Great Expectations.

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Liz Elliott

Great Expectations

Great Expectations is a novel about the progressing interesting life story of Phillip Piripin, known in this story as Pip. Pip is a young boy from a poor, working class background, his only living relative is his older sister who is only known as Mrs Joe to us during the book. She took Pip in and brought him up by hand when their parents and remaining family died. Mrs Joe is very blunt and bad tempered with Pip. She is married to the village blacksmith, Joe Gargery, which is very kind and uneducated.

This story was set in early Victorian times in England when great social changes were made. Although social status was no longer entirely dependent on heredity, the gap between classes was wide as ever. The upper class was very strict and conservative while gentlemen and ladies were expected to have good classical educations and to behave correctly in every social situation. Pip's sudden rise from labourer to gentleman in Great Expectations forces him to move from one social extreme to another while dealing with the strict rules and ‘expectations’ that governed Victorian England. This was a very uncommon occurrence

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In Great Expectations, Pip, the narrator of the story, grows from a young child to a gentleman with high social status. Pip shows us the important events in his life that shaped who he became. Throughout the story he goes through many changes from the people he meets and the decisions he makes.

One day Pip is taken by his arrogant Uncle Pumblechook to play at Satis House, the home of the wealthy Miss Havisham (who has not seen day light for many years as she was left at the alter when she was a lot younger). During ...

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