Great Expectations :: Great Expectations Essays

Great Expectations Charles Dickens’ novel Great Expectations is a very enjoyable book for the reader for many reasons. Overall, Great Expectations is a novel that effectively depicts the emotions and feelings of the characters in the story and has a plot that maintains the reader’s interest. These elements, along with others help to make the novel appealing for the reader. When young boy by the name of Philip Pirrup (referred to a Pip by all that know him) encounters an escaped convict in a churchyard, he is extorted to get food and a file for the man. Once Pip retrieves these items for the man, he learns that the man is in fact, an escaped convict. Pip, although being only seven at the time, was part of the group that apprehended the convict. For a few years following this event, Pip frequently visited extremely wealthy old women named Miss Havisham. In the process, he falls in love with the woman’s adopted daughter named Estella. She, however, despises him for being common and not a gentleman and she frequently puts him down and, on one occasion, causes him to cry. After about a year of providing company, she tells him not to visit her any more and pays him for his services. Soon after, Pip is told that his prior plans to be a blacksmith (he was apprenticed to his brother-in-law) were not to be and that he had come into Great Expectations. His benefactor was to remain a secret until the person revealed himself or herself, but Pip was certain that it was Miss Havisham. Pip was very happy not only because his new wealth but also because he was certain that he was to marry Estella whom he still loved. Pip moved to London where he befriended his new tutor’s son and his guardian’s co-worker. Pip was quite shocked, however, when he found his benefactor to be not Miss Havisham, but rather the same man who Pip helped to apprehend when he was a convict. Also his sister, who had raised him since his parents died when he was very young, had died due to an attack she had suffered months before. This devastated him in that he would no longer be wed to Estella. When he professed his love to her, he learned that she was to be married to a person whom he despised. Pip later discovered that his benefactor, named Magwitch was the real father of Estella.