Great Expectations · GCSE English Literature

Plot

Pip, an orphan raised by his harsh sister and her kind husband, Joe Gargery, the blacksmith, helps an escaped convict, Magwitch, on the marshes.
Pip is sent to play at Satis House, where the rich, bitter Miss Havisham, jilted on her wedding day, still wears her wedding dress. She has raised the beautiful Estella to break men's hearts. Pip falls in love with Estella and becomes ashamed of his 'common' life.
A lawyer, Jaggers, tells Pip he has 'great expectations': a secret benefactor will make him a gentleman in London. Pip assumes it is Miss Havisham, and becomes snobbish towards Joe.
The benefactor is really Magwitch, who made a fortune in Australia and risks death by returning to England. Pip also learns that Estella is Magwitch's daughter. Miss Havisham repents, but is badly burned in a fire.
Pip's plan to smuggle Magwitch abroad fails; Magwitch is captured and dies. Pip falls ill and is nursed by Joe. He works abroad, and at the end meets Estella, changed by suffering, at the ruins of Satis House.

Social class and ambition, what makes a true gentleman, guilt, crime and justice, love and rejection, and loyalty and gratitude.

Published in 1860–61. Victorian society was sharply divided by class. The growing middle classes could rise through wealth, but many believed true gentility came from birth.
Convicts could be transported to Australia. Dickens criticises snobbery and suggests that goodness matters more than status.

'What coarse hands he has! And what thick boots!' (Estella about Pip).
'Break their hearts my pride and hope, break their hearts and have no mercy!' (Miss Havisham to Estella).
'I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope' (Pip). 'Dear boy' (Magwitch to Pip).

Bildungsroman: A novel about a character growing up.
Benefactor: A person who gives money or help to someone.
Gentleman: A man of high social class, or one with good manners and morals.
Convict: A person found guilty of a crime and sent to prison.
Jilted: Abandoned by a lover, especially close to the wedding.
Transportation: Sending convicts to live and work in a colony, such as Australia.
First-person narrator: A narrator who tells their own story using 'I'.