Great Expectations is the story of Pip’s life, from when he was a young boy to when he is an older gentleman in London. At the start of the book Pip finds a starving criminal, Magwitch, in the graveyard where his parents are buried. He steals food for this man from his family, and takes it to the Kent marshes where he stumbles in to a scared man, whom he mistakes for Magwitch. This man becomes the villain of the story. Pip joins a manhunt for Magwitch who is then recaptured and sent to Australia where he becomes a sheep farmer.
Meanwhile, Pip meets Estella, Miss Havisham’s adopted child and from then on Estella becomes Pip’s love interest throughout the book. Later in the book Pip receives a very large sum of money from an anonymous benefactor, thought by Pip to be Miss Havisham. The money is enough for Pip to rent a flat in London and for him to become a real gentleman. In London he meets various different characters including Mr Pocket, his flatmate and Mr Jagger and his assistant Wemmick from the law firm his benefactor went through. His anonymous benefactor turns out to be Magwitch, who since going to Australia has become a very rich and successful sheep farmer. Magwitch has returned illegally from Australia in search of Pip and a new life. According to Wemmick, Pip is being watched and must be careful in meeting with Magwitch, and in getting him back to Australia. Pip decides to hire a boat to row Magwitch out to the Australia steamboat disguised as the boats Captain. At the end magwitch is recaptured by the man with the scar on the marshes and is sentenced to go back to Australia and hang. The ending for Pip was written first so that he and Estella separated and never saw each other again. And then as another ending where Estella, who is Magwitch’s daughter, and Pip, are married and live happily ever after.
Pip is a memorable and striking character in great expectations because he is, after all, a poor orphan boy who grows up and falls in love with Estella, the tool of Miss Haversham’s evil. He journeys to London after he unexpectedly gets money from a criminal he stole food for in his youth. As he pleads to Magwitch for leniency,
“If you would kindly please to let me keep upright, sir, perhaps
I shouldn’t be sick, and perhaps I could attend more”
Ch. 1, P. 7
As the central character in a plot of a Dickens novel it could have been expected that he would strike a chord in the hearts of the readers and stay in their memories forever.
Abel Magwitch is the criminal who was helped by Pip on the Kent marshes and repaid him by giving Pip the life no poor person would ever dream of. Pip, who was always in love with Magwitch’s secret daughter, Estella, had no idea that Magwitch had become a very rich sheep farmer and was even more surprised that his love interest was the starving criminals daughter. His menace can be imagined vividly when he says to Pip,
“Keep still or I’ll cut your throat”
Ch. 1, P. 6
Although at first glance most would think that a man in Magwitch’s position would be spiteful and evil those who look deeper in to the story find that he is the victim of a tragic series of events. The emotion that this character brings to the story emphasises the harshness portrayed by the genre of Victorian realism.
Miss Havisham swore to rid the world of male life after she was left at the altar. Turning the world away from inside a timeless dead house, using her adopted daughter as a tool for the evils of revenge. When she eerily says to Pip,
“Surely you are not afraid of a woman who has not
seen the sun since before you were born”
the reader cannot help but to sense the true deepness of her character.
Miss Havisham is possibly one the most eccentric and haunting of all Dickens characters and the story surrounding her is a tribute to Dickens’s style.
The story of Great Expectations in my opinion is one the best and most gripping of any Dickens novel. Although the storyline can turn unexpectedly, the style of Dickens allows for this by creating characters with an unusual and adaptable persona. These unexpected and colourful personalities are reproduced in many of his novels and are recognised as being born from the imagination of Dickens.
The characters above portray the typical style of Dickens in such detail that the reader is brought into the story and into the characters minds to such an extent that people will always remember the striking and memorable nature of many Dickens characters. Dickens is exceptional in his ability to write great novels and also for creating some of the best known and loved characters in literature.
