Study notes: Great Expectations
Pip, an orphan raised by his sister and her blacksmith husband, gets a surprise: a secret benefactor will make him a gentleman. In London he learns that money and manners do not make a person good, and that the people he looked down on were the truest friends he had.
Themes
Ambition and class. Loyalty. Growing up and owning mistakes.
People to follow
Pip, Joe Gargery, Estella, Miss Havisham, Magwitch, and Herbert Pocket.
Talk about
- Why does Pip feel ashamed of Joe?
- Who is Pip's benefactor and why?
- What makes someone a gentleman?
Public-domain text. First published in 1861; Charles Dickens died in 1870, so this text is in the public domain in the US, Canada, the EU and India. Summary and notes written by ViralScopeHub.