Search results
Find everything you need to know about Charles Dickens's classic novel Great Expectations, from the plot summary and character analysis to the themes and quotes. Explore the full text, quizzes, flashcards, and test prep with SparkNotes.
- Chapters 11–13
A summary of Chapters 11–13 in Charles Dickens's Great...
- Quick Quiz
Perfect prep for Great Expectations quizzes and tests you...
- Style
Description and explanation of Great Expectations 's...
- Setting
Great Expectations is set in nineteenth-century England,...
- Full Book Summary
A short summary of Charles Dickens's Great Expectations....
- Character List
Great Expectations characters include: Pip, Estella, Miss...
- Full Book Analysis
An in-depth examination of the events in Great Expectations...
- Full Text
Read the full text of Great Expectations: Chapter I. Search...
- Pip
As a bildungsroman, Great Expectations presents the growth...
- Themes
Ambition and Self-Improvement. The moral theme of Great...
- Chapters 11–13
A comprehensive overview of Dickens's classic novel, covering the main characters, plot, themes, and motifs. Learn how Pip's life changes after a mysterious benefactor makes him a gentleman, and how he faces love, betrayal, and redemption.
- Charles Dickens
- 1860
Learn about the plot, characters, and themes of the first section of Great Expectations, Dickens's classic novel about a young orphan's journey of self-improvement. Read the chapter summaries, analysis, and quotes from Pip's narration and his encounters with the convict, Mrs. Joe, and the marshes.
- Chapters 1–3
- Chapters 4–7
- Chapters 8–10
- Chapters 11–13
- Chapters 14–16
- Chapters 17–19
- Chapters 20–26
- Chapters 27–35
- Chapters 36 & 37
- Chapters 38 & 39
- GeneratedCaptionsTabForHeroSec
Pip, a young orphan boy living with his sister and her husband Joe, is approached by a convict out on the marshes who demands Pip provide him with food and a file with which he can saw off his leg irons. Pip hurries home to retrieve the necessary items, but is unable to get away from the Christmas Eve festivities. The next morning, Pip returns to t...
During Christmas dinner, Pip panics that his sneaking out of the house to help the convict will be discovered. To his relief, the convicts are apprehended and taken away to a prison ship, though Pip continues to feel guilty. Sometime after the incident, Pip’s Uncle Pumblechook reveals that he has arranged for Pip to go play at the house of Miss Hav...
Pip visits Miss Havisham’s manor, Satis House, and plays cards with Estella, who criticizes Pip for his low social class. When Pip returns home, he lies about his experience, revealing the truth only to Joe, who tells Pip he must be honest if he wants to succeed in life. Later on, Pip goes to a pub to bring Joe home and sees a man stirring a drink ...
Pip is taken back to Miss Havisham’s house where he plays cards with Estella and gets into a fight with a young man, after which Estella allows him to kiss her on the cheek. Pip continues to visit Miss Havisham regularly for the next several months, becoming more distant from his family and hopeful that Miss Havisham means to make him a gentleman. ...
Pip begins working at Joe’s forge, where he is tormented by Joe’s forge worker, Orlick. One day while visiting Miss Havisham, Pip is disappointed to learn that Estella has been sent abroad. On his walk home, he hears gunfire from the prison ships, and discovers Mrs. Joe has been attacked and has sustained brain damage. Pip’s friend Biddy deduces th...
At the pub one evening, a man Pip recognizes from Miss Havisham’s manor introduces himself as the lawyer Jaggers, and explains that Pip will soon inherit a large fortune from a benefactor whose identity he must never know. Pip assumes Miss Havisham is his secret benefactor and, now that he’s about to attain the wealth he’s always craved, begins act...
When Pip arrives in London, he is introduced to Herbert Pocket, the son of Pip’s tutor and the boy that Pip once fought in the garden at Satis House. Herbert teaches Pip how to be a gentleman and tells Pip the story of Miss Havisham. Pip continues to get to know his fellow students and the Pockets, attending dinners with both Jaggers and his clerk,...
Pip travels home for a visit, and winds up sharing a coach with a convict he recognizes, which terrifies him. Pip’s reunion with Estella does not go well, and when he returns to London, Herbert consoles Pip, explaining that he, too, is in love with a woman named Clara, but he is too poor to marry her. Pip receives word that Mrs. Joe has died and re...
Pip turns twenty-one; he’s now able to receive a regular income from his fortune. Pip takes this opportunity to ask Jaggers about the identity of his benefactor, yet Jaggers does not reveal any details other than the amount of money Pip will be receiving yearly. Pip then uses his money to find Herbert a partnership, which he does so anonymously, so...
Pip spends a lot of time with Estella and believes it’s Miss Havisham’s wish that the two ultimately marry, but he is troubled by the presence of Estella’s various suitors, including the unpleasant Drummle. One night when Pip is twenty-three, he’s approached by the convict he helped as a boy; he’s on the run again, and Pip learns that the convict, ...
Find chapter-by-chapter summaries and analysis of Charles Dickens' classic novel Great Expectations. Learn about Pip's journey from a poor orphan to a wealthy gentleman, his love for Estella, and his mysterious benefactor.
LitCharts offers comprehensive and concise summaries, analysis, and quotes for Charles Dickens's Great Expectations, a classic coming-of-age novel. Learn about the plot, themes, characters, symbols, and literary devices of this Victorian masterpiece.
A comprehensive overview of the novel by Charles Dickens, covering the main characters, themes, quotes, and literary devices. Follow Pip's journey from an orphan blacksmith to a gentleman with mysterious benefactor, and his love for Estella.
People also ask
What is in the SparkNotes Great Expectations study guide?
What happens in the first chapter of Great Expectations?
What is great expectations about?
Why is Great Expectations a good book?
Jun 21, 2024 · Great Expectations, novel by Charles Dickens, first published serially in All the Year Round in 1860–61 and issued in book form in 1861. The classic novel was one of its author’s greatest critical and popular successes.
