22 Charles Dickens: Great Expectations

Dr. Neeru Tandon

21.0   The Upshot

21.1:   Introduction

21.2His Fictional oeuvre

21.3:   Charles Dickens as a Novelist

21.4: Times when Great Expectations was written

21.5 : Great Expectations: Introduction

21.6:Great Expectations: Story

21.7 : Setting of the novel

21.8:Genre and Form of the Novel

21.9 Plot and Structure of the Novel

21.10: Literary Devices in Great Expectations

21.11: Beginning and the Ending of the Novel

21.12- Major Characters of the novel

21.13 Minor characters of the novel

21.14:  Some interesting facts about Novel and the Novelist

21.0 The Upshot: The present module discusses Charles Dickens and his famous novel Great Expectations. Introduction tells readers about Dickens‟s biography and his famous works. The content further elaborates Dickens as a novelist. Reader will come to know its story line, Chapter wise summary, Characters, Plot construction, his narrative style and main points about the novel and the novelist. Some interesting facts about Dickens and his times make the study interesting. Multiple choice questions and long questions are there to help the learner in knowing the novelist and the novel. Some important quotes from the novels are inscribed to help the scholars in understanding the ethos of the prescribed work. It is further supported by Bibliography and Webliography.

21.1:    Introduction: Charles Dickens:

It was during the Victorian Era that Dickens „crested the heights of fame and fortune, so much so that, by the time of his death, he had become, and in many ways still remains, the second most famous Victorian, after the Queen herself.‟

Known widely as a versatile English author, a novelist with a social cause and a journalist with a reformative zeal, Charles John Huffam Dickens became a synonym for English literature of the Victorian era. He was born on February 7, 1812, at Portsea on the southern coast of England, to John and Elizabeth Dickens. Dickens was christened on 4th March 1812 at St Mary’s church and was named Charles, after his maternal grandfather, Charles Barrow; John, after his father, John Dickens; and Huffham, after Christopher Huffam (the parish clerk misspelt the surname),who was a London friend of his father.

Charles‟ father was a pay clerk in the navy office. Finances were a constant concern for the family. In fact, when Charles was just four months old, family shifted to a very dingy and small place in order to manage finances. When Charles was just twelve years old, his father was sent to debtor‟s prison and due to this Charles started working as a child labour in a factory that handled “blacking,” or shoe polish. During this period the rest of the family moved to live near the prison, leaving Charles to live alone. Three months later, his father was released from prison, and the family returned to their previous home in Camden Town. Dickens‟s time at the blacking warehouse influenced his later works of fiction, with the themes of child mistreatment, child abuse and child labour repeated throughout his novels.

Charles returned to school when his father received an inheritance and was able to repay his debts. But in 1827, at age fifteen, he was again forced to leave school and work as an office boy. Soon he became a reporter and stenographer at the law courts of London. By 1832 he had become a reporter for two London newspapers followed by another work to contribute a series of impressions and sketches to other newspapers and magazines, signing some of them “Boz” and his first book was published in 1836 as Sketches by Boz. On the strength of this success Charles married Catherine Hogarth. They were happy and had ten children. But it was short lived and Charles realized ,‟‟Poor Catherine and I are not made for each other, and there is no help for it. It is not only that she makes me uneasy and unhappy, but that I make her so too—and much more so.”

Dickens became very attached to Catherine‟s sister Mary, and she died in his arms after a brief illness in 1837. He portrayed her as a character in many of his books, and her death is fictionalized as the death of Little Nell.[“Thank God she died in my arms,” he said, after her death, “and the very last words she whispered were of me.” Dickens took a ring from Mary’s lifeless finger, placed it on his own finger where it remained until the day he died. Such was the effect of Mary’s death on him that, for the first and only time in his life, he found himself unable to write and the next installments of Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist failed to appear. In fact Dickens and his wife, Catherine, had stayed at white weatherboard cottage which still exists today and which was known as Collins’s Farm. They remained there till Dickens felt strong enough to come back to his writing schedule. In 1857 Charles and Catherine felt that living together as husband and wife was not possible for them and they took separate bedrooms. In June of 1858 Catherine and Charles were legally separated. In 1857 a middle-aged Charles Dickens began an adulterous affair with a teenager, Ellen “Nelly” Ternan, that would end only with his death.

21.2 His Fictional oeuvre Dickens completed 14 novels and numerous shorter works of fiction, including five Christmas books, among which A Christmas Carol stands out as a masterpiece, regularly read and interpreted to this day.

The Pickwick Papers (1836-1837)

This novel by Dickens was a digressive story about the adventures of the gullible good-natured Mr. Pickwick and his travelling cohorts. The streetwise Sam Weller, recruited along the way by Pickwick, helps them to survive. Full of fun, capturing the high-spirited spirit of the young Dickens, this work built on his earlier Sketches by Boz to throw him to fame and is still one of the best-loved books in English Literature.

Oliver Twist (1837-1839)

With a serious theme, to expose the abuse and corruption suffered by children, this second major work is nevertheless full of satirical humor. The orphan Oliver Twist manages to survive the worst that the authorities and criminal fraternity put him through.

Nicholas Nickleby (1838-1839)

A tale of how the young Nicholas Nickleby and his sister make good after they and their mother are left penniless. Following a bad start Nicholas comes eventually to thrive is a story to appeal the masses.

The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-1841)

This story, written for the magazine Master Humphrey’s Clock, has a young girl, Little Nell and a spiteful moneylender. Their flight exposes them to a variety of experiences and characters. The death of Little Nell is among the best known scenes in the works of Dickens.

Barnaby Rudge (1841)

The first of Dickens’s two historical novels, set in the period that led up to the Gordon Riots of 1780 against Roman Catholicism.

Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-1844)

Selfishness, as typified by the young Martin Chuzzlewit, and hypocrisy, as typified by Mr Seth Pecksniff, who purports to be an architect, are among the themes of this work. This work contains one of Dickens’s great creations: the often intoxicated Mrs Sairey Gamp, a midwife, sick nurse.

A Christmas Carol (1843)

The first of five Christmas books written by Dickens in the 1840s, this is one of the best known and best loved of all his works. It tells of the transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge from a tight-fisted curmudgeon to a generous and genial man. This is brought about by a haunting and visions at Christmas that remind him of happier days, demonstrate the generous spirit of others in adversity, and terrify him with dire prospects should he not change his ways.

Dombey and Son (1846-1848)

Pervading this work are the pride and cold-hearted obduracy of Mr Paul Dombey Senior, a businessman. Following the death of his first wife, he invests all of his hopes in Paul, their only son, neglecting their daughter, Florence. But the fragile boy dies. Dombey marries again, but tenacious endurance and treachery obstruct his will, and he loses his fortune. Ultimately he was supported by his daughter who helped him throughout.

David Copperfield (1848-1850)

This partially autobiographical story, narrated in the first person, is generally considered to be his masterpiece.. Among a number of memorable characters is that of Mr Wilkins Micawber, who look like Dickens’s father in some respects.

Bleak House (1851-1853)

An elongated law case concerning the distribution of an estate, which brings wretchedness and debris to the parties but great profit to the lawyers, is the foundation for this story. Esther Summerson, a professional detective, Inspector Bucket are memorable characters. Story involves a good many secrets, a murder and a number of investigators.

Hard Times (1854)

Hard Times is known as the shortest of Dickens’s novels. As exemplified in the thoughts of Thomas Gradgrind ,it is a tale of his rigid attitudes on the lives of his son and daughter.

Little Dorrit (1855-1857)

Dickens is partly autobiographical reminding of his visits to his father in a debtors’ prison in this novel. The theme of imprisonment is very effectively portrayed. William Dorrit is locked up for years in that prison, attended daily by his daughter, Little Dorrit. Her unacknowledged self-sacrifice comes to the attention of Arthur Clennam, who helps bring about her father’s release but is himself imprisoned for a time when his business assumption fails. Little Dorrit, ultimately finds gratification caring for Clennam and, following the loss of her father and the family fortune, they marry.

A Tale of Two Cities (1859)

Another historical novel by Dickens, this novel recounts to the French Revolution, the two cities being London and Paris. French-born Charles Darnay, settled in London, returns to Paris to help save the life of his agent, but is finally himself sentenced to death. Sydney Carton took his place and saved his life. Carton’s words at the very end of the novel are widely familiar: „It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.

Great Expectations (1860-1861)

Story narrated in the first person by the narrator, Philip Pirrip, known as Pip, ts an interesting account of his childhood under the care of a vicious sister and her clement husband, a blacksmith, to living the life of a gentleman in London, funded by a mysterious benefactor. Miss Havisham plays an important part in his life.

Our Mutual Friend (1864-1865)

Our Mutual Friend ,a model of his outstanding craftsmanship, tells about John Harmon who disguised his identity till he has formed an opinion of Bella Wilfer, the woman he is supposed to marry under the terms of his father’s will. After a plethora of complications all turns out well in the end.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870)

The Mystery of Edwin Drood is the final novel by Charles Dickens. The novel was unfinished at the time of Dickens’s death. During October of 1869, at Gad‟s Hill Place, Dickens begins work on The Mystery of Edwin Drood. On March 15, 1870 Dickens gives his final public reading. On June 8, 1870 Dickens spends the day working on The Mystery of Edwin Drood. During dinner he collapses and on June 9, 1870 he dies at Gad‟s Hill Place.

21.3: Charles Dickens as a Novelist Charles Dickens was the representative novelist of the Victorian age. He is the writer of some great novels such as Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, David Copperfield, and Bleak House in which his art of storytelling, comic view of life, his enthusiasm for social reformation, social criticism, and use of humor have been intensely  epitomized.

His first novel was Pickwick Papers, the supreme comic novel in English language. Cambell, the famous Lord Chief Justice, remarked that he would have been prouder of having written Pickwick Papers than of all the honours he had earned at the Bar. His comedy is never overlaid because it is an effortless expression of a comic view of life. Dickens seems to see things differently in an entertaining manner, without any serious thought of plot or design.

As a novelist, Dickens is a social Chronicler. He is found to have introduced social novels in a much broader sense. Dickens believed in the ethical and political potential of literature, and he treated his fiction as a facilitator for debates about moral and social reform. In his novels of social analysis Dickens became a candid critic of unreasonable economic and social conditions. His social observations helped raise the collective cognizance of his readers. Dickens contributed significantly to the emergence of public opinion, which was gaining an amassed impact on the decisions of the experts. A number of legal reforms like a better administration of criminal prisons, the abolition of the merciless imprisonment for debts, distillation of the Magistrates‟ courts, and the check on the capital punishment were influenced by his thoughts.

According to David Cecil, Dickens is “the most representative of Victorian novelists. Some will contend that he is also the greatest. No doubt he lacks the profundity of George Eliot, the consuming passion of the Bronte sisters, and the peculiar éclat of Thackeray, yet he surpasses them all in his basic humanity, a childlike naïveté, and an amazingly fecund imagination.‟ Indeed, Dickens was not of his country alone but of the entire world.

Dickens and Social Reform:

Dickens stands for Art for society‟s sake. His art is art with a purpose. Dickens was not limited to “aesthetic culture” or “Gothicism.” His novels give clear note of humanitarianism. He can be called one of the greatest social reformers of his time. Most of his novels have been built around a particular social theme. For instance, „‟Bleak House attacks “the law’s delays”; Nicholas Nickleby, the abuses of charity schools and the sadism of school-masters; Hard Times, the pet concepts of the then current “political economy”; Little Dornit, the inhumanities to which poor debtors are often subjected; and so forth.‟‟ Nowhere does Dickens say that “all is right with the world,” but nowhere does he say either that “all is wrong with the world.” He was a pragmatist as well as a visionary.

21.5 : Great Expectations: Introduction

Great Expectations, Charles Dickens thirteenth novel, is a bildungsroman depicting the story of an orphan Pip. It is Dickens’s second novel to be fully narrated in the first person. The novel was first published as a serial in Dickens’s weekly periodical All the Year Round, from 1 December 1860 to August 1861followed by its publication in Chapman and Hall (October 1861) in three volumes.

Great Expectations is regarded as Dickens “grotesque tragicomic” conception. There are moments of touching tragedy and sadness, such as young Pip in a cemetery surrounded by his dead family, and Pip being mistreated by his only surviving relative, Mrs. Joe. At the same time, there is relaxed comedy, such as when Mr. Pumblechook and Mr. Wopsle reconstruct their tales of how the thief must have stolen the pork pie, when all the time, it was no thief but Pip. In spite of some light mood, the darker moods dominate the text, with mystery and danger always skulking. Miss Havisham presents a grotesque mystery, as does Jaggers‟ housekeeper Molly. Towards the end of the novel, grave events and serious complications completely surround the plot.

21.6: Great Expectations: Story- The novel starts out with one of the most significant events of Philip Pirrip (Pip)‟s life when he is a young child. As he was sitting one evening, gazing at his parents‟ tombstones, an absconded convict grabs Pip to bring food and a file. Even though Pip follows his orders properly, the convict gets caught anyways. Pip returns to living the normal life with his sister and her husband, Mrs and Mr. Joe Gargery in Kent, England. Soon, however, his Uncle Pumblechook takes him to the Satis House where he meets the strange but wealthy Miss Havisham and her beautiful adopted daughter Estella. Pip falls madly in everlasting love with her. On the other hand Estella treats him with only disdain and intimidation. Soon Pip is trained by his brother-in-law Joe to be a Blacksmith. Estella taunts him for being an ordinary person. Then, Bitty a young girl, is appointed to take care of his bedridden sister. Pip learns many things from her so that he can enhance his image in front of Estella. Jagger, a lawyer by profession, forewarns Pip of a large sum of money that had transpired him from a secret benefactor and suggests him to travel to London to complete his education and be a “gentleman”. Pip, keeping Estella in his mind, is delighted at his affluence and believes that Miss Havisham is his secret benefactor. Pip reaches London and comes in contact with two gentlemen named Herbert Pocket and Wemmick while receiving a good education. Pip continues to long after Estella but expresses disparagement for Joe. Pip becomes a real gentleman, successful, wealthy and well respected over the years, gaining everything he had ever wished to be as a child except at gaining the love of Estella. After a long period of time his former acquaintance, the convict Magwitch, returns to Pip, dramatically announcing his identity as Pip‟s secret benefactor all these years. Pip shows his utter disgust at this turn of events but agrees to help Magwitch escape, as he is still wanted by the police. As time goes on, Pip begins to sincerely care for Magwitch.

Another twist is discovered by Pip when he realizes Magwitch is the birth father of Estella and that Miss Havisham had never wanted to encourage Estella‟s love for Pip but rather persuade her to “break men‟s hearts”. Pip is utterly heart-broken when he hears of news that Estella had married Bentley Drummle, a cruel upper-class gentleman. Pip visits Miss Havisham one last time before her death where she asks for his forgiveness and he agrees despite all the pain that he has suffered. Magwitch must escape before time runs out and so Pip and his friends sneak him down the river to catch a ship but is ultimately caught by the police and Magwitch suffers severe injuries .Pip returns to his regular lifestyle focusing on his career before returning many years later to the Satis House where he had first met Estella. Once again, Estella and Pip meet in the garden when Estella informs him of the death of her husband and the cruelty that Drummle had treated her with over the years of their marriage. Pip recognizes that Estella‟s once stony and vehement eyes have turned warm with benevolence as she asks for his forgiveness. He accepts and they walk out of the garden hand in hand, while Pip believes that they will never be apart ever again.

21.7 : Setting of the novel

Great Expectations can be divided into three stages in the life of Pip. The first stage presents Pip as an orphan being raised by an unkind sister who resents him, and her husband, who offers him kindness and love. Pip encounters a convict and helps him. His meeting with Estella and Miss Havisham gives a new direction to his life. He receives a fortune and moves to London.

The second stage of Pip‟s life takes place in London where he becomes friends with Herbert Pocket and Mr. Jaggers‟ clerk, Mr. Wemmick. He again meets Magwitch, his real benefactor. This knowledge begins the change in Pip from ungrateful snobbery to the humility associated with Joe and home.

The third stage in Pip‟s life solves all the remaining mysteries of the novel. Pip finds out that Magwitch is the biological father of Estella. Magwitch dies in prison, and Pip becomes a clerk in Cairo with Herbert. He returns 11 years later and finds Estella at the site of Satis House. The more popular ending indicated that they stayed together.

21.8:     Genre and Form of the Novel: Great Expectation contains the elements of a variety of different literary genres like:

• Bildungsroman
• Tragi-comedy
• Melodrama and satire
• Romance
• Gothic novel
• Crime fiction

21.9      Plot and Structure of the Novel

•  Young Pip lives with his abusive sister and kind brother-in-law, Joe. Pip helps a convict .
• Pip visits the wealthy Miss Havisham and falls in love with her adopted daughter Estella.
•  Pip becomes a blacksmith‟s apprentice, but wishes to be a gentleman so as to win over Estella.
• A mysterious benefactor grants him his wish.
•  Pip goes to London and gains whatever he wanted to become a gentleman.
•  He comes to know about Magwitch, the convict ,who is his benefactor.
•  Estella plans to marry another man.
•  Miss Havisham dies,
•  Pip discovers Estella is Magwitch‟s daughter.
• Magwitch dies in prison.
•  Joe pays off Pip‟s debts, and Pip goes to Cairo to become a clerk.

Later he reconnects with a widowed, kinder Estella. He believes that they are united forever.

21.10: Literary Devices in Great Expectations

Great Expectations is known for autobiographical elements, as it is written in first person but it not an autobiography. It is a famous novel, a work of fiction having plot and characters. There is a narrator, suspense, crime, cruelty, love and kindness too. Pip being both protagonist and narrator narrates his story as a mistreated orphan. He has an ambition and tries his best to fulfill that. Luck favours him as well and he reaches London. There is a twist in the plot when Magwitch returns in his life. All loosly connected plot elements are set into motion and „the protagonist‟s point of view joins those of the narrator and the reader.‟

THEM ES · Ambition and the desire for self-improvement (social, economic, educational, and moral); guilt, criminality, and innocence; maturation and the growth from childhood to adulthood; the importance of affection, loyalty, and sympathy over social advancement and class superiority; social class; the difficulty of maintaining superficial moral and social categories in a constantly changing world

SUBJECTS:

• Crime and criminality;
• Disappointed expectations;
• The connection between weather or atmosphere and dramatic events;
• Doubles (two convicts, two secret benefactors, two invalids, etc.)

S Y M B O L S

• Satis House represents the upper-class world to which Pip longs to belong.
• The stopped clocks at Satis House symbolize Miss Havisham‟s attempt to stop time.
• Crime and Guilt were symbolized by many objects like: scaffolds, prisons, chains, policemen, lawyers, courts, convicts, files etc.
• Bentley Drummle represents the weird whim and fancy of the upper class.
• Joe symbolizes integrity, morality, affection, dependability, and simple good nature;
• The marsh mists represent danger and opacity.

TONE

Tone is comic, jovial, satirical, cynical, critical, emotional, gloomy, dramatic, ominous, Gothic and compassionate.

21.12-    Major Characters of the novel

Pip – The protagonist and narrator of Great Expectations, Pip begins the story as a young orphan boy being raised by his sister and brother-in-law in the southeast of England. Pip is passionate, romantic, and somewhat unrealistic at heart, and he tends to expect more for himself than is reasonable. There are really two Pips in Great Expectations: Pip the narrator and Pip the character. As a character, Pip‟s two most important traits are his infantile, dreamy idealism and his distinctively good conscience.

Miss Havisham – Miss Havisham is the affluent, bizarre old woman who lives in a manor called Satis House near Pip‟s village. She is hysterical and often seems unreasonable. We can find her swooping around her house in a faded wedding dress, keeping a rotten feast on her table, and surrounding herself with clocks stopped at twenty minutes to nine. Miss Havisham was ditched by her fiancé minutes before her wedding, and now she has a typical hatred against all men. She calculatingly raises Estella to be the instrument of her revenge to break men‟s hearts.

Estella – Miss Havisham‟s beautiful adopted daughter, Estella is Pip‟s inaccessible dream till the end of the novel. Estella is cold, disparaging, and calculating. Though Pip considered her as icon from the upper classes, Estella is actually even lower-born than Pip, being the daughter of Magwitch, the convict. Miss Havisham, who annihilates her capability to express emotion and interact normally, raises her to be like this. That‟s the reason that rather than marrying the benevolent Pip, Estella marries the cruel aristocrat Drummle, who treats her harshly and makes her life miserable. Pip used to love her passionately, but she is usually callous, harsh, and unresponsive in him. Off and on she forewarns him that she has no heart. Towards the end after being a widow she realizes Pip‟s passion for her and they come out „hand in hand‟.

Joe Gargery – Pip‟s brother-in-law, the village blacksmith, uneducated and unrefined, Joe stays with his overbearing, abusive wife—known as Mrs. Joe—solely out of love for Pip. Joe‟s quiet goodness makes him one of the few completely sympathetic characters in Great Expectations.

Mrs. Joe – Stern and arrogant Mrs Joe was Pip‟s sister and Joe‟s wife, known only as “Mrs. Joe” throughout the novel. She keeps a spotless household and frequently threats her husband and her brother with her cane, which she calls “Tickler.” She also forces them to drink a foul-tasting concoction called tar-water. Mrs. Joe is petty and ambitious.

Abel Magwitch (“The Convict”) – A frightening criminal, Magwitch escapes from prison at the beginning of Great Expectations and intimidates Pip in the cemetery. Pip‟s kindness, however, makes a deep impression on him, and he consequently devotes himself to making a fortune and using it to upraise Pip into a higher social class. He becomes Pip‟s secret benefactor, funding Pip‟s education and luxurious lifestyle in London through the lawyer Jaggers.

Jaggers – The powerful, foreboding lawyer hired by Magwitch to supervise Pip‟s elevation to the upper class. As one of the most important criminal lawyers in London, Jaggers is privy to some dirty business; he consorts with vicious criminals, and even they are terrified of him. But there is more to Jaggers than his impenetrable exterior. He often seems to care for Pip, and before the novel begins he helps Miss Havisham to adopt the orphaned Estella. Jaggers smells strongly of soap: he washes his hands obsessively as a psychological mechanism to keep the criminal taint from corrupting him.

Biddy – A simple, kind hearted country girl, Biddy first befriends Pip when they attend school together. After Mrs. Joe is attacked and becomes an invalid, Biddy moves into Pip‟s home to care for her. Throughout most of the novel, Biddy represents the opposite of Estella; she is plain, kind, moral, and of Pip‟s own social class.

Dolge Orlick – The day labourer in Joe‟s forge, Orlick is a stooping, uncultured embodiment of evil. He is mischievous and discerning, hurting people simply because he enjoys it. He is responsible for the attack on Mrs. Joe, and he later almost succeeds in his attempt to murder Pip.

Uncle Pumblechook – Pip‟s pompous, arrogant uncle. (He is actually Joe‟s uncle and, therefore, Pip‟s “uncle-in-law,” but Pip and his sister both call him “Uncle Pumblechook.”) A merchant obsessed with money, Pumblechook is responsible for arranging Pip‟s first meeting with Miss Havisham.

Herbert Pocket – Pip first meets Herbert Pocket in the garden of Satis House, when, as a pale young gentleman, Herbert challenges him to a fight. Years later, they meet again in London, and Herbert becomes Pip‟s best friend and key companion after Pip‟s elevation to the status of gentleman. Herbert nicknames Pip “Handel.” He is the son of Matthew Pocket, Miss Havisham‟s cousin, and hopes to become a merchant so that he can afford to marry Clara Barley.

Wemmick – Jaggers‟s clerk and Pip‟s friend, Wemmick is one of the strangest characters in Great Expectations. At work, he is hard, cynical, sarcastic, and obsessed with “portable property”; at home in Walworth, he is jovial, wry, and a tender caretaker of his “Aged Parent.”

Mr. Wopsle –  The church clerk in Pip‟s country town; Mr. Wopsle s aunt is the local schoolteacher.

21.13   Minor characters of the novel

Bentley Drummle A sulking brute who eventually marries Estella then mistreats her.

Startop A tenant of Mr. Pocket and a friend of Pip.

Molly Jaggers‟ housekeeper. She was once accused of murder but acquitted. She turns out to be Estella‟s mother.

Miss Skiffins Wemmick‟s girlfriend and later, bride.

Clara Herbert Pocket‟s girlfriend and later, bride.

Mrs. Brandley The old widow with whom Estella lives in Richmond.

Mrs. Whimple An elderly woman at whose house Pip and Herbert lodge Magwitch in order to hide him.

Compeyson Magwitch’s onetime partner in crime. It is his fault Magwitch is sentenced to prison. He becomes an informant to the police and helps recapture Magwitch.

21.14: Some interesting facts about Novel and the Novelist

This Novel is not a diary; it can be termed as a memoir. It’s Pip recalling his whole life’s story at once. By our calculations, Pip the narrator is about 57 when he tells this story.

The novel was published serially from 1860 to 1861. This just means that chapters usually end without resolution;

Great Expectations is psychologically Dickens‟s most mature and realistic novel, although it works through his usual system of displacements and dark doublings.

Loutish Orlick, Joe‟s other apprentice, for example, seems to function as Pip‟s alter ego when he attacks his uncaring sister, Mrs. Joe.

It is also a novel that depicts the powerful influence of environment as well as of heredity: Magwitch, the convict, and bitter Miss Havisham were themselves both abused and lonely as children.

The novel is also hilariously funny in the characteristically Dickensian mode of excess.

AT A GLANCE:

FULL T ITL E · Great Expectations

AUTHOR · Charles Dickens

TYPE OF WORK · Novel

GENRES · Bildungsroman, social criticism, autobiographical fiction

LANGUAGE · English

TIM E AND PLACE WRIT T EN · London, 1860 -1861

DATE OF FIRS T PUB LIC AT ION · Published serially in England from December 1860 to August 1861 ; published in book form in England and America in 1861

PUB LISHER · Serialized in All the Year Round; published in England by Chapman & Hall; published in America by Harper & Brothers

NARRATOR · Pip

CLIM AX · A sequence of climactic events occurs from Chapter 51 to Chapter 56: Miss Havisham‟s burning in the fire, Orlick‟s attempt to murder Pip, and Pip‟s attempt to help Magwitch escape London.

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. With the exception of the last three, each of the novel‟s antagonists is redeemed before the end of the book.

SETTING (TIM E) · Mid-nineteenth century

SETTINGS (PLAC E) · Kent and London, England

POINT OF VI EW · First person

FALL ING ACTION · The period following Magwitch‟s capture in Chapter 54, including Magwitch‟s death, Pip‟s reconciliation with Joe, and Pip‟s reunion with Estella eleven years later

T E N S E · Past

F O R E S H A D O W I N G ·  Great Expectations contains a great deal of foreshadowing. The repeated references to the convict foreshadow his return;

• the second convict on the marsh foreshadows the revelation of Magwitch‟s conflict with Compeyson;
• the man in the pub who gives Pip money foreshadows the revelation that Pip‟s fortune comes from Magwitch;
• Miss Havisham‟s wedding dress and her bizarre surroundings foreshadow the revelation of her past and her relationship with Estella;
• Pip‟s feeling that Estella reminds him of someone he knows foreshadows his discovery of the truth of her parentage;
• the fact that Jaggers is a criminal lawyer foreshadows his involvement in Magwitch‟s life; the weather often foreshadows dramatic events: a storm brewing generally means there will be trouble ahead, as on the night of Magwitch‟s return.

Reference

• Charles Dickens (1993), Great Expectations, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ISBN 978-0-19-818591-8, introduction and notes by Margaret Cardwell
•  G. K. Chesterton (1911), Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dicken, London: J. M. Dent
• G. J. Adair Fitz-Gerald (1910), Dickens and the Drama, London: Chapman & Hall, Ltd.
• Anny Sadrin (1988), Great Expectations, Unwin Hyman, ISBN 978-0048000514
• Michael Cordell, ed. (1990), Critical Essays on Great Expectations, Boston: G. K. Hall, pp. 24, 34
• Nicholas Tredell (1998), Charles Dickens: Great Expectations, Cambridge: Icon Books (distributed by Penguin)
• Edgar Rosenberg (1981), “Last Words on Great Expectations: A Textual Brief ln the Six Endings”, Dickens Studies Annual, 9