Great Expectations

A detailed Summary of Great Expectations

Charles Dickens' novel Great Expectations is a very enjoyable book for the reader for many reasons. Overall, Great Expectations is a novel that effectively depicts the emotions and feelings of the characters in the story and has a plot that maintains the reader's interest. These elements, along with others help to make the novel appealing for the reader.

When young boy by the name of Philip Pirrup (referred to a Pip by all that know him) encounters an escaped convict in a churchyard, he is extorted to get food and a file for the man. Once Pip retrieves these items for the man, he learns that the man is in fact, an escaped convict. Pip, although being only seven at the time, was part of the group that apprehended the convict.

For a few years following this event, Pip frequently visited extremely wealthy old women named Miss Havisham. In the process, he falls in love with the woman's adopted daughter named Estella. She, however, despises him for being common and not a gentleman and she frequently puts him down and, on one occasion, causes him to cry. After about a year of providing company, she tells him not to visit her any more and pays him for his services.

Soon after, Pip is told that his prior plans to be a blacksmi

Dickens used several techniques in the story that made it more real to the reader. One such technique that Dickens used was that of dialect. He used this by not only writing the dialogue in the way that it would be said in terms of the sentence structure used in the character's speech, but he also spelled out single words by the way in which the character would pronounce them. This allowed the reader to almost know exactly how it would sound had the character been talking right in front of them.

Pip later discovered that his benefactor, named Magwitch was the real father of Estella. When Magwitch was captured and sentenced to death for past crimes he had committed, Pip returns home to find that his friend and person whom he planned to marry instead of Estella, had married Pip's brother-in-law after his sister was murdered. When Pip then goes to Miss Havisham's deserted house, he finds Estella there whom he talks to about their past relationship. Then they part for the last time, without Pip feeling badly about it. *

Dickens incorporated many effective writing techniques in his style of writing which makes the novel enjoyable to the reader. The techniques employed by Dickens help to add reality to the book and help the reader understand the characters' feelings.

Dickens used the technique of dialect when the "commoners" spoke. A few instances of this include when Joe spoke and said particular as "partickler." This juxtaposition of the commoners' speech and that of the wealthy persons' articulated speech allows the reader to understand the education difference between people of both classes.

Charles Dickens novel is enjoyable for the reader because of the techniques t

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Approximate Word count = 1138
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels