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Great Expectations - Literary Analysis

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Great Expectations - Literary Analysis
An Evaluation of Pip, and His Great Expectations

In the year 1860, author Charles Dicken’s began his thirteenth novel, Great Expectations. The work is a coming-of-age novel, which tells the life story of an orphan boy named Pip, who much like Dickens’ in his earlier years is unhappy with his current life. A number of Charles Dickens’ personal life events are mirrored in the novel, leaving Great Expectations to be one of his most autobiographical works. Young Pip, the protagonist of the novel is stuck living in the marsh country, he is working a job that he hates, and considers himself to be too good for his current surroundings, much like Dickens’ did when he was younger. While working on Great Expectations, Dickens’ made weekly installments to the novel, leading it to be one of his most well structured works. Great Expectations is a novel which develops a number of different themes as the story progresses, with the primary theme being personal growth and ambition. The story tells us that morals such as affection, loyalty and conscience are much more important in reality than social-class, social advancement, and wealth. The protagonist, Pip, is destined to learn this lesson through his ‘great expectations’, as he explores different ideas of ambition and self-improvement.

Great Expectations is a convincing tale told in the perspective of an orphan named Pip, who tells his realistic life story from the very beginning of his ‘great expectations’, which all began one evening when he had a strange encounter with an escaped convict in a cemetery, while he was looking at the tombstones of his parents. This mysterious stranger ordered young Pip to bring him food and a file to break loose the shackle on his leg. If Pip does not comply, the strangers promises to murder him. After bringing the convict food and an iron the next day, Pip finds out that the convict has been arrested, and the mysterious criminal has protected Pip by telling the

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