Literature Analysis #4

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

This was a collaborative experience and the other parts of this book analysis can be found on these blogs:
Taylor Duguran
Hannah Savaso
Ian Steller
Bailey Wineman
Annette Sousa
Meghan Martella

Summary: In the opening chapter we are introduced to Pip who has suffered a great loss of almost all of his immediate family except for his sister. He is in the care of his sister and her husband. Pip has a strange encounter with a ragged and frightening man who we later learn is the escaped convict Magwitch who threatens him with brutal death if he doesn't bring him the supplies he asked for by the next day. Pip is naïve and believes this scary man and returns home with the intentions to keep this a secret and meet with the man again.  Pip is forced into going to the home of Miss Havisham who is wealthy and quite strange. She was abandoned at the alter and keeps everything in her house the same as well as wearing an old wedding dress everywhere she goes. Here he meets Estella who he immediately falls for even though she is being trained by Miss Havisham to break the hearts of young men. Pip is an apprentice to his brother-in-law Joe until one day he receives the news from a lawyer named Jaggers that he has been left a large amount of money and takes off the London to learn to be a gentleman. Here Pip befriends Herbert and Wemmick. They lead a rather careless life until Pip must return for the funeral of his sister. Years later Magwitch reappears in Pip's life and reveals he is the source of Pip's sudden fortune prompting Pip to feel a sort of loyalty for him and try to help him escape London and the police who are after him. Compeyson, Magwitch's old partner alerts the police of their plan and is drowned in the river during an altercation with Magwitch who is in turn sentenced to death and Pip loses his fortune. Years after this Pip returns to Satis House (the old home of Miss Havisham) and sees Estella there. She is no longer married and has a new much softer demeanor about her. She and Pip leave hand in hand and Pip believes they will be together long after.

Theme: The theme of Great Expectations is the loss of innocence and the coming of age. Pip must learn to trust his inner conscience when it comes to the decisions he makes and who he trusts. He is often filled with guilt for the trouble he gets in to and ultimately has to learn o accept responsibility and himself. As he comes in to his own his outlook shifts and evolves with him.