sandaenglishliterature.wikispaces.com

1. sandaenglishliterature.wikispaces.com

2. Intertextuality • Intertextuality is the link between different works of literature. • Different books are related to each other in lots of different ways. • We will look at some of the links between the books we are studying.

3. Great Expectations By Charles Dickens 1861

4. Bildungsroman • Great Expectations is a bildungsroman (like Jane Eyre). • It follows the character of Pip from childhood to adulthood. • It is divided into 3 parts.

5. “Great Expectations” • “Expectations” in the title refers to a promise of money and property that Pip receives from an unknown person. • But “Great Expectations” also refers to the hope and excitement for the future that young people have.

6. Writing Style • Great Expectations is written in the first person. • Like Jane Eyre, Pip is telling the story of his life from the perspective of an adult. • This makes the reader more sympathetic towards him.

7. Part One Pip’s childhood in the countryside: • As a young boy Pip meets an escaped convict called Magwitch when he is visiting his parent’s grave. • He is very frightened but agrees to bring him food and a file to cut the chains from his leg.

8. Important Characters: Magwitch • Magwitch is a desperate man and when Pip meets him, he is starving. • He never forgets what Pip does for him and their meeting effects the rest of Pip’s life.

9. Theme: Crime and Punishment • The story begins with two “crimes” firstly Magwitch has escaped from a prison ship, secondly Pip steals food for him. • This book deals a lot with the idea of what people deserve. • This does not mean that all the characters in this book necessarily get what they deserve. • Many characters are very unhappy and many characters end up being punished very harshly.

10. Theme: Money and Class • Pip is an orphan and he is raised by his sister and her husband. • They live in the countryside and do not have much money. • He is invited to play at the house of a very rich woman and her adopted daughter. • When he meets them Pip starts to feel ashamed of his own upbringing.

11. Important Characters • Mrs. Joe Mrs. Joe is Pip’s older sister. She is a very violent and unpleasant woman. Part way through the book she is atacked and her brain is damaged, later she dies. • Joe Gargary Joe is married to Mrs. Joe. He is a very kind man who always tries to treat Pip well.

12. Important Characters • Miss Havisham Miss. Havisham is a rich woman who invites Pip to come to her house and play with her adopted daughter, Estella. She is an extremely strange person and at first Pip is scared of her. Pip continues going to the house to play with Estella every week.

13. Miss. Havisham’s wedding day • When Miss. Havisham was a young woman she was left by her fiance on her wedding day. • She now wishes to have revenge upon all men and love itself.

14. Wedding dress • She has never taken off her wedding dress and the wedding food is still laid out on the table. • All the clocks in her house are stopped at the time that her fiancé left her.

15. Her revenge • She raises Estella to break men’s hearts. • She teaches Estella that love is weak and consequently Estella cannot love. • Miss. Havisham is punished for this cruelty when she realises Estella is also incapable of loving her.

16. Important Characters • Estella Miss. Havisham has raised Estella to be beautiful and heartless. She is incapable of loving anyone but Pip falls in love with her as soon as he meets her. She always treats Pip badly, just as Miss. Havisham has taught her to.

17. Theme: Raising Children We can compare the way Miss. Havisham treats Estella to the way the Heathcliff treats Hareton in Wuthering Heights. Both Heathcliff and Miss. Havisham are using these children to get revenge. Both of them ultimately fail in their plans and “lose” the children that they have sought to control.

18. Pip’s Expectations • Pip is told that an unknown person is going to leave money and property to him. • He assumes that this person is Miss. Havisham and that she intends to make him rich and then allow him to marry Estella.

19. Part Two Pip moves to London: Excited at the prospect of becoming a rich gentleman, Pip travels to London. In London he meets a variety of interesting characters including a man named Herbert who becomes his friend.

20. Being a “gentleman” • Herbert Pocket is a very kind and friendly man but he has very little money. • They start to spend lots of money that they don’t have on things that they don’t need. • Pip starts to mistake the fun of buying expensive things and keeping a servant with being an important person.

21. Ungrateful • Though Pip loves Joe, he is also ashamed of his poor upbringing now he is a “gentleman.” • He does not visit him when he goes back to the countryside, but Joe never complains. • Pip does not understand how much he owes to Joe until later in the story.

22. Pip’s Expectations • The unknown person who wants to make Pip a gentleman is not Miss. Havisham. • It is really the convict Magwitch who wants to repay Pip for his kindness in the graveyard. • Magwitch has become extremely rich in Australia and wants to give all his money to Pip.

23. Magwitch comes to visit • Pip is scared and appalled by the convict. He is very embarrassed that this is his benefactor. • If Magwitch is discovered in England he would be arrested, but he desperately wanted to see the “gentleman” that he has created.

24. Part Three • It becomes very dangerous for Magwitch to stay in England. • Pip and Herbert grow to care about Magwitch and they come up with a plan to help him escape.

25. Magwitch’s escape • Magwitch does not manage to escape, he is caught and sentenced to death. • He is already ill and dies in prison, with Pip at his side taking care of him. • However, because Magwitch is a criminal, all the money that he has given to Pip will be taken back.

26. Pip’s Illness • After all this excitement, Pip becomes very ill and Joe comes to London to care for him. • Though Pip has treated Joe badly, Joe still loves Pip like a son. • Pip must accept all the mistakes he has made, particularly in the way that he has treated Joe.

27. 11 Years away • Pip and Herbert go into business together and are fairly successful, but not as rich as they once dreamed that they would be. • There is a sadness to the last part of the book as Pip must accept that his life will not be exactly as he imagined it. • Pip works abroad for 11 years

28. What happens to Estella? • Estella knows that she will never love any husband • She marries a stupid and violent man called Drummle. • He treats her very badly and beats her and eventually they get divorced. • As a result of her unhappy marriage she becomes able to feel ordinary emotions.

29. The Ending • Dickens re-wrote the ending to make it happier. • In the first version Pip and Estella meet after 11 years apart and speak briefly and then part forever. • In the second version it is implied that they will continue to be in each other’s lives, but it is not clear if they will marry or remain friends.

30. Love? • Most of the books we studied last semester ended with a wedding or engagement. • The relationship between Estella and Pip is very unusual. • Pip is obsessed by Estella and believes he is in love with her, but is this love?

31. A Christmas Carol and Great Expectations • In A Christmas Carol the message is very clear - we should be kind to each other. • Great Expectations is a much more complicated book, but it still basically argues that people should be kind. • Joe and Herbert are the kindest characters in the book and they are both eventually rewarded with happy marriages.

32. Happy Ending? • However it is also a sad book in which the less kind characters receive great punishments for their actions. • Though Pip makes many mistakes, throughout the book, he is not a bad person and it is hard not to like him, but it is not clear at the end whether or not he will be happy.

33. Next Week Oscar Wilde: Go to the website and read the materials Have a good weekend.