Introduction to Great Expectations, Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870) and the Victorian Era
Key Terms Relating to Charles Dickens:
Industrial Revolution
Victorian Era
Portsmouth
Rochester
Debtors’ prison
Shoe polish factory
“the young gentleman”
satire
ironic twist
cliffhangers
public readings
serial form
Poet’s Corner
John and Elizabeth
Pickwick Papers
ambition / fear of failure
ideal love versus reality
Maria, Catherine, Mary, Ellen
Key Novel Facts:
TYPE OF WORK · Novel
GENRES · social criticism, autobiographical fiction
TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN · London, 1860-1861
DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION · Published serially in
England from December 1860 to August
1861; published in book form in England and America in 1861
NARRATOR · Pip
CLIMAX · A sequence of climactic events occurs from about Chapter 51 to Chapter 56
PROTAGONIST · Pip
ANTAGONIST · Great Expectations does not contain a traditional single antagonist. Various
characters serve as figures against whom Pip must struggle at various times: Magwitch, Mrs. Joe,
Miss Havisham, Estella, Orlick, Bentley Drummle, and Compeyson. An interesting thing to
consider: which of these antagonists are redeemed by the end of the novel?
SETTING (TIME) · Mid-nineteenth century; Kent and London, England
POINT OF VIEW · First person
FALLING ACTION · The period following key events in Chapter 54
TENSE · Past
FORESHADOWING · Great Expectations contains a great deal of foreshadowing. This is a key
element of the novel.
TONE · Comic, cheerful, satirical, wry, critical, sentimental, dark, dramatic, foreboding, Gothic,
sympathetic
THEMES · Ambition and the desire for self-improvement (social, economic, educational, and
moral); guilt, criminality, and innocence; maturation and the growth from childhood to
adulthood; identity; the importance of affection, loyalty, and sympathy over social advancement
and class superiority; social class (especially the upper class mistreatment of the lower class); the
difficulty of maintaining superficial moral and social categories in a constantly changing world;
fulfilling great expectations versus doing what you know is right; the complications of love
MOTIFS · Crime and criminality; disappointed expectations; the connection between weather or
atmosphere and dramatic events; doubles (two convicts, two invalids, etc.); guilt
SYMBOLS · The stopped clocks at Satis House symbolize Miss Havisham's attempt to stop time;
the many objects relating to crime and guilt (gallows, prisons, handcuffs, policemen, lawyers,
courts, convicts, chains, files) symbolize the theme of guilt and innocence; Satis House
represents the upper-class world to which Pip longs to belong; Bentley Drummle represents the
grotesque superiority complex of the upper class; Joe represents conscience, affection, loyalty,
and simple good nature; the marsh mists represent danger and ambiguity; the forge fire
represents safety, security, and home
CONFLICTS – Largely person versus person and person versus self