Great Expectations Full Book Summary SparkNotes

Start free trial Log in
PLUS
Great Expectations
Charles Dickens
Study Guide
Summary Characters Literary Devices Questi
Great Expectations Full Book

Summary
Previous Next
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
family’s business.
With Miss Havisham’s 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 Joe’s malicious day laborer, Orlick.
One night, after an altercation with Orlick, Pip’s
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 true—that 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 Jaggers’s 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, Herbert’s 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 Pip’s
life, employed as Miss Havisham’s porter, but is
promptly fired by Jaggers after Pip reveals
Orlick’s 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 Pip’s room—the
convict, Magwitch, who stuns Pip by announcing
that he, not Miss Havisham, is the source of Pip’s
fortune. He tells Pip that he was so moved by
Pip’s 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 Magwitch’s daughter. Miss Havisham
has raised her to break men’s 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 Estella’s
ability to toy with his a!ections.
As the weeks pass, Pip sees the good in

Magwitch and begins to care for him deeply.
Before Magwitch’s 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 Pip’s
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 Pip’s life. Pip and Herbert hurry
back to e!ect Magwitch’s escape. They try to
sneak Magwitch down the river on a rowboat, but
they are discovered by the police, who
Compeyson tipped o!. 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 God’s 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 Estella’s
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. (Note: Dickens’s original ending to Great
Expectations di!ered 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.)
Previous section Next section
Popular pages: Great Expectations
Full Book Analysis

SUMMARY
Character List
CHARACTERS
Pip
CHARACTERS
Themes
LITERARY DEVICES
Ambition
QUOTES
Full Book
QUICK QUIZZES
Take a Study Break
The 7 Most Messed-Up Short

Stories We All Had to Read in
School
QUIZ: Would You Be Asked to

Dance in a Jane Austen Novel?
QUIZ: Is This a Taylor Swift Lyric

or a Quote by Edgar Allan Poe?
QUIZ: Which Greek God Are

You?
Sign up for our latest news and

updates!
By entering your email address you agree to
receive emails from SparkNotes and verify that
you are over the age of 13. You can view our
Privacy Policy here. Unsubscribe from our emails
at any time.
First Name
Last Name
Email
Sign Up
SparkNotes—the stress-free way

to a better GPA
Quick Links
Literature
Shakespeare
Other Subjects
SparkTeach
Teacher’s Handbook
Blog
Premium Study Tools
SparkNotes PLUS
Sign Up
Log In
PLUS Help
More
Help
How to Cite SparkNotes
How to Write Literary Analysis
About
Contact Us
Copyright © 2024 SparkNotes LLC
Terms of Use | Privacy | Cookie Policy
Your Privacy Choices

Great Expectations Full Book Summary SparkNotes

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Great Expectations Full Book Summary SparkNotes

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Great Expectations Full Book Summary SparkNotes

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Start free trial Log in

Summary Characters Literary Devices Questi

Great Expectations Full Book

Pip, a young orphan living with his sister and her

One day Pip is taken by his Uncle Pumblechook

With Miss Havisham’s guidance, Pip is

One day a lawyer named Jaggers appears with

In London, Pip befriends a young gentleman

Pip is appalled, but he feels morally bound to

As the weeks pass, Pip sees the good in

The time comes for Pip and his friends to spirit

Pip decides to go abroad with Herbert to work in

Previous section Next section

Popular pages: Great Expectations

Full Book Analysis

Take a Study Break

The 7 Most Messed-Up Short

QUIZ: Would You Be Asked to

QUIZ: Is This a Taylor Swift Lyric

QUIZ: Which Greek God Are

Sign up for our latest news and

SparkNotes—the stress-free way

Premium Study Tools

How to Cite SparkNotes

How to Write Literary Analysis

Copyright © 2024 SparkNotes LLC

Terms of Use | Privacy | Cookie Policy

Your Privacy Choices

You might also like