GREAT EXPECTATIONS

INTRODUCTION
Great Expectations en Espaol

In A Nutshell
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One cold and misty evening, a little boy meets an escaped criminal on the marshes
near England's coast. No, it's not the opening of a TV crime drama (although it could
be)it's the beginning of one of Charles Dickens's most famous novels: Great
Expectations.
The story of a young blacksmith boy Pip and his two dreamsbecoming a gentleman
and marrying the beautiful EstellaGreat Expectations was serialized from December
1, 1860 until August 3, 1861. With two chapters every week, Great Expectations (and
other serialized novels like it) were as close as Victorian England got to Breaking
Bad or Mad Men. People waited anxiously every week for the next "episode" to arrive in
the newsstands and on the shelvesand you can see why. Dickens was a master of
the serialized novel, writing segments full of cliff-hangers and nail-biting action, while
remaining true to the novel's overall storyline. His stories worked in pieces and as a
cohesive wholenot an easy task. (Just ask J. J. Abrams.)
When Great Expectations began its run, Charles Dickens was already world-famous,
but his magazine All the Year Round was struggling. So, he came up with a plan: rather
than save the story he'd sketched out for a cooler and better-paying publication, he
decided to run it in his own magazine.
The novel was a major success. Like most of Dickens's work, 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.
But it's not all doom and gloom. (We promise.) Sure, there are broken hearts, glimpses
into London's dark criminal underworld, and enough child abuse to make you want to

call protective services. At the same time, it's full of hilarious characters and little sliceof-life sketches that, just like any serialized TV show, will keep you coming back for
more.

Plot Overview

Pip, a young orphan living with his sister and her husband in the marshes of
Kent, sits in a cemetery one evening looking at his parents tombstones.
Suddenly, an escaped convict springs up from behind a tombstone, grabs Pip,
and orders him to bring him food and a file for his leg irons. Pip obeys, but the
fearsome convict is soon captured anyway. The convict protects Pip by claiming
to have stolen the items himself.
One day Pip is taken by his Uncle Pumblechook to play at Satis House, the
home of the wealthy dowager Miss Havisham, who is extremely eccentric: she
wears an old wedding dress everywhere she goes and keeps all the clocks in her
house stopped at the same time. During his visit, he meets a beautiful young girl
named Estella, who treats him coldly and contemptuously. Nevertheless, he falls
in love with her and dreams of becoming a wealthy gentleman so that he might
be worthy of her. He even hopes that Miss Havisham intends to make him a
gentleman and marry him to Estella, but his hopes are dashed when, after
months of regular visits to Satis House, Miss Havisham decides to help him
become a common laborer in his familys business.
With Miss Havishams guidance, Pip is apprenticed to his brother-in-law, Joe,
who is the village blacksmith. Pip works in the forge unhappily, struggling to
better his education with the help of the plain, kind Biddy and encountering Joes
malicious day laborer, Orlick. One night, after an altercation with Orlick, Pips
sister, known as Mrs. Joe, is viciously attacked and becomes a mute invalid.
From her signals, Pip suspects that Orlick was responsible for the attack.

One day a lawyer named Jaggers appears with strange news: a secret
benefactor has given Pip a large fortune, and Pip must come to London
immediately to begin his education as a gentleman. Pip happily assumes that his
previous hopes have come truethat Miss Havisham is his secret benefactor
and that the old woman intends for him to marry Estella.
In London, Pip befriends a young gentleman named Herbert Pocket and
Jaggerss law clerk, Wemmick. He expresses disdain for his former friends and
loved ones, especially Joe, but he continues to pine after Estella. He furthers his
education by studying with the tutor Matthew Pocket, Herberts father. Herbert
himself helps Pip learn how to act like a gentleman. When Pip turns twenty-one
and begins to receive an income from his fortune, he will secretly help Herbert
buy his way into the business he has chosen for himself. But for now, Herbert
and Pip lead a fairly undisciplined life in London, enjoying themselves and
running up debts. Orlick reappears in Pips life, employed as Miss Havishams
porter, but is promptly fired by Jaggers after Pip reveals Orlicks unsavory past.
Mrs. Joe dies, and Pip goes home for the funeral, feeling tremendous grief and
remorse. Several years go by, until one night a familiar figure barges into Pips
roomthe convict, Magwitch, who stuns Pip by announcing that he, not Miss
Havisham, is the source of Pips fortune. He tells Pip that he was so moved by
Pips boyhood kindness that he dedicated his life to making Pip a gentleman, and
he made a fortune in Australia for that very purpose.
Pip is appalled, but he feels morally bound to help Magwitch escape London, as
the convict is pursued both by the police and by Compeyson, his former partner
in crime. A complicated mystery begins to fall into place when Pip discovers that
Compeyson was the man who abandoned Miss Havisham at the altar and that
Estella is Magwitchs daughter. Miss Havisham has raised her to break mens
hearts, as revenge for the pain her own broken heart caused her. Pip was merely
a boy for the young Estella to practice on; Miss Havisham delighted in Estellas
ability to toy with his affections.

As the weeks pass, Pip sees the good in Magwitch and begins to care for him
deeply. Before Magwitchs escape attempt, Estella marries an upper-class lout
named Bentley Drummle. Pip makes a visit to Satis House, where Miss
Havisham begs his forgiveness for the way she has treated him in the past, and
he forgives her. Later that day, when she bends over the fireplace, her clothing
catches fire and she goes up in flames. She survives but becomes an invalid. In
her final days, she will continue to repent for her misdeeds and to plead for Pips
forgiveness.
The time comes for Pip and his friends to spirit Magwitch away from London. Just
before the escape attempt, Pip is called to a shadowy meeting in the marshes,
where he encounters the vengeful, evil Orlick. Orlick is on the verge of killing Pip
when Herbert arrives with a group of friends and saves Pips life. Pip and Herbert
hurry back to effect Magwitchs escape. They try to sneak Magwitch down the
river on a rowboat, but they are discovered by the police, who Compeyson tipped
off. Magwitch and Compeyson fight in the river, and Compeyson is drowned.
Magwitch is sentenced to death, and Pip loses his fortune. Magwitch feels that
his sentence is Gods forgiveness and dies at peace. Pip falls ill; Joe comes to
London to care for him, and they are reconciled. Joe gives him the news from
home: Orlick, after robbing Pumblechook, is now in jail; Miss Havisham has died
and left most of her fortune to the Pockets; Biddy has taught Joe how to read and
write. After Joe leaves, Pip decides to rush home after him and marry Biddy, but
when he arrives there he discovers that she and Joe have already married.
Pip decides to go abroad with Herbert to work in the mercantile trade. Returning
many years later, he encounters Estella in the ruined garden at Satis House.
Drummle, her husband, treated her badly, but he is now dead. Pip finds that
Estellas coldness and cruelty have been replaced by a sad kindness, and the
two leave the garden hand in hand, Pip believing that they will never part again.
(N O T E : Dickenss original ending to Great Expectations differed from the one
described in this summary. The final Summary and Analysis section of this

SparkNote provides a description of the first ending and explains why Dickens
rewrote it.)