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Essay Analysis of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

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Analysis of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens, the revolutionary 19th century novelist, wrote a bildungsroman of Phillip Pirrip (Pip) and the reality of his own “Great
Expectations” in his pursuit to become a gentleman. In Chapter 8, the reader is introduced to Miss Havisham and Estella and this is where
Pip first becomes dissatisfied with the life at the forge.

There were many writers in Dickens’ day whose works are no longer read; this is possibly because Dickens did something idiosyncratically different from his contemporaries. The plot of Great Expectations is quite complex, yet it is the way that Dickens handles the various elements of the plot that makes the novel appealing. For instance, the …show more content…

By introducing this character, the questions of why she is withdrawn and how this is related to the subplot concerning the convicts are left unanswered. It is not until during Chapters 40-42 that the reader finds out about Miss Havisham’s connection with the convicts. Dickens is deliberately vague about Miss Havisham’s past. This allows him later to introduce the idea that she might be Pip’s benefactor.
From the first point of contact Dickens is creating twists and turns later in the novel.

The eccentricity and eeriness of Miss Havisham fascinates the reader, as she is one of fiction’s “strangest”(Ch. 8 p. 46) women. Questions are posed in this chapter about the connection between her and Estella and why is she wearing “bridal dress” (Ch. 8 p. 50). The reader may assume several reasons but their innate inquisitiveness helps propel the novel forward.

This device is used because of the structure of the novel. It was originally printed in weekly instalments. This means that Great
Expectations does not have the structure of a conventional novel.
Instead of moving towards a general climax, the story has many mini-resolutions of the plot. Each new episode needed a cliffhanger-type ending in order to ensure that the public would buy the next instalment. This has often been seen as a weakness of Charles
Dickens’ novels as the story can become repetitive. An advantage of this is that the original reader, if having missed an issue, can have
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