Great Expectations Overview

The following sample essay on “Great Expectation”: review on Great Expectation by Charles Dickens, It’s problems and themes.

The story “Great Expectation” was written by Charles Dickens in 1861. It was during the Victorian era. During that time people were divided in to different classes, and most people were very poor. Due to the poverty most of the women were involved in to prostitution. Also that was the time when Jack the Ripper started to kill women. The story “Great Expectation” is about an orphan called Pip, who tells us about his childhood and his expectation about becoming rich and gentle man.

The reason Dickens wanted to write about, this poor boy because this whole story reflect to his own life and it also shows how the life was like in Victorian era. In this essay, I will talk about on the writing, how Dickens tries to create Sympathy for the poor boy Pip in “Great Expectation” of its opening chapter.

The novel opens with the description of the setting. Words likes “marsh country, land raw and wet” shows us the place was really old and poor. The chapter introduces Pip who has gone to the churchyard to visit his parents’ graveyards. The audience feel sorry when he started to cry sight of his parent’s tombstone. Also the writer try to create humour to show us how immature pip was, when he was looking at his father’s tombstone and were trying to figure out how he used to look like.

Get quality help now

WriterBelle

Verified

Proficient in: Behavior

4.7 (657)

“ Really polite, and a great writer! Task done as described and better, responded to all my questions promptly too! ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

It also makes us feel sad for him because as a child he can’t remember how his father be like.

Who Wrote Great Expectations

To make thing worse for Pip Dickens also introduce us the growling, mean and ragged looking man. By describing his dress up Dickens trying to tell us where the man is from. The man had great iron on his leg which obviously it tells us that he used to be a prisoner or he escaped from the prison. One of the ways dickens shows sympathy for pip when, that man were started to being aggressive towards him. Additionally Dickens also shows us that Pip was totally helpless because when the man turned him upside down. This makes us feel repentant towards pip because he couldn’t do anything about it and he have to do everything what the man will tell him to do. . Also dickens uses abusing language towards Pip, to feel wretched for him such, “young dog, fat cheeks”.

Also we see Mrs. Joe treats him very roughly, to prove this in chapter t 2, when Pip returned from the churchyard little bit late, Mrs Joe a stick to hit Pip when her hand doesn’t seem punishment enough to fit the crime. If any child being treated like this it makes us believe, that the child is being mistreatment by the parents. Alternatively Mr. Joe was a kind, mild manors and totally opposite from Mrs. Joe. We know this because he is the one who actually shelters Pip from his sisters.

We also see how Miss havisham and Esttella treats him when he is sent into Satis house. At first he was impressed by how Ms. Havisham looks. We know this by the way Pip describes her outfit. Dickens uses word such as “satins, lace and silks” which actually tells us that she was beautiful and rich. The reason why Pip was so impressed, because he never saw this kind of stuff before. Also when Ms.Havisham saw Pip she started to ask him un-comfortable question. Estella, who is being adopted by Ms.Havisham , she also started to treat him inadequately , just because Pip doesn’t know how to play card. Also from the beginning she was being really mean to Pip by calling her “boy”. The word “boy” tell us that she doesn’t care about him just because he is poor. Also Dickens used repeated word “Play, play, play” towards Pip. By this we know that he was just like a puppet to Ms.Havisham. Another thing that shows sympathy is when they gave him the bread and meat to eat, on the floor. It tells us that Pip wasn’t being treated like a human being. Also dickens creates sympathy for Pip, as he was showing his anger, by kicking his leg on the wall. thich tells us he can’t take anymore of this insult from Ms.Havisham and Estella.

From my point of view I think, Dickens made Pip’s life really unreasonable. Because from the background we know, that Ms.havisham’s plan for Pip, that she will use Estella against Pip to take revenge next to men kind just because she got cast off on her weeding day. As a child Pip doesn’t know anything about it as he go to Satis’ house.