Great Expectations. The book is set in two main settings, the marshes where Pip grows up and London where he later goes after inheriting his wealth

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Will Barrett

Great Expectations

The Book Great Expectations was originally a series of short stories shown once a week, before it became the novel we know today, the book was written and set in 1800 by Charles Dickens.

The book is set in two main settings, the marshes where Pip grows up and London where he later goes after inheriting his wealth, the main characters of the book are Pip, Joe Gargery and Pips sister Mrs Gargery, we meet more characters as the book goes on such as Estella, Miss Havisham, Jaggers and of course Magwitch, all of these characters in one way or another are linked to Joe and Pip throughout the story.

Pip Comes from a poor background of little wealth and not much property or money to his name, the only thing he has to look forward to at the present time is inheriting the blacksmiths from his father Joe, now Joe isn’t actually Pips father but ever since Pips mother and father died, he has been put into the care of his older sister, Mrs Joe Gargery who has married the blacksmith Joe. Joe comes from a very poor background, much like Pips in a way, full of torment and misery, his father used to beat his mother as he drank and was drunk most of his life, this made him short tempered and easily frustrated which set him into angry fits in which he would beat his wife, Joe and his mother had a close relationship as she would attempt to take him to school for him to learn things and make something of life.

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This didn’t work that often, he and his mother would have to run away in order for this to happen, but his father would usually find out where they were using large groups of people going round and banging on doors until they were found, he would then beat them and take them home.

The reason for Joe’s life being much like Pip’s is that his sister beat him and insults him on a daily basis ‘its bad enough to be a blacksmiths wife without being your mother’, the reason for this contempt is that she is stuck with him ...

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