Some of the main things brought about by the Victorian novel are: the insight into the psychology

of the individual, the insistence of subjectivity and preeminence of the human sensibility over any other natural forces. The realist novel also reveals truths about human feelings and relationships idea that will be seen while analyzing Great Expectations. hen analyzing this realistic novel, ! will consider the following basic elements: plot, character, themes, setting, style, etc The opening of the first chapter, establishes some main narrative co"ordinates: narrating vs. narrated instance, location, narrating and narrated time, and character presentation The story in #hapter $ opens with the narrator, %ip, who introduces himself and describes an image of himself as a boy, standing alone and crying in a churchyard near some marshes. &oung %ip is staring at the gravestones of his parents, who died soon after his birth. This tiny, shivering bundle of a boy is suddenly terrified by the voice of large, bedraggled man who threatens to cut %ip's throat if he doesn't stop crying. The man, dressed in a prison uniform with a great iron shac(le around his leg, grabs the boy and sha(es him upside down, emptying his poc(ets. The man devours a piece of bread which falls from the boy, then bar(s )uestions at him. %ip tells him that yes, he is an orphan and that he lives with his sister, *rs. +oe ,argery, the wife of a blac(smith, about a mile from the church. The man tells %ip that if he wants to live, he'll go down to his house and bring him bac( some food and a file for the shac(le on his leg. %ip agrees to meet him early the ne-t morning and the man wal(s bac( into the marshes. Analysis: .ic(ens introduces us immediately to %ip, who serves as both the young protagonist of ,reat /-pectations and the story's narrator loo(ing bac( on his own story as an adult. ith this two" level approach, .ic(ens leads the reader through young %ip's life with the immediacy and surprise of a first person narration while at the same time guiding with an omnipotent narrator who (nows how it will all turn out. The adult narrator %ip will foreshadow future events throughout the story by using signs and symbols. .ic(ens uses this duality to great effect in the first chapter, where we are personally introduced to %ip as if we were in a pleasant conversation with him: 0! give %irrip as my father's family name...0 !mmediately after this, however, we are thrown into the point of view of a terrified young child being mauled by an escaped convict. The narrator %ip then presents an interesting, and prophetic, relationship between the boy and the bullying man. 1t first, the relationship appears to be based solely on power and fear. The man yells at the boy only to get what he wants, a file and some food, and the boy only responds for fear of his life. 1nd yet, after they part, the young %ip (eeps loo(ing bac( at the man as he wal(s alone into the marshes. The image of the man holding his arms around him, alone on the horizon save a pole associated with the death of criminals, is stri(ingly familiar to the initial image of young %ip, holding himself in the cold, alone in the churchyard with the stones of his dead parents. 2or a moment, then, the relationship seems to warm. They share a common loneliness and a common marginalization from society, the orphan and the escaped convict. /ven while he is afraid, %ip instinctively displays a sympathetic reaction. This initial meeting, between a small boy and a convict, will develop into the central relationship in the boo(. !t is the relationship which will cause %ip's great e-pectations for himself to rise and fall. The e-ercise of memory which deep down represents the theme of the whole novel is prefigured by the rhetorical 'principle of memory', applying to spea(er and hearer ali(e, on which discourse seems to be built. The name of the character"narrator, %ip , becomes emblematic for a range of 'unpersonified' character"narrators that resembles the helpless lucidity of the realistic narrator3 and such characters are often referred to in .ic(ens as 0nobody0' The unemotional tone of the opening chapter will set the tone of uninvolvement for the whole novel.

Plot
%ip lives with his older sister and her husband. 4ne day, while visiting his parents' grave, %ip encounters a convict, *agwitch, who he helps escape by providing him with a file and food. %ip is

hired as a playmate for *iss 5avisham's adopted daughter, /stella, who he falls in love with. %ip finds out that he has a benefactor and assumes that it is *iss 5avisham. 5e moves to the city of 6ondon with great e-pectations of increasing his social status. .uring this metamorphosis, %ip neglects his friendships with 7iddy and +oe. 1s time passes, %ip meets his true benefactor, *agwitch, who made a fortune after being e-iled from /ngland. *agwitch wanted to repay %ip for helping him escape earlier in the novel. %ip in return for the large fortune must (eep *agwitch in hiding near a river, since he is forbidden in /ngland. %ip learns that /stella, who he has long obsessed over, has married 7entley .rummle. Suddenly, *iss 5avisham's estate goes on fire, and %ip courageously saves *iss 5avisham. !t is then revealed that *agwitch is /stella's father. !n an attempt to flee, *agwitch is caught, but dies before his conviction. %ip falls ill, and is nursed bac( to health by +oe, who marries 7iddy after the death of *rs. +oe. !t is also revealed that /stella is educated by suffering, and the two go off on their separate ways.

Possible Themes:
$8 Gratitude " %ip does not show gratitude towards +oe. 98 Suffering " *iss 5avisham suffers from having lived her entire life in the past :8 Obsession " %ip is obsessed with /stella. ;8 Prejudice " /stella resents %ip for not being refined. %ip is appalled by *agwitch's appearance and behavior. <8 Greed " %ip only wants to heighten his social and economic status. =8 Envy " %ip envies /stella's wealth and social status. >8 Loneliness " %ip often visits the graveyard where his parents are buried. SETTI G The first part of ,reat /-pectations is set in the marsh country of ?ent, where .ic(ens spent his happy early childhood. Some readers believe that .ic(ens saw this countryside as a land of childhood innocence for %ip3 others point to his descriptions of it"dar(, foggy, with low leaden horizons"to show that it is a land of blea( prospects and mur(y moral views. hatever it means symbolically, it does create a dramatic atmosphere, almost li(e an old blac("and"white movie, with star( lighting, tilted camera angles, and minimal scenery. hen the scene shifts to 6ondon, the somber blac("and"white film seems to give way to a grainy color movie, shot with a jostled, hand"held camera. e see faces everywhere, we hear street sounds, we read specific place names. .ic(ens (new every corner of 6ondon3 showing it to us through %ip's eyes, he emphasizes that it is dirty, cramped, and chaotic, but we can sense his fascination with it. The novel moves bac( and forth between these two locales and two moods, shifting more )uic(ly as it heads toward the clima-. @otice that, rowing with *agwitch, %ip follows his life in reverse, from 6ondon bac( to the grim coastal marshes. .ic(ens the theater lover also creates in this boo( two masterful stage sets: Satis 5ouse and emmic('s #astle. 7oth are described in minute, eccentric detail. *iss 5avisham's house tries to shut out life and resist change"yet whites still turn yellow, mice and beetles scuttle about, weeds push through the pavement. emmic('s home, in contrast, is almost too full of life, of overflowing creative energy. 7oth houses are e-amples of mad e-cess, and .ic(ens ma(es them as bizarre as possible. T!E"ES 1lthough ,reat /-pectations is more unified than most of .ic(ens' novels, it still has a number of themes, interwoven in several subplots. *4@/& *oney has a tric(y value in this novel. !t is not bad in itself3 it helps 5erbert, and it saves %ip from debtors' prison. 7ut money can be dangerous. %ip and *iss 5avisham both become prey for greedy people because they are wealthy. 1lso, people who love money too much lose their moral

bearings3 %ip is the most obvious e-ample of this, but also consider the %oc(ets. !f people don't love money itself, they may love the power it brings, and this can be destructive. 2or e-ample, money gives *iss 5avisham and *agwitch power to ruin their adopted children by molding them in certain images. T5/ V16A/ 42 4B? Some readers have said that .ic(ens was not criticizing money, only money that doesn't come from hard wor(. %ip is morally wea(est when he's rich and idle3 after he reforms, he becomes hard" wor(ing. +oe accepts money from *iss 5avisham to ma(e %ip an apprentice, but not from +aggers to let %ip be a gentleman. +oe, whose money is earned honestly, can pay off %ip's gentleman's debts. 5erbert, who wor(s hard as a cler(, deserves to become a partner. 7ut .rummle, /stella, and *iss 5avisham, who inherit their wealth, are unhappy. 4n the other hand, *agwitch wor(ed hard for his money and it's still cursed. +aggers wor(s so hard that it ta(es over his life, and yet this brings him no satisfaction. %1B/@TS This is a boo( full of orphans, adoptive parents, guardians, and failed parent"child relationships. %ip has many 0fathers0" +oe, *agwitch, +aggers, and %umblechoo("but none of them can give him all he needs. 4ne thing .ic(ens shows us is the effect parents have on their children. Some children are warped by bad parents"%ip, /stella, *agwitch"yet others li(e +oe and 5erbert have survived bad parents, so perhaps it's unfair for a child to blame them for his own failings. .ic(ens also loo(s at the responsibility children have towards their parents. #onsider how %ip and /stella treat their various 0parents03 but also loo( at what emmic( and #lara do for theirs. 5A*1@ T!/S *any characters in this boo( are cut off"physically or spiritually"from human companionship. &oung %ip, /stella, and +aggers seem crippled by their loc(ed"up feelings3 solitude allows *iss 5avisham and 4rlic( to become psychotic. 6argely through them, %ip learns to form bonds of love and loyalty which prove more satisfying to him than the bonds of duty and money. !n the end, friendship saves his soul Cfiguratively8 and his life Cliterally8. %ip is bound by one other human tie"to /stella. This is destructive, yet even so .ic(ens seems to find something fine in %ip's helpless, constant love. ,44. 1@. /V!6 *any great novels depict the struggle between opposing forces of good and evil3 ,reat /-pectations depicts good and evil as inseparably intermingled. %ip, with his childishly strict moral views, partitions life into absolutes: /stella is good, *agwitch is bad3 +aggers' world is evil, 5erbert's is good. 7ut he must finally learn to accept that all life is mi-ed together, that you have to find the good along with the bad in people. 6oo( at other divisions in the boo(: professional vs. personal, gentleman vs. commoner, revenge vs. forgiveness. 1s we read, we discover that categories blur and opposites turn into each other. This ma(es all the themes in the novel infinitely comple-. ST#LE .ic(ens engineers emotional effects in this boo( by shifting writing styles. #omic e-aggeration, satiric understatement, the brooding tones of melodrama, and the stern notes of tragedy all slip in and out. 1lthough he must wor( through his narrator, %ip, .ic(ens fine" tunes the tone of %ip's voice to steer our sympathies in certain directions. %ip's usual voice is )uiet and thoughtful3 he's even a little stiff and tends toward formal turns of phrase. 7ut he also uses deadpan humor Cthe opening two paragraphs83 he lashes out at himself Cthe end of chapter D83 every once in a while he steps aside and comments wisely on life C the end of chapter E8. 1t other times Cas in chapter $;8 he bursts forth to describe his feelings, with long, rhythmic sentences, urgent )uestions, and echoing phrases. Sometimes %ip fades into the bac(ground and simply observes, so that .ic(ens can write scenes ready"made for the stage: Some of /stella and *iss 5avisham's confrontations, for e-ample3 %ip records what is said, adding the actors' gestures and tones of voice, but he doesn't analyze. %ip interjects comments during some scenes, such as those with the convict, where the drama lies in the twists and turns of %ip's own reactions. 5e treats other scenes in a vivid overview3 describing

opsle's 5amlet Cchapter :$8, for instance, he paraphrases what is said and tosses out jumbled details, to ma(e it loo( as absurd as possible. POI T O$ %IE& .ic(ens handles the first"person narration s(illfully. !n some scenes, especially when he's a boy, %ip relates his e-act feelings at the time, without any perspective. !n other scenes, especially when he's an adolescent, the sadder"but"wiser %ip, who has already lived through all this, loo(s at his younger self critically, and comments upon him. %ip is merely a bystander in other scenes, so that we can eavesdrop with him on satiric comedy Cas with the %oc(et family dinner in chapter 9:8 or witness melodramatic passion Cin various scenes with *iss 5avisham and /stella8. .ic(ens has to stic( to %ip's view of the action. hen he needs to include events %ip couldn't have witnessed, he has other characters narrate a scene or e-plain the facts. These additional narrators add to the variety of tones in the novel3 each one spea(s with a distinctive voice, from 7iddy's low" (ey account of *rs. +oe's death Cchapter :<8 to *agwitch's action"pac(ed tale Cchapter ;98. Beaders have disagreed about how much of .ic(ens there is in %ip. $O'" A ( ST')*T)'E ,reat /-pectations was written in := wee(ly installments, to appear in the magazine 1ll the &ear Bound. Some critics have pointed out that .ic(ens benefited from publishing in installments, because it forced him to (eep the action moving along and to (eep the subplots inter" connected. 4ften .ic(ens ends a wee(ly number on a note of suspense or e-citement. 5e manages to bring up different strands of the plot in each number, instead of going off on one trac( too long. 4nce the magazine had published the final episode, the novel was brought out in boo( form, in three volumes, corresponding to the three stages of %ip's e-pectations.
+ %1BT !

hen %ip is a boy, life is seen through a boy's eyes3 it is a world of monsters and magic, where events happen suddenly and illogically and people behave in unaccountable ways.
+ %1BT !!

This shows %ip as a young 0man of the world03 it is much more concerned with developing characters, with social satire, and with financial and legal arrangements.
+%1BT !!!

%ip must become an active member of society. The plot turns into a full"fledged detective story as %ip unravels the secrets around him and hatches a scheme to smuggle *agwitch safely out of the country.

"orals and Life A,,lications:

Great Expectations encompasses almost every aspect of the human condition. 2rom this novel, one learns that true friendship is worth much more than material possessions. ealth and social status does not necessarily guarantee happiness. !n life, it is sometimes necessary to sacrifice one's illusions or fantasies to discover one's own inner worth. 1s displayed by the character of *iss 5avisham, it is foolish to live in the past, because it is a selfish act. @ot only did she harm herself, but /stella and %ip as well. !n the end, %ip discovers that wealth and social position can be corrupting to a person's morality. Alitmately, %ip realized that he had to sacrifice his great e-pectations in order to preserve his morality and inner worth.

7!76!4,B1%5&: Great Expectation , #harles .ic(ens Readings from Nineteenth Century Novel, Bu-andra 7ontila , /d. 16*1 $EEE

ersion of 'projection character' of the narrator %ip, the older, mm more mature, more motivated hero who can afford to get velFv, were involved or remain detached in the story at" different times. mess e consider that .ic(ens's major talent consists in the and way he controls the e-tent to which a reader empathizes with a was character, by manipulating narrative distance. 2rom the very s the beginning we are not encouraged to e-perience with the young wind %ip but we are encouraged to loo( at him from the outside," le of e-periencing rather with the older, narrating %ip and sharing his was humorous view of the events from his childhood. Towards this

end, while the writer employs of an addresser"based rhetoric, he man is simulating spontaneous, impromptu speech, which will i8rch. function against itself to the purpose of reducing immediacy and distancing the reader from the child's e-periences. The e-ercise of memory which deep down represents the theme of the whole gh a novel is prefigured by the rhetorical 'principle of memory', Fn of applying to spea(er and hearer ali(e, on which discourse seems very to be built. 6anguage tends to be e-tremely loose in as much as how it employs mostly of trailing constituents3 parenthetical thus constructions, dislocated from the conte-t C;, >83 hypota-is 7y a disguised as parata-is C$G83 and syntactic parallelism on the ,gies principle of both staircase Cclima-8 C$G8 and prose rhyme C;8. both hat is also peculiar is graphological style, such as use of H and e-trapunctuation: hyphen C>8 and semi"colon C$G8, which gives eved a more emphatic stress to the topicalized items. 1nother effect alled of creating narrative distance is, parado-ically, ma(ing the iting reader imagine for him" or herself what the e-perience involved ning must have been li(e, which is very much li(e the cinematic ,,ator device of dissolving present identity into past identity. To this the purpose, use of direct speech for the first titne functions as a $ as most startling return to the past narrated events. C$$8 all The name of the character"narrator, %ip, Capart from its %ip semantics: infml, 7r/ a feeling of annoyance or lac( of into cheerfulness, it is a case of graphical annoyance as in both rtant directions it reads the same8 amply commented upon C$8 as a becomes emblematic for a whole range of 'unpersonified'

7!76!4,B1%5&: Great Expectation , #harles .ic(ens Readings from Nineteenth Century Novel, Bu-andra 7ontila , /d. 16*1 $EEE