Great Expectations

LITERATURE SUMMARY: GREAT EXPECTATIONS

 
 
Great Expectations Book Review
 
Book Title and Author: Charles Dickens- Great Expectations
Award/Honor Received and Year: Nothing found about the book
 
Brief Synopsis: What is this book about? Imagine someone asked you to tell him/her in about 1 minute what the book you read is about. Write down what you would tell them in about 75 words.
 
This book is about the narrator; Pip recounts his life story from his childhood to how he matures and grows up to becoming a young man. Throughout this transformation, one thing remains unchanged. Pip falls in love with a wealthy but heartless girl named Estella. From that moment on, everything Pip does in his life is no longer for himself or anyone else but for Estella and only her. Pip even receives a fortune from a secret benefactor to pursue an education and he does this along with obtaining wealth, success and high social class in the hopes of becoming worthy in the eyes of his beloved Estella.
 
 
Setting: What is the setting in the book? In 50 words or less, describe the setting.
 
Great Expectations takes place in 19th century England. Pip is born in the early 1800s, and our narrator is telling his story in 1860. This is a busy time for England, seeing the momentum of the Industrial Revolution (and the invention of things like the steam engine and light bulb) as well as the abolishment of slavery in the British colonies in 1834. London is a thriving metropolis, and England is a powerful, wealthy, global giant. But Dickens's depiction of London, however, doesn't exactly fall in line with this notion of England as all-powerful, rich, and healthy.
 
 
Setting Review: Circle some of the techniques and/or descriptions your author may have used to create the setting.
 
Vivid               Unclear                       Visual Imagery          Sensory Imagery
Dialect                        Clothing                     Buildings                    Nature
Confusing      Changing                   Creative                      Imaginative
Unimaginative    Realistic             Unrealistic                      Mood
Add your own:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
How well does the author use descriptive techniques to create the book’s setting?
Visual Imagery                        Excellent         Good               Average           Poor
Sensory Imagery                     Excellent         Good               Average           Poor
Overall                                    Excellent         Good               Average           Poor
Why do you say so?
 
 
Characters: Who are the main characters in the book? In 50 words or less, describe the main characters.
 
The main characters of the book are Pip (Philip Pirrip, Handel) The narrator of the story who tells of his rise to wealth, his desertion of his true friends for that wealth and a chance with Estella, and his humbling by his own arrogance. At the end of the story he has learned wealth does not bring happiness.
 
Miss Havisham The strange, reclusive woman who was abandoned and swindled by her fiancé on her wedding day. She has raised Estella to exact revenge on all men. Pip assumes that Miss Havisham is his benefactress.
 
Estella The beautiful and haughty adopted daughter of Miss Havisham who taunts and attracts Pip. She does not know she is the daughter of criminals — Molly and Magwitch. She is trained to mistreat all men but after an abusive marriage grows to be a kinder person.
 
Magwitch (or Provis, Mr. Campbell, the convict, the shackled man): Magwitch and Pip first meet when Pip is a boy and Magwitch an escaped convict. Magwitch does not forget Pip's kindness in the marshes, and later in life devotes himself to earning money that he anonymously donates to Pip. Eventually, Magwitch comes to London to see his 'gentleman,' and after Pip's shock and shame wear off, the two become friends. Ever a convict, however, Magwitch is captured by the police. Just before he is sentenced to hang, he dies.
 

How well does the author develop the characters?
 
Physical:                      Excellent         Good               Average           Poor
Personality:                 Excellent         Good               Average           Poor
 
Why do you say so?
 
They are passionate, very moral, we can easily imagine them and get familiar or identified with the characters as well as we can easily get into their feelings and being involved on the novels as if we know them.
 
 
Plot: What is the major conflict of the book? In 50 words or less, explain the book’s plot.
There are two predominant conflicts in Great Expectations. The first is in the conflict category of Human against Human while the second is Human against Self. From the beginning Pip is set-up in a position of double conflict with Estella (Human against Human). Miss Havisham wants to (1) use Pip to punish mankind for her betrayal at the alter. Her clever scheme is to (2) cause Pip to fall in love with Estella who has been taught to scorn males with a cold, proud vanity that is unyielding. This conflict is resolved at the end of the story when Estella confess that she continued in "remembrance of what I had thrown away when I was quite ignorant of its worth" and Pip reciprocates with "in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of another parting from her."
As his tutelage under Miss Havisham continues, and he attributes his fortune to her, Pip comes to be in conflict with himself (Human against Self) as he learns to adopt as he own the proud and arrogant ways that Miss Havisham and Estella epitomize. Pip comes to scorn anything and anyone who does not stand up to their measure, including good but rough Joe who has only Pip's best interests at heart. When Pip promises Magwitch that he will always stay by his side, he offers tangible proof that he has overcome this conflict and has shed the domination of Estella's and Miss Havisham's hatred and pride.
"I will never stir from your side," said I, "when I am suffered to be near you. Please God, I will be as true to you as you have been to me!"
 
Plot Review: Circle any words that relate to the plot of the book and how the author develops it.
 
How well does the author use plot techniques to create the book’s story line?
                        Excellent         Good               Average           Poor
 
Why do you say so?
 
You know where are you and you really understanding the story when you read it or see the movie it is very organized for me….
 
Theme: What is the theme of the book? In 50 words or less, describe the lesson the author is trying to get across to readers.
The theme of the book In "Great Expectations" the moral truth expressed is that love, loyalty, and integrity are the most important values in life.  An innocent and idealistic Pip strays from these when he sees Satis House, ironically named "Satisfied House."  Seeking self-improvement, he aspires to become educated, be a gentleman, and rise in social position.  But, because he is so idealistic, Pip loses his grounding focus on the real values represented by Joe and Biddy.  When he leaves them and goes to London, he encounters unconscionable lawyers, brutal men such as Drummlle, and the temptations of money.
After squandering his allowance and wasting his love on the cold-hearted Estella to the avoidance of visiting Joe, Pip experiences the realization that his benefactor is not Miss Havisham, that being a gentleman is not worthwhile if one must "cheat himself" in the process. He also learns from Magwitch that criminals can be more honest and forthright than gentlemen.  After he is burned, Pip is cared for by Joe, who has maintained his loving devotion to the boy of his home. Sensing his disloyalty to Joe, Pip reflects,
I had never been struck at so keenly for my thanklessness to Joe, as through the razen impostor Pumblechook.  The falser he, the truer Joe: the meaner he, the nobler Joe. My heart was deeply and most deservedly humbled as I mused over the fire for an hour or more.
Pip, then, realizes Mr. Jaggers warning, "Take nothing on appearance, Pip"; he acknowledges the value and "trueness" of love, loyalty, and character.  Indeed, "Great Expectations" is a bildungroman, or novel of maturation.
 
How is the theme revealed? (directly or indirectly?)
 
Directly
 
How well does the author reveal the theme?
 
Excellent         Good               Average           Poor
 
Why do you say so?
 
The theme is easily identified since the beginning of the novel, essentially, it is a novel about contentment and humility, as well as honor. The thematic notion of great expectations touches on every aspect of common emotions like pride, ambition, envy, greed, and arrogance. The lesson Pip learns is that one should never presume he is better than another. As Joe tells him, it is far better to be uncommon on the inside than the outside. A person’s possessions do not matter as much as a person’s actions
 
Overall Book Review:
 
Did you like the book? yes
 
Why or why not?
It is very touchable, and realistic form that period of time, it addressed contemporary issues of social justice and inequality. While England was growing rich and powerful in the era of colonialism and the Industrial Revolution, Dickens saw the injustice that ran rampant among the working and lower classes. He documented Britain's underbelly and explored the fight for survival in a time of such wealth.
 
What was the best thing about it?
May be Dickens's best novel, humble, orphaned Pip is apprenticed to the dirty work of the forge but dares to dream of becoming a gentleman
 
Why?
It is very educative and has a great message
 
What was the worst thing about it?
Read it is hard
           
Why?
Dickens tends to be long-winded (as does Victorian prose generally) so it's easy for your mind to wander. Personally I can't read at all with any other distraction. Maybe you need a really quiet place and a determined mind set, once you get a hundred or so pages into it the story should become more captivating and help to maintain your interest. Vocabulary is hard as this come from victorian Literature.
 
Would you recommend it? (Be specific about to whom you would recommend it)
 
I would to people who read a lot, and older people, it is not a book for teens.       
           
Why or why not?
 
There were definitely some interesting aspects to the story, but the novel is full of big words and just too long for me to enjoy thoroughly or recommend, and the ending was disappointing
 
Did it deserve the award it got? Yes
 
Why or why not?
 
Because of their themes, and settings it should have won an award. But unfortunately I couldn’t find any Award for the book, but for some of the movies.
 
 


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I am studying English Teacher and Translator at ULACIT, but I actually work as a Systems Engineer and I love systems, applications and everything related with computers, This is one of my last courses for me to graduate, My goal is to have a MBA on systems Admin IT, not really being a Teacher, but life happens!!!!
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