About Great Expectations

By:  Amy Coleman

Despite literary debates over Dickens' style, Great Expectations is widely considered his masterpiece. Set in the early 19th century, the novel reflects the Victorian era's emphasis on virtue, respectability, and family.

The novel's publication coincided with England's rapid industrialization and urbanization, bringing both prosperity and social ills. Amidst these changes, literature shifted from glorifying the upper classes to portraying the lives of ordinary people.

Great Expectations was initially serialized in weekly installments, allowing Dickens to adapt the story based on reader feedback. Following advice from a novelist friend, he altered the ending from a tragic to a more optimistic one.

The novel's first-person narration, often attributed to an older Pip reflecting on his life, adds a layer of intimacy and complexity. Dickens effectively employs vivid imagery and detailed character development, choć some critics have questioned the characters' depth.

The novel's three-part structure mirrors a play's acts, reflecting Dickens' involvement in theater. Each part represents a stage in Pip's life: his innocent childhood, his extravagant young manhood, and his journey toward redemption and inner peace.

The plot is intricate and suspenseful, filled with surprises and complexities, a strategy used to maintain reader interest in the serialized format. Dickens' use of humor, satire, irony, repetition, and symbolism further enhances the narrative.

Critics have identified three broad thematic categories in the novel: moral, psychological, and social. Moral themes include the struggle between good and evil, redemption, the power of wealth, personal responsibility, and the consequences of one's choices.

Psychological themes are explored through Pip's personal and moral growth, examining abandonment, guilt, shame, desire, secrecy, gratitude, ambition, and emotional manipulation versus genuine love.

Social themes address class structure, snobbery, child exploitation, corruption in education and the legal system, the need for prison reform, religious attitudes, the impact of industrialization, and the Victorian work ethic. Interestingly, the novel focuses on people's leisure time rather than their work, reflecting Dickens' view of a gentleman's life.

Great Expectations is considered one of Dickens' most personal novels, bearing the marks of his own experiences. Unlike Pip, Dickens achieved wealth and fame through his passionate dedication to writing and theater. While both Pip and Dickens undergo self-analysis, Pip ultimately learns that happiness is not determined by fortune.

Despite some differences between Dickens and Pip, Great Expectations remains a timeless masterpiece, captivating readers with its intricate plot, memorable characters, and profound exploration of human nature.

https://dickens.stanford.edu/dickens/archive/great/historical_context.html

https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/g/great-expectations/about-great-expectations