Great Expectations

Great Expectations is Charles Dickens's thirteenth novel, first serialised weekly in All the Year Round from December 1860 to August 1861. It is a first-person Bildungsroman - the story of the orphan Pip, who grows from a frightened child on the Kent marshes into a young gentleman in London, only to discover that his wealth and status rest on foundations very different from those he imagined.

Setting

The novel moves between two contrasting worlds: the flat, misty Kent marshes around the forge where Pip grows up with his sister and her husband, the blacksmith Joe Gargery; and the crowded, often threatening streets of London, where Pip pursues his 'great expectations'. Between them stands Satis House, the decaying mansion of the jilted Miss Havisham, where Pip first meets the beautiful, cold Estella and first learns to feel ashamed of his origins.

The central movement

As a child, Pip secretly helps an escaped convict, Abel Magwitch, on the marshes. Later, a London lawyer, Mr Jaggers, announces that Pip has 'great expectations' from an anonymous benefactor. Pip assumes Miss Havisham is his patron and that he is destined for Estella. In London he becomes a spendthrift gentleman, grows ashamed of Joe and the forge, and drifts from the values of his childhood. The shattering revelation that his true benefactor is the convict Magwitch forces Pip to re-examine every assumption about class, worth and loyalty. Through suffering, loss and the steadfast love of Joe, Pip eventually learns humility and the true meaning of being a gentleman.

Why it matters for the exam

For OxfordAQA Paper 1, Section A (closed book, prose fiction), you must write about character, theme, language and structure without the text in front of you. This guide gives you the detailed knowledge of plot, characters, themes, key passages and Dickens's techniques that you will need to write a strong analytical response from memory.