Jaggers, approaches Pip, revealing very startling news: Pip has inherited a large sum of money from an anonymous benefactor, a condition of the receipt of said money being that he must leave for London immediately, buy some clothes and become a gentleman. Pip, because he has always wanted to become a gentleman, graciously accepts these terms.
In London, Pip studies with a tutor and lives with a newfound and close friend, Herbert. Pip is certain that his mysterious benefactor is Miss Havisham. Pip stays in London for many years. He remains ashamed of Mrs. Joe thoughout this time, they grow apart and soon after, Mrs. Joe dies. Pip becomes more and more infatuated with Estella—who seems to get colder and colder by the day. Among the notable people he knows in London are Wemmick, a clerk in Jaggers' office who becomes a friend, and Bentley Drummle, a horrible brute of a boy who begins to become interested in Estella.
One stormy night, Pip learns the true identity of his benefactor. It is not Miss Havisham, as he had thought for a long time, but rather a petty criminal named Magwitch who had been transported to New South Wales. Magwitch is the convict Pip helped feed in the churchyard many years ago, and he left all his money to Pip in gratitude for that kindness and also because Pip reminded him of his own child, whom he thinks is dead. The news of his benefactor crushes Pip—he's ashamed of Magwitch, and Magwitch wants to spend the rest of his life with Pip. Pip, very reluctantly, lets Magwitch stay with him. There is a warrant out for Magwitch’s arrest in England, and he’ll be hanged if he’s caught.
Eventually, because Magwitch is on the run from the law, a plan is hatched by Herbert and Pip, involving fleeing the country by boat.
Meanwhile, Estella has married to Bentley Drummle, a marriage that anyone can see will be an unhappy one. Before Pip flees with Magwitch, he makes one last visit to Miss Havisham. Mrs. Havisham stands too close to the fire and the building is set alight. Pip heroically saves her but she later dies from her injuries.
Pip, Herbert and another friend, Startop, make a gallant attempt to help Magwitch escape, but instead he's captured and sent to jail. Pip is devoted to Magwitch by now and recognizes in him a good and noble man. Pip tries to have Magwitch released but Magwitch dies shortly before he's slated to be executed. Under English law Magwitch's wealth forfeits to the Crown, thus extinguishing Pip's "Great Expectations".
After an extended period of sickness during which he is looked after by Joe, Pip goes into business overseas with Herbert. After eleven relatively successful years abroad, Pip goes back to visit Joe and the rest of his family out in the marshes. Finally, Pip makes one last visit to the ruins of Miss Havisham's house, where he finds Estella wandering. Her marriage is over, and she seems to have children and wants Pip to accept her as a friend. When the novel ends, it seems that there is hope that Pip and Estella will finally end up together.[4]
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.[5]
– Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
Main characters in Great Expectations
Pip and his relatives
- Philip Pirrip, nicknamed Pip and also known as Handel by Herbert Pocket, is an orphan, and also the protagonist of Great Expectations. All throughout his childhood, Pip thought that he was going to be trained as a blacksmith, but with Magwitch's anonymous patronage, Pip travels to London and becomes a gentleman.
- Joe Gargery, Pip's brother-in-law, and his first father figure. A blacksmith who is always kind to Pip and the only person Pip is always honest with. Joe is a blacksmith and was very disappointed when Pip decided to leave his home and travel to London to become a gentleman rather than becoming a blacksmith.
- Mrs. Joe Gargery, Pip's hot-tempered adult sister, who brings him up after the death of their parents but complains constantly of the burden Pip is to her. Orlick (a journeyman blacksmith trained by her husband) attacks her, and she is left disabled for the rest of her life, until Pip receives a letter saying she is dead.
- Mr. Pumblechook, Joe Gargery's uncle, an officious bachelor who tells Mrs. Joe how noble she is to bring Pip up 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 precious 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 impostor. 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 her injuries.
- Estella (Havisham), Miss Havisham's adopted daughter, whom Pip pursues romantically throughout the novel. She is secretly the daughter of Molly, Jaggers' housekeeper, and Abel Magwitch, Pip's convict, but was given up to Miss Havisham after a murder trial. Estella represents the life of wealth and culture that Pip strives for. Since her ability to love 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 unlike others of her relatives he is not 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, an aging relative of Miss Havisham who is only interested in her money.
- Sarah Pocket "A dry, brown corrugated old woman, with a small face that might have been made out of walnut shells, and a large mouth like a cat's without the whiskers." Another 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, who is also Pip's benefactor.
- Provis, a name that Abel Magwitch uses when he returns to London, to conceal his identity. Pip also says that "Provis" is his uncle visiting from out of town.
- 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, Mr. Wopsle's second cousin; 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 had two children, one named after Pip who Estella mistook as Pip's child in the original ending. Orlick was attracted to her, but his affection was unreciprocated.
- Clara, wife to Herbert Pocket. A very poor girl that lives with her father who is suffering from gout. She dislikes Pip the first time she meets him because he influences Herbert's spending, but she eventually warms up to him.
- Mr. Pumblechook A man who claims to be part of high society, but is not much higher than Pip's family. He claims that it was all thanks to him that Pip got to Miss Havisham's in the first place, but he is an obvious, cocky, fake.
The lawyer and his circle
- Mr. Jaggers, prominent London lawyer who represents the interests of diverse clients, both criminal and civil. He represents Pip's benefactor and is Miss Havisham's lawyer as well. By the end of the story, his law practice is the common element that brushes many of the characters.
- John 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 Estella's real mother.
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. Drummle would later be mentioned to have died from an accident.
- "The Spider", Mr. Jaggers's nickname for Bentley Drummle.[6]
Style and Themes
Great Expectations is written in first person and uses language and grammar that has, since the publication of Great Expectations, fallen out of common use. The title Great Expectations refers to the 'Great Expectations' Pip has of London and of becoming a gentleman.[7] Great Expectations is a bildungsroman. A novel depicting growth and personal development, in this case, of Pip.
The main themes of Great Expectations are those of crime, social class and ambition. From an early age, Pip feels guilt. He is also afraid that someone will find out about the crime and arrest him. The theme of crime comes in 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 Victorian England. Throughout the book, Pip becomes involved with all of them, from criminals like Magwitch to the extremely rich like Miss Havisham. Pip has great ambition, as demonstrated constantly in the book. If Pip did not have ambition, he would have never gone to London, he would have stayed as a lowly blacksmith.[8]
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.
- 1946 – starring John Mills as Pip, Valerie Hobson as Estella and Jean Simmons as Young Estella, directed by David Lean.
- 1954 – starring Roddy McDowall as Pip and Estelle Winwood as Miss Havisham ("Robert Montgomery Presents" Great Expectations: Part 1 (1954) at the Internet Movie Database and "Robert Montgomery Presents" Great Expectations: Part 2 (1954) at the Internet Movie Database)
- 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.
- 1981 – BBC series starring Stratford Jones, Gerry Sunquist, Joan Hickson, Patsy Kensit and Sarah-Jane Varley. Produced by Barry Letts, and directed by Julian Amyes.
- 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 – TV Show South Park, Season 4 Episode 5 "Pip"
- 2009 – Performed at Theatre Clwyd by Graham Bickley, Eleanor Howell, Steven Meo, Rhiannon Oliver, Greg Palmer, Vivien Parry, Robert Perkins, Steffan Rhodri, Simon Watts and directed by Tim Baker.
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.
- The house in Sunset Blvd is referred to as being similar to Ms. Havisham's.
- Great Expectations is the name of the first track off The Gaslight Anthem's album The '59 Sound.
See also
References
External links
- Online editions
- Study guides
- Other
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Works by Charles Dickens |
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| Novels |
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| Christmas books |
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| Short stories |
Sunday Under Three Heads (1836) · The Lamplighter (1838) · A Child's Dream of a Star (1850) · Captain Murderer · The Long Voyage (1853) · The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices (1857) (with Wilkie Collins) · Hunted Down (1859) · The Signal-Man (1866) · George Silverman's Explanation (1868) · Holiday Romance (1868)
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| Christmas short stories |
A Christmas Tree (1850) · What Christmas is, as We Grow Older (1851) · The Poor Relation's Story (1852) · The Child's Story (1852) · The Schoolboy's Story (1853) · Nobody's Story (1853) · Going into Society (1858) · Somebody's Luggage (1862) · Mrs Lirriper's Lodgings (1863) · Mrs Lirriper's Legacy (1864) · Doctor Marigold's Prescriptions (1865)
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| Short story collections |
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| Nonfiction |
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| Poetry & plays |
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| Journalism |
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| Collaborative works |
Household Words: The Seven Poor Travellers (1854) (with Wilkie Collins, Adelaide Proctor, George Sala and Eliza Linton) · The Holly-tree Inn (1855) · (with Wilkie Collins, William Howitt, Harriet Parr, and Adelaide Procter) · The Wreck of the Golden Mary (1856) (with Wilkie Collins, Adelaide Proctor, Harriet Parr, Percy Fitzgerald and Rev. James White) · The Perils of Certain English Prisoners (1857) (with Wilkie Collins) · A House to Let (1858) (with Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell and Adelaide Procter)
All the Year Round: The Haunted House (1859) (with Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell, Adelaide Procter, George Sala, and Hesba Stretton) · A Message from the Sea (1860) (with Wilkie Collins, Robert Buchanan, Charles Allston Collins, Amelia Edwards, and Harriet Parr) · Tom Tiddler's Ground (1861) (with Wilkie Collins, John Harwood, Charles Allston Collins, and Amelia Edwards) · The Trial for Murder (1865) (with Charles Allston Collins) · Mugby Junction (1866) (with Andrew Halliday, Charles Allston Collins, Hesba Stretton and Amelia Edwards) · No Thoroughfare (1867) (with Wilkie Collins) |
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| Articles & essays |
A Visit to Newgate (1836) · Epitaph of Charles Irving Thornton (1842) · In Memoriam W. M. Thackeray (1850) · A Coal Miner's Evidence (1850) · Frauds on the Fairies (1853) · The Lost Arctic Voyagers (1854)
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