Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens first serialised in All the Year Round[1] from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. The action of the story takes place from Christmas Eve, 1812, when the protagonist is about seven years old, to the winter of 1840.[2] Great Expectations is written in a semi-autobiographical style, and is the story of the orphan Pip, tracing his life from his early days of childhood until adulthood. The story can also be considered semi-autobiographical of Dickens, like much of his work, drawing on his experiences of life and people. Each instalment of it in All the Year Round contained two chapters, and was written in a way to keep readers interested from week to week, while still satisfying the need for resolution at the end of each installment.
Plot introduction
The story is divided into three phases of Pip's life expectations. The first "expectation" is allotted 19 chapters, and the other two 20 chapters each in the 59-chapter work. In some editions, the chapter numbering reverts to Chapter One in each expectation, but the original publication and most modern editions number the chapters consecutively from one to 59. At the end of chapters 19 and 39, readers are formally notified that they have reached the conclusion of a phase of Pip's expectations. In the first expectation, Pip lives a humble existence with his ill-tempered older sister and her strong, but gentle husband, Joe Gargery. Pip is satisfied with this life and his warm friends until he is hired by an embittered wealthy woman, Miss Havisham, as an occasional companion to her and her beautiful but haughty adopted daughter, Estella. From that time on, Pip aspires to leave behind his simple life and be a gentleman. After years as companion to Miss Havisham and Estella, he spends more years as an apprentice to Joe, so that he may grow up to have a future working as a blacksmith. This life is suddenly turned upside down when he is visited by a London attorney, Mr. Jaggers, who informs Pip that he is to come into the "great expectations" of handsome property and be trained to be a gentleman on the behalf of an anonymous benefactor. The second stage of Pip's expectations has Pip in London, learning the details of being a gentleman, having tutors, fine clothing, and joining cultured society. Whereas he always engaged in honest labour when he was younger, he now is supported by a generous allowance, which he frequently lives beyond. He learns to fit in this new milieu, and experiences not only friendship but rivalry as he finds himself in the same circles as Estella, who is also pursued by many other men, especially Bentley Drummle, whom she favours. As he adopts the physical and cultural norms of his new status, he also adopts the class attitudes that go with it, and when Joe comes to visit Pip and his friend and roommate Herbert to deliver an important message, Pip is embarrassed to the point of hostility by Joe's unlearned ways, despite his protestations of love and friendship for Joe. At the end of this stage, Pip is introduced to his benefactor, again changing his world. The third and last stage of Pip's expectations alters Pip's life from the artificially supported world of his upper class strivings and introduces him to realities that he must deal with, including moral, physical and financial challenges. He learns startling truths that cast into doubt the values that he once embraced so eagerly, and finds that he cannot regain many of the important things that he had cast aside so carelessly. The current ending of the story is different from Dickens's original intent, in which the ending matched the gloomy reverses to Pip's fortunes that typify the last expectation. Dickens was prevailed upon to change the ending to one more acceptable to his readers' tastes in that era, and this "new" ending was the published one and currently accepted as definitive. Dickens has Pip as the writer and first person narrator of this account of his life's experiences, and the entire story is understood to have been written as a retrospective, rather than as a present tense narrative or a diary or journal. Still, though Pip "knows" how all the events in the story will turn out, he uses only very subtle foreshadowing so that we learn of events only when the Pip in the story does. Pip does, however, use the perspective of the bitter lessons he's learned to comment acidly on various actions and attitudes in his earlier life.
Plot summary
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The first stage of Pip's expectations
Pip is a young orphan who is being brought up by his adult sister, Mrs. Joe, a sharp-tongued woman who is married to the simple but kind village blacksmith, Joe Gargery, who treats Pip warmly to make up for his wife's harshness. Mrs. Joe brought Pip up "by hand", an acceptable way to raise children back in the mid-nineteenth century. On a Christmas Eve, Pip visits his parents' graves in the churchyard in the marshes, and is suddenly confronted with an escaped convict. The convict orders Pip, with threats, to bring him food and a file to remove his shackles. Pip complies the next day, stealing food from the pantry and the file from Joe's forge. Later on in the day, there is a commotion, which turns out to be the same convict Pip had helped, fighting with another convict. The two are captured, but not before the convict repays Pip in his own way by covering up for him regarding the food and file. Mr. Pumblechook, who is Joe's uncle and was never very nice to Pip, arranges with Mrs. Joe for Pip to visit Miss Havisham, a wealthy and eccentric spinster who resides at Satis House. When Pip arrives at Satis House, he finds it to have been stopped in time; everything seems to have been kept the same way for many years, and the clocks have stopped. While there, he fulfils Miss Havisham's "sick fancy" to see children play by playing cards with Estella, a beautiful but haughty girl adopted by Miss Havisham. His perspective on his simple but honest life is altered forever. Pip's visits to Satis House continue for several years and he develops an unrequited love for Estella, whose wealth and grace also make him ashamed of his humble life and friends. Miss Havisham's payment for Pip ultimately comes in the form of monetary compensation for his years of service as Joe's apprentice. Pip appears to be destined to become a blacksmith, but he cannot forget about Estella, even with the advice of his female friend, Biddy. While an apprentice, Joe's cruel and hateful journeyman Dolge Orlick fights Joe after making a comment about Mrs. Joe. Not long after, Mrs. Joe is attacked from behind by an unknown assailant, whom Pip believes to be Orlick. Mrs. Joe never fully recovers, so Biddy becomes her nurse. The pivotal turning point in Pip's life comes in his fourth year of apprenticeship, when a well-known London attorney by the name of Jaggers informs them that Pip has been endowed with "great expectations" —- he will be provided with the necessary fortune and upbringing to make himself a gentleman. While Mr. Jaggers specifically states Pip's benefactor will not be revealed to him yet, Pip believes Miss Havisham is behind this, which is further strengthened by the discovery Jaggers is Miss Havisham's lawyer and his tutor will be Mr. Matthew Pocket, a relation of Miss Havisham. The first part of the novel ends with Pip leaving behind his family, friends, and humble life as he is transported by coach to London and another life.
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