Great Expectations Essay, Research Paper
The book I read was Charles Dicken s Great Expectations written in 1890. Dickens novel contains 400 pages. Great Expectations takes place in the 1800 s in London, England and the surrounding suburbs of London. The story is told in the fist person through the eyes of the main character Philip Pirrip. Other influential characters of Dickens novel are Philip Pirrip, Estella Havisham, Miss Havisham, Mr. Jaggers and Able Magwitch. Philip Pirrip is an orphan raised by his sister and her blacksmith husband Joe Gargery. Pip is the main character of the novel his goal in life is to better his life style and to reach his great expectations set up by his benefactor Able Magwitch. Estella Havisham is Pip s childhood love interest. She is the adopted daughter of Miss Havisham. She was raised with a heart of ice and to be scornful to all men including Pip. Miss Havisham is an eccentric ageing woman who lives a very somber reclusive life. She taught Estella to hate all men because her fiance left her waiting at the altar at twenty minutes to nine. In the beginning of the novel she is thought to be Pips benefactor. Mr. Jaggers is the assigned guardian of Pip. He is a well-known London lawyer who also represented Able Magwitch. He is instructed to take care of Pip by giving him money, making sure he gets an education, and also turning him into a gentleman. Able Magwitch is a convicted felon that Pip helps escape. He hires Jaggers to be Pips guardian for Magwitch is his benefactor. When the story begins Pip is living with his sister and her blacksmith husband. When one day he goes to the marshes and comes across an escaped convict named Able Magwitch. Pip helps this gentleman by giving him food, which he knows he s going to get in trouble for, and one of Joe s blacksmiths files. Even though Pip helps him he is found by the police and re-arrested. Pip moves on with his life and is hired by Miss Havisham to be a playmate for her beautiful adopted daughter Estella. As soon as Pip sets his eyes on Estellla he is immediatly falls in love with her grace and beauty. One day when Joe and Pip are at the local tavern the Jolly Bargeman a gentleman comes over to them and specifies that he must speak to them in private. So they bring this man to their house where he introduces himself as Mr. Jaggers. He explains to them that Pip has a benefactor that has great expectations for him. The only conditions are that he quits his apprentiship with Joe and he must always keep the name Pip. He also must move to London to get an education in order to be turned into a refined gentleman. He moves to London where Mr. Jaggers assumes responsibility of him by becoming his guardian. While in London, he rooms with Herbert Pocket, who teaches him gentlemanly manners. Herbert is a relative of Miss Havisham and also the son of the man who educates Pip. He also becomes friends with Mr. Jaggers assistant Wemmick.
By this time he has convinced himself that Miss Havisham wants him to marry Estella and begins to ignore everything and everyone else in his life. He offends Joe, his oldest and best friend, and Biddy, who has been helping him throughout everything. By doing this he makes himself out to be a snob. Until the time he is twenty-three he doesn t know the truth of who his benefactor is or why they chose him. One night, a stranger appears at his door and Pip surprisingly recognizes despite the condition he is in. He is the convict who Pip had helped many years before. The convict tells Pip he is his benefactor and has risked the penalty of death to come see him. He was exiled to Australia and made money there before returning to find Pip. The only motivation he had while he was in Australia was coming back to repay Pip for his kindness. Once again Pip feels obliged to help Magwitch and to add to his problems he learns that Estella is to marry someone else. Pip decides to take Magwitch to a house near the river. After Magwitch gets to the house a number of events occur. He saves Miss Havisham from a fire, is almost killed by Joe s former assistant, Orlick, finds out Magwitch is Estella s father, and attempts to get Magwitch on a boat to another country. Miss Havisham ends up dying from the complications of the fire. Magwitch is caught but ends up dying before his execution from injuries in an underwater struggle with an old enemy. In the end, Pip learned a lot from Magwitch and after his death becomes seriously ill. Although Pip and Joe had trouble because of Pip s attitude, Joe nurses him back to health. After recovering, he joins Herbert in India to do business. In the end, he sees Estella and things are settled between them because they have been educated by their individual sufferings. They learn more from life and the up and downs you go through then they would from any books.