Great Expectations
By Charles Dickens
First published 1860-1861
Serially
Do Now: 14 March 2012
• Choose an important person (or people) in
your life who has (have) expectations for
you—parents, teachers, friends, coaches etc.
What are others’ expectations of you?
• Are their expectations consistent with what
you expect of yourself, or do you expect
something different?
• Do expectations matter? Why or why not?
Charles Dickens
- Born on February 7, 1812 in England. Second child and
eldest son of eight children.
- Father mismanaged family $
- Lived in poverty ; no longer able to attend school
- 1824 (12 years old)- father sent to debtors’ prison; Charles
went to work pasting labels on bottles at shoe polish
factory; painful, socially humiliating, haunting
(cramped/rats)
- Fiction focuses on class issues= plight of the poor and
oppressed and lost, suffering children
- Unsuccessful marriage that produced 10 children
- Died in 1870
• Deeply concerned about the
struggles of the poor and
mistreated people.
• During this period, people who
simply could not pay their bills
often went to debtors’ prison.
– Children of those in debtors’ prison
often had to support themselves.
– Up to 16 hours per day for pennies
• A criminal who was considered
dangerous might be sent to what
is now Australia to serve time.
• London was a rich city, but poor
people lived in terrible squalor.
Great Expectations: Background
The unique history of Australia is tied
to a thread in Great Expectations.
• In Dickens’ time, British convicts
were often punished in a way that
might seem “cruel and unusual” by
today’s standards.
• Convicts thought to pose some
threat to society might be shipped
off to a distant British territory—
what is now Australia.
Great Expectations: Background
During the time when Australia served as a
penal colony for England, prisoners were
deposited near what is now Sydney.
• Only the strongest
and hardest-working
people could prosper
in the harsh
conditions.
• Once sent to Australia,
a convict was
frequently forbidden to
ever return to England.
DUE BY THE END OF THE PERIOD
CHAPTER 8
1. How does Pumblechook treat Pip before his visit to Satis
House? Why?
2. Describe Satis House. Though it is a mansion, what other type
of building does it seem to resemble?
3. What does Pip conclude about why Miss Havisham and the
room look as they do?
4. How do Pip and Estella interact? What do their interactions
reveal about each of them?
5. After visiting Satis House, why does Pip feel ashamed?
6. What does Pip see hanging by a beam as he leaves? What do
you think is going on here?
– By the end of the period tomorrow, you will be required to read and
complete questions about chapters 9 &10. You will have the period
tomorrow to work, but please plan accordingly if you are a slow
reader. Quiz on 1-10 and background on Friday.
LITERATURE CIRCLES/CLASS PARTICIPATION
• While reading, ALL GROUP MEMBERS SHOULD:
– write down questions, take notes on significant quotes
• Additionally, YOU WILL HAVE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING JOBS:
– VOCAB MASTER- find and define new vocabulary as it
relates to the chapter
– PLOT/CHARACTER STUDY- What significant plot events
occur in this chapter? What new characters do we meet?
Describe. What do we learn about central characters?
– QUESTIONER- Create a minimum of three
COMPREHENSIVE CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS THAT
RELATE TO THE CHAPTER
– ILLUSTRATOR-Create an illustration that connections to
the chapter and significant plot or character
developments; a corresponding quote should be included
26 March 2012: Do Now
• What factors can be involved in a fight?
• What do you think motivated the fight
between Pip and the “pale young gentleman”
he meets in chapter 11?
27 March 2012: DO NOW
• In preparation for the mini-conferences I’ll have with you
today, please answer these questions.
- What do you think are your strengths when
it comes to reading and writing?
-At this point in the year, what areas in
reading or writing would you still like to improve
upon?
-Which books that we've read this year do
you feel you had the best understanding
of? Why? If you had to choose two books to
incorporate into a research paper, which would
they be?
2 April 2012: Do Now
• You turn 18 and win five
million dollars. What would
you do with the money?
Would you change the plans
that you have for yourself?
Why or why not?
Finally, does money buy happiness?
Do Now: 17 April 2012
•
In chapter 25 of Great Expectations, Wemmick states: "...When I go into the office,
I leave the castle behind me, and when I come into the castle, I leave the office
behind me. If it's not in any way disagreeable to you, you'll oblige me by doing the
same. I don't wish it professionally spoken of" (Dickens 192). Later in the chapter,
Pip describes him in the following passage: "By degrees, Wemmick got dryer and
harder as we went along, and his mouth tightened into a post office again. At last,
when we got to his place of business and he pulled out his key from his coat-collar,
he looked as unconscious of his Walworth property as if the castle and the
drawbridge and the arbour and the lake and the fountain and the Aged had all
been blown into space together by the last discharge of the stinger" (Dickens 193).
• Dickens is making a statement about the different "lives" that people lead,
noting that Wemmick is an entirely different person in the comfort of his
home than he is at his job.
• What statement is Dickens making about the demands of
Wemmick’s job? Do you think this is the case in our society
today? Should workers have to “change” who they are to
succeed professionally? Explain.
25 April 2012: Do Now
• Analyze the following quote: “May I ask you if
you have ever had an opportunity of
remarking, down in your part of the country,
that the children of not exactly suitable
marriages are always most particularly
anxious to be married?” (Dickens 232)
• Do you think this is true? Why or why not?
• Trabb’s boy- “miscreant” (behaves badly,
breaks the law), pg. 226, 227, pg. 228
• Clara- pg. 232
• Mr. Waldengarver- Wopsle’s stage name
• Sarah Pocket- “green and yellow” friend
• Why does Pip meet Estella’s coach so early? What does this say
about him?
• What is Wemmick’s “green-house”? Why is this is an odd
metaphor and what does Dickens mean by it?
• Why has Estella come to London? Where is she going and why is
she going there?
• Given the way Dickens portrays Estella, what do you think
attracts Pip to her? Though Estella treats him badly, Pip
maintains hope. In what does his hope lie?
• What are the “Finches at the Grove”? Why does Pip associate
with them?
• Describe Pip’s spending habits. What do Pip and Herbert do
when their spending seems out of control? Why is this ironic?
• What significant event occurs at the end of chapter 34? Make a
prediction about how this will “play out” in the next chapters.