GREAT EXPECTATIONS

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

Author:Charles Dickens

Publication date:1861(in three volumes)

The plot: On Christmas Eve, around 1812, Pip, an orphan of about seven, encounters an escaped convict in the village churchyard while visiting his mother's, father's and younger brothers' graves. The convict scares Pip into stealing food for him, and a file to grind away his shackles, from the home he shares with his abusive older sister and her kind, passive husband Joe Gargery, a blacksmith. The next day, soldiers recapture two convicts engaged in a fight and return them to the prison ship.Miss Havisham, a wealthy spinster, who wears an old wedding dress and lives in the dilapidated Satis House, asks Pip's Uncle Pumblechook to find a boy to play with her adopted daughter Estella. Pip begins to visit Miss Havisham and Estella, with whom he falls in love.As a young apprentice at Joe Gargery's forge, Pip is approached by a lawyer, Mr Jaggers, who tells him he is to receive a large sum of money from an anonymous benefactor and must leave for London immediately where he is to become a gentleman. Pip believes Miss Havisham to be his benefactress and visits her and Estella, who has returned from studying on the Continent.With Pip now heavily in debt, his benefactor is revealed to be Abel Magwitch, the convict he helped, who was transported to New South Wales where he eventually became wealthy.There is a warrant for Magwitch's arrest in England and he will be hanged if he is caught. A plan is therefore hatched for him to flee by boat. It is also revealed that Estella is the daughter of Magwitch and Mr Jaggers's housemaid, Molly, whom Jaggers defended in a murder charge and who gave up her daughter to be adopted by Miss Havisham.Pip confronts Miss Havisham with Estella's history. Miss Havisham stands too close to the fire which ignites her dress and she eventually dies from her injuries.While attempting to escape, Magwitch is captured and sent to jail where he dies shortly before his execution. Pip is about to be arrested for unpaid debts when he falls ill. Joe nurses him back to health and pays off his debts.At the end of the original version Pip meets Estella on the streets, who has remarried after her abusive husband has died. Pip says that he is glad she is a different person now from the coldhearted girl Miss Havisham reared her to be and that "suffering had been stronger than Miss Havisham's teaching and had given her a heart to understand what my heart used to be." Pip remains single.

Comment: It’s a beatiful novel, with a very deep and full of emotions plot. It makes believe in true love and happy endings. I recommend it too all!

 By Isabella