Name___________________________________________________
Date____________________________________________________
Great Expectations Final Assessment Review
Complete the following steps, using your book and your active reading notes as a
guide to each question.
1.
Closely analyze the following passages from the novel and explain how they
illuminate the novel as a whole. Make sure to consider the immediate context
from which each quote is set into the book (consider Pip’s state of mind, and
consider what is happening in the novel when the quote is used).
o “As I passed the church, I felt (as I had felt during service in the morning)
a sublime compassion for the poor creatures who were destined to go
there, Sunday after Sunday, all their lives through, and to lie obscurely at
last among the low green mounds. I promised myself that I would do
something for them one of these days, and formed a plan in outline for
bestowing a dinner of roast beef and plum pudding, a pint of ale, and a
gallon of condescension upon everybody in the village”(86).
o “Her reverting to this tone, as if our association were forced upon us and
we were mere puppets, gave me pain but everything in our intercourse did
give me pain. Whatever her tone with me happened to be, I could put no
trust in it, and build no hope on it; and yet I went on against trust and
against hope” (140).
o “Miss Havisham’s intentions for me, all a mere dream; Estella not
designed for me; I only suffered in Satis House as a convenience, a sting
for the greedy relations, a model with a mechanical heart to practice on
when no other practice was at hand; those were the first smarts I had. But,
sharpest and deepest pain of all—it was for the convict, guilty of I knew
not what crimes, that I had deserted Joe”(166).
o “My mind, with inconceivable rapidity, followed out all the consequences
of such a death. Estella’s father would be I had deserted him, would be
taken, would die accusing me; even Herbert would doubt me. Joe and
Biddy would never know how sorry I had been that night, none would
ever know what I had suffered, how true I had meant to be, what an agony
I had passed through. The death close before me was terrible, but far more
terrible than death was the dread of being misremembered after
death”(216-217).
2. Examine the moral conflicts of deeply flawed characters. Create an outline that
connects the following concept to the following characters:
o Concept: Human virtue is rewarded and Human Weaknesses are
punished.
o Characters: Pumblechook, Joe Gargery, Biddy, Herbert Pocket, Miss
Havisham.
3. Observe common tendencies (coincidences, social critiques, subtleties) inherent in
Victorian Literature. Where are these “coincidences” or “tendencies” evident in
Great Expectations? Please make a list that concerns ALL parts of the story.