RESEARCH MONOGRAPH

ON
Cultural and social conflict in Great Expectations

SUBMITTED TO

MD. SAHADAT HOSSAIN

Assistant Professor

Department of English

Dhaka International University, Dhaka

SUBMITTED BY
Md Azizur Rahman

Roll No: 44

Session: 2013-2014

Department of English

Dhaka International University, Dhaka

DATE OF SUBMISSION: 16 SEPTEMBER, 2017

 RESEARCH MONOGRAPH
On
Cultural and social conflict in Great Expectations.

Name of the Program : B. A. (Hons) in English

Course No : Eng 410
Course Title: Research Monograph

RESEARCHER
Md. Azizur Rahman
Batch no : 29th/B
Roll no : 44
Registration No : 255953
Department of English

SUPERVISOR
Md. Sahadat Hossain
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Dhaka International University

Date of Submission : 16 September 2017

ii
To

Md. Sahadat Hossain

Assistant Professor

Dep. of English

Dhaka International University, Dhaka.

Subject: Submission of Research Monograph.

Dear Sir,

With immense pleasure, I am submitting my Research Monograph of Cultural and social conflict
in Great Expectations which was assigned me as a part of my B.A Program.

This BA Program has provided me with theoretical and practical knowledge about
research. To prepare this Research Monograph I have conducted collected me from
different source from required data, papers and documents etc.

Despite some limitation, I tried my best to make the Research Monograph a complete one.
If you need any clarification on any part of report, please let me inform, I would be gladly
available.

I, therefore, hope that you would be kind enough to accept my Dissertation and oblige
there by.

Thanking You
Yours Sincerely,

MD.AZIZUR RAHMAN

B.A PROGRAM

ROLL NO: 44

SESSION 2013-2014

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

iii
 DHAKA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY, DHAKA

Students Declaration

I do hereby solemnly declare that the work presented in this Research Monograph
has been carried out by me under the guidance of Md. Sahadat Hossain for the
partial fulfillment of B.A program from the Department of English and has not
been previously submitted to any other university/college/organization for an
academic qualification/certificate diploma or Program.

The work I have presented does not breach any existing copyright and no portion
of this Research Monograph is copied from any work done earlier for a Program or
otherwise.

MD.AZIZUR RAHMAN

B.A PROGRAM

ROLL NO: 44

SESSION: 2013-2014

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

DHAK A INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY, DHAKA

iv
 Approval Certificate

This is to certify that Md azizur Rahman Roll:44 B.A, Department of English, Dhaka
International University, has done this Research Monograph Cultural and social conflict
in Great Expectations as a partial fulfillment of his degree of Bachelor of Arts in
English. To the best of my knowledge, this report is original in nature and has been
prepared by him under my guidance and was nowhere submitted for any purpose.

I wish him grand success in life.

Md. Sahadat Hossain

Lecturer

Department Of English

Dhaka International University, Dhaka

v
 Acknowledgement

All praise goes to Almighty Allah who has given me the opportunity to do this report. I would

like to convey my deep gratitude to my honorable Supervisor, Md. Sahadat Hossain

Professor, Department Of English, Dhaka International University, Dhaka for giving me the

opportunity to present my Research Monograph on Cultural and social conflict in Great

Expectations. Without giving me courage and continuous support, it was quite impossible

for me to carry out the preparations and proceedings of this report.

I wish to thank the immeasurable grace and profound kindness of ALLAH, The Creator of the

universe. From the first inception to the final completion of this report, the success of this

study rests not on me alone but on the contributions of many persons who have inspired,

influence and guided my work.

It is pleasure to have a chance to be glad to acknowledge some persons and sources that

helped me very much to complete my work. I cannot but acknowledge the help of my dearest

and nearest one whom I treated as my inspiration in all of my works. There are so many links

on the web which helped me a lot. There are also some books of very prominent writers

which made me think in a meaningful way.

vi
Table of Content

Chapter No Name of the Topic Page No

vii - vii
Chapter One Introduction

Objectives

Background of the Research Topic

Chapter Outline

Synopsis of the research

Findings

Conclusion

Chapter Two Life and Major Works of Charles Dickens 01 13

Chapter Three A Brief Summary of Great Expectations 14 20

Chapter Four Different Themes in Great Expectations 21 31

Chapter Five Cultural and social conflict in Great Expectations 32 38

Chapter Six Critical Discussion on Great Expectations 39 81

Chapter Seven Findings 82 84

Chapter Eight Conclusion 85 87

References 87-88

vii
 Abstract

Charles Dickens was the most distinctive Novelist of the Victorian era .He was fond of

books and devoted to his studies with heart and soul. His novels are the source of wisdom

of our day to day life. He was undoubtedly the greatest of the Victorian Novelist .He was

not only the most famous of the Victorian novelists, he is the most typical. He began his

career as a creative artist. Oliver Twist , David Copperfield, Hard Times, A Tale of Two

Cities, Great Expectations are remarkable creation of Dickens. Great Expectations deals

with the adventure of a young boy Pip. The plots of dickens novels are incoherent and

lack unity. We find Dickens was more interested in men than manners .His interest was in

characters rather than incidents. In his novels characters is the main things and plot is

subordinate to characters .He was a realist in his art . He was essentially the novelist of

London life.He was also a moralist and an idealist. Corruption and evils were very

common in Victorian age. Dickens had a fiery voice against the corruption. Dickens was

the greatest social reformer who directed his pen to root out the evils of the Victorian

society .He was a humanitarian novelist . He awakened the Victorians conscience. He is

considered as a humorist in English fiction. Humor is the soul of his work .As a humorist

he stands supreme among English novelists and his place is next to Shakespeare . humor is

satirical as well as sympathetic. He reviled the mask of hypocrisy ,greed, insolence of

men. He was master in the art of characterization and presented a wide variety of

characters in his novels .He was skilled making characters like Chaucer and

Shakespeare..He is considered as a representative of Victorian novelist .He was painter of

London Life.

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 Chapter - 01

Introduction

Charles Dickens was a great novelist in Victorian period.He was an English writer and

social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is

regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed

unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the 20th century critics and scholars

had recognized him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting

popularity.Great Expectations is the masterpiece of Charles Dickens. He was not only the

most famous of the Victorian novelists, he is the most typical. He began his career as a

creative artist. Great Expectations is remarkable creation of Dickens. Great Expectations

deals with the adventure of a young boy Pip. Pip is central character of this novel. Here we

find the mental and physical development of a young boy. Great Expectations is the

thirteenth novel by Charles Dickens and his penultimate completed novel; a

bildungsroman that depicts the personal growth and personal development of an orphan

nicknamed Pip. It is Dickens's second novel, after David Copperfield, to be fully narrated

in the first person. The novel was first published as a serial in Dickens' weekly periodical

All the Year Round, from 1 December 1860 to August 1861 In October 1861, Chapman

and Hall published the novel in three volumes. The novel is set in Kent and London in the

early to mid-19th century and contains some of Dickens's most memorable scenes,

including the opening in a graveyard, where the young Pip is accosted by the escaped

convict, Abel Magwitch Great Expectations is full of extreme imagerypoverty, prison

ships and chains, and fights to the death and has a colorful cast of characters who have

entered popular culture. These include the eccentric Miss Havisham, the beautiful but cold

ix
Estella, and Joe, the unsophisticated and kind blacksmith. Dickens's themes include wealth

and poverty, love and rejection, and the eventual triumph of good over evil Great

Expectations, which is popular both with readers and literary critics, has been translated

into many languages and adapted numerous times into various media. Upon its release, the

novel received near universal acclaim. Although Dickens's contemporary Thomas Carlyle

referred to it disparagingly as that "Pip nonsense," he nevertheless reacted to each fresh

instalment with "roars of laughter." Later George Bernard Shaw praised the novel, as "All

of one piece and consistently truthful." During the serial publication, Dickens was pleased

with public response to Great Expectations and its sales when the plot first formed in his

mind, he called it "a very fine, new and grotesque idea."As a social reformer, Charles

Dickens was very critical of Victorian society, and because of his wish to improve his

society, the narrative of Great Expectations is rife with injustice, which, through his

extravagant didacticism, Dickens hopes to rectify. His main themes, then, touch upon the

ills of Victorian society.

Social class has no connection to moral merit or deficiency

Certainly, Pip begins to go wrong when he feels inferior to Estella because she has called

him "coarse and common." It is then that he views his loving friend and father-figure Joe

with a different perspective. He becomes ashamed of him when he goes to Miss

Havisham's, and later when Joe comes to London to visit Pip because he has missed him.

Rejecting his love and affection, Pip seeks love and emotional satisfaction from the more

socially elite Estella, who is incapable of returning any affection.

x
Dickens satirizes the aspirations of the Victorians' rising middle class toward acceptance

by a shallow and frivolous aristocracy represented by the likes of the eccentric Miss

Havisham and her greedy family, the fatuous Herbert Pocket, and his mother, who is

forever reading books on family titles and coats of arms. Another character who is the

object of this satire is Uncle Pumblechook, whose worship of the aristocracy is evidenced

by his fawning demeanor in the presence of Estella when he brings Pip to Satis House.

Especially humorous are his congratulations to Pip on his newfound wealth as he wishes

him the "happiness of money." In the final part of the novel Pumblechook takes credit in a

local publication for being responsible for Pip's having risen to a gentleman.

Even Pip feels a certain superiority since he has risen in society. But, when he learns that

his benefactor is not Miss Havisham but the old convict Magwitch, his dreams of prestige

are shattered as he discovers that his lofty attitude was founded on nothing. Moreover, Pip

ironically learns that Estella is Magwitch's and a poor woman who is also a former

convict's daughter.

Dickens uses Pip's rise to a gentleman to satirize his society. In the end it is Joe and Biddy

who demonstrate the most virtue, as does Magwitch whose noble actions toward Pip are

inspiring and certainly in contradiction to the ideas held about English society.

Victims and Victimization exist throughout society

As in his other works such as Oliver Twist and David Copperfield in which little boys are

victimized as foundlings or by relatives or stepfathers, Pip, too, is abused as is Biddy, the

orphan. Even Estella is mistreated as she is psychologically exploited by Miss Havisham.

Magwitch is also a victim, a victim of the justice system that affords Compeyson a lighter

sentence than Magwitch solely because he looks like a gentleman. His wife Molly is also

xi
victimized as she does not know the fate of her daughter, who is Estella, but Mr. Jaggers

never reveals to her the girl's whereabouts.

Crime and Personal Responsibility

Pip finds himself confused about the penal system as he observes Jaggers who only

defends those who can pay him. He himself is criminal and manipulates people as he

pleases. With Wemmick as a model, Pip learns to use his own judgment about people and

from his recklessness in managing their affairs with Herbert Pocket he also realizes that he

must be responsible for his own decisions and actions. After rejecting Joe because he is

"common," Pip learns the importance of a man is inside him, not his social class or his

money, which can pervert virtue. Like the Prodigal son, he returns to the Forge and begs

Joe's forgiveness. Even Miss Havisham learns the wrong that she has done in raising

Estella to be heartless and to be cruel to Pip. She begs Pip to write on her notepad that he

forgives her.

Pip, a young orphan living with his sister and her husband in the marshes of Kent, sits in a

cemetery one evening looking at his parents tombstones. Suddenly, an escaped convict

springs up from behind a tombstone, grabs Pip, and orders him to bring him food and a file

for his leg irons. Pip obeys, but the fearsome convict is soon captured anyway. The

convict protects Pip by claiming to have stolen the items himself.

One day Pip is taken by his Uncle Pumblechook to play at Satis House, the home of the

wealthy dowager Miss Havisham, who is extremely eccentric: she wears an old wedding

dress everywhere she goes and keeps all the clocks in her house stopped at the same time.

During his visit, he meets a beautiful young girl named Estella, who treats him coldly and

xii
contemptuously. Nevertheless, he falls in love with her and dreams of becoming a wealthy

gentleman so that he might be worthy of her. He even hopes that Miss Havisham intends

to make him a gentleman and marry him to Estella, but his hopes are dashed when, after

months of regular visits to Satis House, Miss Havisham decides to help him become a

common laborer in his familys business.

With Miss Havishams guidance, Pip is apprenticed to his brother-in-law, Joe, who is the

village blacksmith. Pip works in the forge unhappily, struggling to better his education

with the help of the plain, kind Biddy and encountering Joes malicious day laborer,

Orlick. One night, after an altercation with Orlick, Pips sister, known as Mrs. Joe, is

viciously attacked and becomes a mute invalid. From her signals, Pip suspects that Orlick

was responsible for the attack.

One day a lawyer named Jaggers appears with strange news: a secret benefactor has given

Pip a large fortune, and Pip must come to London immediately to begin his education as a

gentleman. Pip happily assumes that his previous hopes have come truethat Miss

Havisham is his secret benefactor and that the old woman intends for him to marry Estella.

In London, Pip befriends a young gentleman named Herbert Pocket and Jaggerss law

clerk, Wemmick. He expresses disdain for his former friends and loved ones, especially

Joe, but he continues to pine after Estella. He furthers his education by studying with the

tutor Matthew Pocket, Herberts father. Herbert himself helps Pip learn how to act like a

gentleman. When Pip turns twenty-one and begins to receive an income from his fortune,

he will secretly help Herbert buy his way into the business he has chosen for himself. But

for now, Herbert and Pip lead a fairly undisciplined life in London, enjoying themselves

and running up debts. Orlick reappears in Pips life, employed as Miss Havishams porter,

but is promptly fired by Jaggers after Pip reveals Orlicks unsavory past. Mrs. Joe dies,

xiii
and Pip goes home for the funeral, feeling tremendous grief and remorse. Several years go

by, until one night a familiar figure barges into Pips roomthe convict, Magwitch, who

stuns Pip by announcing that he, not Miss Havisham, is the source of Pips fortune. He

tells Pip that he was so moved by Pips boyhood kindness that he dedicated his life to

making Pip a gentleman, and he made a fortune in Australia for that very purpose.

Pip is appalled, but he feels morally bound to help Magwitch escape London, as the

convict is pursued both by the police and by Compeyson, his former partner in crime. A

complicated mystery begins to fall into place when Pip discovers that Compeyson was the

man who abandoned Miss Havisham at the altar and that Estella is Magwitchs daughter.

Miss Havisham has raised her to break mens hearts, as revenge for the pain her own

broken heart caused her. Pip was merely a boy for the young Estella to practice on; Miss

Havisham delighted in Estellas ability to toy with his affections.

As the weeks pass, Pip sees the good in Magwitch and begins to care for him deeply.

Before Magwitchs escape attempt, Estella marries an upper-class lout named Bentley

Drummle. Pip makes a visit to Satis House, where Miss Havisham begs his forgiveness for

the way she has treated him in the past, and he forgives her. Later that day, when she

bends over the fireplace, her clothing catches fire and she goes up in flames. She survives

but becomes an invalid. In her final days, she will continue to repent for her misdeeds and

to plead for Pips forgiveness.

The time comes for Pip and his friends to spirit Magwitch away from London. Just before

the escape attempt, Pip is called to a shadowy meeting in the marshes, where he

encounters the vengeful, evil Orlick. Orlick is on the verge of killing Pip when Herbert

arrives with a group of friends and saves Pips life. Pip and Herbert hurry back to effect

Magwitchs escape. They try to sneak Magwitch down the river on a rowboat, but they are

xiv
discovered by the police, who Compeyson tipped off. Magwitch and Compeyson fight in

the river, and Compeyson is drowned. Magwitch is sentenced to death, and Pip loses his

fortune. Magwitch feels that his sentence is Gods forgiveness and dies at peace. Pip falls

ill; Joe comes to London to care for him, and they are reconciled. Joe gives him the news

from home: Orlick, after robbing Pumblechook, is now in jail; Miss Havisham has died

and left most of her fortune to the Pockets; Biddy has taught Joe how to read and write.

After Joe leaves, Pip decides to rush home after him and marry Biddy, but when he arrives

there he discovers that she and Joe have already married.

Pip decides to go abroad with Herbert to work in the mercantile trade. Returning many

years later, he encounters Estella in the ruined garden at Satis House. Drummle, her

husband, treated her badly, but he is now dead. Pip finds that Estellas coldness and

cruelty have been replaced by a sad kindness, and the two leave the garden hand in hand,

Pip believing that they will never part again. (Note: Dickenss original ending to Great

Expectations differed from the one described in this summary. The final Summary and

Analysis section of this SparkNote provides a description of the first ending and explains

why Dickens rewrote it.)

On Christmas Eve, around 1812, Pip, an orphan who is about seven years old, encounters

an escaped convict in the village churchyard, while visiting the graves of his parents and

siblings. Pip now lives with his abusive elder sister and her kind husband Joe Gargery, a

blacksmith. The convict scares Pip into stealing food and a file. Early on Christmas

morning Pip returns with the file, a pie and brandy. During Christmas dinner, at the

moment Pip's theft is about to be discovered, soldiers arrive and ask Joe to repair some

shackles. Joe and Pip accompany them as they recapture the convict who is fighting with

another escaped convict. The first convict confesses to stealing food from the smithy.

xv
A year or two later, Miss Havisham, a wealthy spinster who still wears her old wedding

dress and lives as a recluse in the dilapidated Satis House, asks Mr Pumblechook to find a

boy to visit. Pip visits Miss Havisham and falls in love with her adopted daughter Estella.

Pip visits Miss Havisham regularly, until he is old enough to learn a trade.

Joe accompanies Pip for the last visit, when she gives the money for Pip to be bound as

apprentice blacksmith. Joe's surly assistant, Dolge Orlick, is envious of Pip and dislikes

Mrs Joe. When Pip and Joe are away from the house, Mrs Joe is brutally attacked, leaving

her unable to speak or do her work. Orlick is suspected of the attack. Mrs Joe becomes

kind-hearted after the attack. Biddy arrives to help with her care.

Four years into Pip's apprenticeship, Mr Jaggers, a lawyer, tells him that he has been

provided with money, from an anonymous benefactor, so that he can become a gentleman.

Pip is to leave for London, but presuming that Miss Havisham is his benefactor, he first

visits her.

Pip sets up house in London at Barnard's Inn with Herbert Pocket, the son of his tutor,

Matthew Pocket, who is a cousin of Miss Havisham. Herbert and Pip have previously met

at Satis Hall, where Herbert was rejected as a playmate for Estella. He tells Pip how Miss

Havisham was jilted by her fianc. Pip meets fellow pupils, Bentley Drummle, a brute of a

man from a wealthy noble family, and Startop, who is agreeable. Jaggers disburses the

money Pip needs.

When Joe visits Pip at Barnard's Inn, Pip is ashamed of him. Joe relays a message from

Miss Havisham that Estella will be at Satis House for a visit. Pip returns there to meet

Estella and is encouraged by Miss Havisham, but he avoids visiting Joe. He is disquieted

to see Orlick now in service to Miss Havisham. He mentions his misgivings to Jaggers,

xvi
who promises Orlick's dismissal. Back in London, Pip and Herbert exchange their

romantic secrets-Pip adores Estella and Herbert is engaged to Clara. Pip meets Estella

when she is sent to Richmond to be introduced into society.

Pip and Herbert build up debts. Mrs Joe dies and Pip returns to his village for the funeral.

Pip's income is fixed at 500 per annum when he comes of age at twenty-one. With the

help of Jaggers' clerk, Wemmick, Pip plans to help advance Herbert's future prospects by

anonymously securing him a position with the shipbroker, Clarriker's. Pip takes Estella to

Satis House. She and Miss Havisham quarrel over Estella's coldness. In London, Bentley

Drummle outrages Pip, by proposing a toast to Estella. Later, at an Assembly Ball in

Richmond, Pip witnesses Estella meeting Bentley Drummle and warns her about him; she

replies that she has no qualms about entrapping him.

A week after he turns 23 years old, Pip learns that his benefactor is the convict he

encountered in the churchyard, Abel Magwitch, who had been transported to New South

Wales after that escape. He has become wealthy after gaining his freedom there, but

cannot return to England. However, he returns to see Pip, who was the motivation for all

his success. Pip is shocked, and stops taking money from him. Subsequently, Pip and

Herbert Pocket devise a plan for Magwitch to escape from England. 1 Magwitch shares his

past history with Pip, and reveals that the escaped convict whom he fought in the

churchyard was Compeyson, the fraudster who had deserted Miss Havisham.

Pip returns to Satis Hall to visit Estella and encounters Bentley Drummle, who has also

come to see her and now has Orlick as his servant. Pip accuses Miss Havisham of

misleading him about his benefactor. She admits to doing so, but says that her plan was to

annoy her relatives. Pip declares his love to Estella, who, coldly, tells him that she plans

on marrying Drummle. Heartbroken, Pip walks back to London, where Wemmick warns

xvii
him that Compeyson is seeking him. Pip and Herbert continue preparations for Magwitch's

escape.

At Jaggers's house for dinner, Wemmick tells Pip how Jaggers acquired his maidservant,

Molly, rescuing her from the gallows when she was accused of murder. Then, full of

remorse, Miss Havisham tells Pip how the infant Estella was brought to her by Jaggers and

raised by her to be cold-hearted. She knows nothing about Estella's parentage. She also

tells Pip that Estella is now married. She gives Pip money to pay for Herbert Pocket's

position at Clarriker's, and asks for his forgiveness. As Pip is about to leave, Miss

Havisham accidentally sets her dress on fire. Pip saves her, injuring himself in the process.

She eventually dies from her injuries, lamenting her manipulation of Estella and Pip. Pip

now realises that Estella is the daughter of Molly and Magwitch. When confronted about

this, Jaggers discourages Pip from acting on his suspicions.

A few days before Magwitch's planned escape, Pip is lured by an anonymous letter into a

sluice house near his old home, where he is seized by Orlick, who intends to kill him.

Orlick confesses to injuring Pip's sister. As Pip is about to be struck by a hammer, Herbert

Pocket and Startop arrive to rescue him. The three of them pick up Magwitch to row him

to the steamboat for Hamburg, but they are met by a police boat carrying Compeyson, who

has offered to identify Magwitch. Magwitch seizes Compeyson, and they fight in the river.

Seriously injured, Magwitch is taken by the police. Compeyson's body is found later.

Pip is aware that Magwitch's fortune will go to the crown after his trial. But Herbert, who

is preparing to move to Cairo, Egypt, to manage Clarriker's office there, offers Pip a

position there. Pip regularly visits Magwitch in the prison hospital as he awaits trial, and

on Magwitch's deathbed tells him that his daughter Estella is alive. After Herbert's

departure for Cairo, Pip falls ill in his rooms, and faces arrest for debt. However, Joe

xviii
nurses Pip back to health and pays off his debt. When Pip begins to recover, Joe slips

away. Pip then returns to propose to Biddy, only to find that she has married Joe. Pip asks

Joe's forgiveness, promises to repay him and leaves for Cairo. There he shares lodgings

with Herbert and Clara, and eventually advances to become third in the company. Only

then does Herbert learn that Pip paid for his position in the firm.

After working eleven years in Egypt, Pip returns to England and visits Joe, Biddy and their

son, Pip Jr. Then in the ruins of Satis House he meets the widowed Estella, who asks Pip

to forgive her, assuring him that misfortune has opened her heart. As Pip takes Estella's

hand and they leave the moonlit ruins, he sees "no shadow of another parting from her."

Pip (Philip Pirrip)The narrator and protagonist who recounts his life story of growing up in

England, beginning in Kent and later moving to London. Pip is a very passionate, romantic

and ambitious young man who tries to better himself because he is ashamed of his origins.

Fortune and fame eventually find him although he now realizes that those things cannot

make him happy or more importantly, obtain Estellas love.

As a bildungsroman, Great Expectations presents the growth and development of a single

character, Philip Pirrip, better known to himself and to the world as Pip. As the focus of

the bildungsroman, Pip is by far the most important character in Great Expectations: he is

both the protagonist, whose actions make up the main plot of the novel, and the narrator,

whose thoughts and attitudes shape the readers perception of the story. As a result,

developing an understanding of Pips character is perhaps the most important step in

understanding Great Expectations.

Because Pip is narrating his story many years after the events of the novel take place, there

are really two Pips in Great Expectations: Pip the narrator and Pip the characterthe

xix
voice telling the story and the person acting it out. Dickens takes great care to distinguish

the two Pips, imbuing the voice of Pip the narrator with perspective and maturity while

also imparting how Pip the character feels about what is happening to him as it actually

happens. This skillfully executed distinction is perhaps best observed early in the book,

when Pip the character is a child; here, Pip the narrator gently pokes fun at his younger

self, but also enables us to see and feel the story through his eyes.

As a character, Pips two most important traits are his immature, romantic idealism and his

innately good conscience. On the one hand, Pip has a deep desire to improve himself and

attain any possible advancement, whether educational, moral, or social. His longing to

marry Estella and join the upper classes stems from the same idealistic desire as his

longing to learn to read and his fear of being punished for bad behavior: once he

understands ideas like poverty, ignorance, and immorality, Pip does not want to be poor,

ignorant, or immoral. Pip the narrator judges his own past actions extremely harshly,

rarely giving himself credit for good deeds but angrily castigating himself for bad ones. As

a character, however, Pips idealism often leads him to perceive the world rather narrowly,

and his tendency to oversimplify situations based on superficial values leads him to

behave badly toward the people who care about him. When Pip becomes a gentleman, for

example, he immediately begins to act as he thinks a gentleman is supposed to act, which

leads him to treat Joe and Biddy snobbishly and coldly.

On the other hand, Pip is at heart a very generous and sympathetic young man, a fact that

can be witnessed in his numerous acts of kindness throughout the book (helping

Magwitch, secretly buying Herberts way into business, etc.) and his essential love for all

those who love him. Pips main line of development in the novel may be seen as the

xx
process of learning to place his innate sense of kindness and conscience above his

immature idealism.

Not long after meeting Miss Havisham and Estella, Pips desire for advancement largely

overshadows his basic goodness. After receiving his mysterious fortune, his idealistic

wishes seem to have been justified, and he gives himself over to a gentlemanly life of

idleness. But the discovery that the wretched Magwitch, not the wealthy Miss Havisham,

is his secret benefactor shatters Pips oversimplified sense of his worlds hierarchy. The

fact that he comes to admire Magwitch while losing Estella to the brutish nobleman

Drummle ultimately forces him to realize that ones social position is not the most

important quality one possesses, and that his behavior as a gentleman has caused him to

hurt the people who care about him most. Once he has learned these lessons, Pip matures

into the man who narrates the novel, completing the bildungsroman

Estella is a beautiful young girl around Pips age who had been adopted and raised by the

wealthy but strange Miss Havisham. She is the object of Pips love and desires but she

treats him with only contempt and cruelty, repeatedly telling him that she has no heart. She

Often cited as Dickenss first convincing female character, Estella is a supremely ironic

creation, one who darkly undermines the notion of romantic love and serves as a bitter

criticism against the class system in which she is mired. Raised from the age of three by

Miss Havisham to torment men and break their hearts, Estella wins Pips deepest love

by practicing deliberate cruelty. Unlike the warm, winsome, kind heroine of a traditional

love story, Estella is cold, cynical, and manipulative. Though she represents Pips first

longed-for ideal of life among the upper classes, Estella is actually even lower-born than

Pip; as Pip learns near the end of the novel, she is the daughter of Magwitch, the coarse

convict, and thus springs from the very lowest level of society.

xxi
Ironically, life among the upper classes does not represent salvation for Estella. Instead,

she is victimized twice by her adopted class. Rather than being raised by Magwitch, a man

of great inner nobility, she is raised by Miss Havisham, who destroys her ability to express

emotion and interact normally with the world. And rather than marrying the kindhearted

commoner Pip, Estella marries the cruel nobleman Drummle, who treats her harshly and

makes her life miserable for many years. In this way, Dickens uses Estellas life to

reinforce the idea that ones happiness and well-being are not deeply connected to ones

social position: had Estella been poor, she might have been substantially better off.

Despite her cold behavior and the damaging influences in her life, Dickens nevertheless

ensures that Estella is still a sympathetic character. By giving the reader a sense of her

inner struggle to discover and act on her own feelings rather than on the imposed motives

of her upbringing, Dickens gives the reader a glimpse of Estellas inner life, which helps

to explain what Pip might love about her. Estella does not seem able to stop herself from

hurting Pip, but she also seems not to want to hurt him; she repeatedly warns him that she

has no heart and seems to urge him as strongly as she can to find happiness by leaving

her behind. Finally, Estellas long, painful marriage to Drummle causes her to develop

along the same lines as Pipthat is, she learns, through experience, to rely on and trust

her inner feelings. In the final scene of the novel, she has become her own woman for the

first time in the book. As she says to Pip, Suffering has been stronger than all other

teaching. . . . I have been bent and broken, butI hopeinto a better shape.

Miss Havisham is a very wealthy but crazy old woman who lives at Satis House near Pips

village. She had been stood up on her wedding day and now raises the beautiful Estella to

xxii
try to get revenge on all men for her own broken heart. Pip had believed that she was his

secret benefactor to promote his social class.

The mad, vengeful Miss Havisham, a wealthy dowager who lives in a rotting mansion and

wears an old wedding dress every day of her life, is not exactly a believable character, but

she is certainly one of the most memorable creations in the book. Miss Havishams life is

defined by a single tragic event: her jilting by Compeyson on what was to have been their

wedding day. From that moment forth, Miss Havisham is determined never to move

beyond her heartbreak. She stops all the clocks in Satis House at twenty minutes to nine,

the moment when she first learned that Compeyson was gone, and she wears only one

shoe, because when she learned of his betrayal, she had not yet put on the other shoe. With

a kind of manic, obsessive cruelty, Miss Havisham adopts Estella and raises her as a

weapon to achieve her own revenge on men. Miss Havisham is an example of single-

minded vengeance pursued destructively: both Miss Havisham and the people in her life

suffer greatly because of her quest for revenge. Miss Havisham is completely unable to see

that her actions are hurtful to Pip and Estella. She is redeemed at the end of the novel

when she realizes that she has caused Pips heart to be broken in the same manner as her

own; rather than achieving any kind of personal revenge, she has only caused more pain.

Miss Havisham immediately begs Pip for forgiveness, reinforcing the novels theme that

bad behavior can be redeemed by contrition and sympathy.

Abel Magwitch (The Convict) - A fearsome criminal, Magwitch escapes from prison at

the beginning of Great Expectations and terrorizes Pip in the cemetery. Pips kindness,

however, makes a deep impression on him, and he subsequently devotes himself to

making a fortune and using it to elevate Pip into a higher social class. Behind the scenes,

xxiii
he becomes Pips secret benefactor, funding Pips education and opulent lifestyle in

London through the lawyer Jaggers.

Joe Gargery- He is Pips brother-in-law who married his sister Mrs. Joe and stays with her

out of love for Pip. He is the village blacksmith and is uneducated which makes him of

lower class, but shows his pure goodness when Pip expresses disdain for Joe after

becoming a gentleman

Mrs. Joe Gargery: Pips older sister who raises Pip with her husband, Joe and becomes this

overbearing and strict mother figure to Pip. She later suffers a blow to the head, which she

must stay in bed for until her death. She is portrayed as harsh and demanding, also very

ambitious trying to be more than just the blacksmiths wife.

Jaggers: The powerful well-respected lawyer who alerts Pip of his awaiting fortune in

London and becomes his guardian. As a criminal lawyer, he must consort with some nasty

criminals and later washes his hands obsessively to keep his job from corrupting him.

Jaggers bases his decisions solely on facts and reasoning but before the novel is over, he

seems to somewhat care for Pip.

Wemmick: He is Jaggers law clerk and befriends Pip while giving him guidance and

companionship from time to time. Wemmick is an odd character that is detached and

unemotional at work but loving and tender away from his job. His possessions are all

portable.

Herbert Pocket: Herbert first appears as an odd young child who Pip meets at the Satis

House where he challenges Pip to a casual fistfight almost jokingly. Later, Pip encounters

him again as he is the son of Pips tutor and the two become instant friends who share an

xxiv
apartment as well as their joys and sorrows. Herbert is also ambitious and hardworking

who falls for a lower-status but kind girl named Clara.

Biddy: A girl of the same social class as Pip moves into his home to take care of Mrs. Joe

after her attack. Sweet and intelligent Biddy befriends Pip and teaches him all that she had

learnt in school. Pip wishes that he could love Biddy, rather than Estella because she

actually brings him joy but he never really does.

Dolge Orlick: He was one of Joes blacksmith labourers who is stupid but very jealous of

others and hurts them simply for his own pleasure. He had attacked Mrs. Joe and left her

disabled and many years later, tried to kill Pip but was unsuccessful.

Uncle Pumblechook: An uncle figure in Pips life who is very arrogant and obsessed with

social class and wealth. He is responsible for Pips job with Miss Havishams and later

tries to take credit for his success and it was believed Miss Havisham was the secret

benefactor.

Compeyson: Magwitchs criminal partner who is educated unlike that of Magwitch. He

later becomes Magwitchs enemy and captures him at the end of the novel despite the fact

that he also died. Compeyson is also the man who stood up Miss Havisham on their

wedding.

Bentley Drummle: He is another one of Matthew Pockets students along with Pip and

Herbert but is very harsh and cruel towards those he feels are socially below him, which is

almost everyone. He eventually marries Estella but abuses her and dies about a decade

later.

xxv
Matthew Pocket: The only relative of Miss Havishams who does not stick around for her

money. When she dies, she ends up leaving all her wealth to him because he was the only

one who truly cared for her and warned her about Compeyson. He is an intelligent and

kind man whose main job is to tutor Pip, his son Herbert, Drummle and Startop.

Molly: Jaggers housekeeper who is also Estellas birth mother.

Mr. Wopsle: The church clerk who later moves to London to pursue acting.

Startop: A gentleman who Pip and Herbert befriend and later helps with Magwitchs

escape.Miss Skiffins: A lady whom Wemmick falls for and later marries.Arthur

Havisham: Miss Havishams half brother that accompanies Compeyson in thescheme to

cheat some money off of her.Camilla: an old talkative relative of Miss Havisham who

sticks around her in hope of inheritance.Cousin Raymond: Camillas husband

whomalsodreams of obtaining Miss Havishams money.Georgiana: Another relative

ofMiss Havisham interested in her money.Sarah Pocket: Another relative of

MissHavisham who is interested in her money.Mr and Mrs Hubble: Couple in Pips

village who believe they are better than everyone else.Clara: A low-class girl who

becomes Herberts wife.Mr. Trabb and son: The local tailor and his son.Mrs. Belinda

Pocket: Wife to Matthew Pocket. Very beautiful but useless.Flopson and Millers: Nurses

at the Pockets houseMrs. Collier: A neighbour to the Pockets The Avenger: A useless

servant to PipBill Barley: Father of Herbert Pocket's wife ClaraMrs. Whimple: Landlady

to the Barleys who befriends Herbert.The Aged Parent: John Wemmick's deaf father who

Wemmick takes great care of.Mr. Skiffins: Miss Skiffins brother who arranges the

xxvi
business of Herbert's partnership with Clarriker. Clarriker: a merchant who does business

with Herbert.

Charles Dickens's Great Expectations tells the story of Pip, an English orphan who rises to

wealth, deserts his true friends, and becomes humbled by his own arrogance. It also

introduces one of the more colorful characters in literature: Miss Havisham. Charles

Dickens set Great Expectations during the time that England was becoming a wealthy

world power. Machines were making factories more productive, yet people lived in awful

conditions, and such themes carry into the story.

xxvii
Objectives

The study was conducted-

To appreciate Charles Dickenss life and works.

To find out the purpose of writing the novels of Charles Dickenss.

To identity Charles Dickenss skill in his novel Great Expectations

To explain that Charles Dickenss is a great novelist.

To achieve much more knowledge about the novel Great Expectations and also the

writer Charles Dickens.

To present the use of satire in Great Expectations.

To depict the social class in Great Expectations.

To focus on the importance of Charles Dickenss novels in terms of its practical

application towards the individual and the Victorian society.

xxviii
Background of the Research Topic

A novel by Charles Dickens (1812-70). Its title refers to expectations resulting from wealth

anonymously donated to Philip Pirrip (shortened to Pip) who has been brought up in humble

obscurity by his half-sister and her husband, the village blacksmith, Joe Gargery. His 'expectations'

are to be made a 'gentleman' - understood in social terms as holding privilege without responsibility.

He supposes his money to be the gift of the rich and lonely Miss Havisham, who has in fact merely

used him as an experimental victim on whom her ward, Estella, is to exert her charm with the aim of

breaking his heart.

Pip's great crisis comes when he discovers his real benefactor to be the convict Magwitch, whom he

had helped in an attempted escape when he was a child. Magwitch, who had been made into a

criminal by the callousness of society in his own childhood, has built up a fortune in Australia (to

which he was deported - Penal System) and has tried to experiment of 'making a gentleman' out of

another child. His assumption is essentially that of society as a whole, that appearances, and the

money that makes them, are what matters. Magwitch returns to England illegally to see the fruit of

his ambition, and Pip has to decide whether he will be responsible for his unwanted benefactor or

escape from him. His decision to protect Magwitch and help him to escape again produces a

revolution in Pip's nature: instead of assuming privilege without responsibility he now undertakes

responsibility without reward, since he will also divest himself of his money.Expectations' are

important in other senses for other characters: Estella expects to become a rich lady dominating

humiliated admirers, but she becomes enslaved to a brutal husband; Pip's friend, Herbert Pocket,

dreams of becoming a powerful industrialist but he has no capital until Pip (anonymously) provides

it; Wopsle, the parish clerk in Pip's village, imagines himself as a great actor and becomes a stage

hack; Miss Havisham is surrounded by relatives whom she despises and who nonetheless live in

xxix
expectation of legacies after her death; Miss Havisham herself, and Magwitch also, live for

expectations (in Estella and Pip) which are frustrated - in these instances fortunately. In its largest

implications, Great Expectations concerned with the futility of a society in which individuals live by

desires powered by illusion. This view of the novel gives emphasis to those characters who are free

of illusion: the lawyer Jaggers who exerts power by his cynical expectation of human folly; his clerk,

Wemmick, who divides his life sharply between the harshness of demand by his profession and the

tenderness of his domestic affections; Joe Gargery and his second wife Biddy, survivors from an

older social tradition, who remain content with their own naive wisdom of the heart.

Dickens was persuaded by his friend Bulwer Lytton to change the end of the novel: in the first

version Pip and Estella, older and wiser, meet again only to separate permanently; in the revised

one, Dickens leaves it open to the reader to believe whether they will be permanently united, or not.

Great Expectations single most obvious literary predecessor is Dickens's earlier first-person

narrator-protagonist David Copperfield. The two novels trace the psychological and moral

development of a young boy to maturity, his transition from a rural environment to the London

metropolis, the vicissitudes of his emotional development, and the exhibition of his hopes and

youthful dreams and their metamorphosis, through a rich and complex first person narrative.

Dickens was conscious of this similarity and, before undertaking his new manuscript, reread

David Copperfield to avoid repetition.

The two books both detail homecoming. Although David Copperfield is based on much of

Dickens personal experiences, Great Expectations provides, according to Paul Schlicke, "the

more spiritual and intimate autobiography." Even though several elements hint at the setting

Miss Havisham, partly inspired by a Parisian duchess, whose residence was always closed and in

xxx
darkness, surrounded by "a dead green vegetable sea", recalling Satis House, and the countryside

bordering Chatham and Rochester no place name is mentioned nor a specific time period,

which is indicated by, among other elements, older coaches, the title "His Majesty" in reference

to George III, and the old London Bridge prior to the 18241831 reconstruction

The theme of homecoming reflects events in Dickens's life, several years prior to the publication

of Great Expectations. In 1856, he bought Gad's Hill Place in Higham, Kent, which he had

dreamed of living in as a child, and moved there from faraway London two years later. In 1858,

in a painful divorce, he separated from Catherine Dickens, his wife of twenty-three years. The

divorce alienated him from some of his closest friends, such as Mark Lemon. He quarrelled with

Bradbury and Evans, who had published his novels for fifteen years. In early September 1860, in

a field behind Gad's Hill, Dickens burned almost all of his correspondence, sparing only letters

on business matters. He stopped publishing the weekly Household Words at the summit of its

popularity and replaced it with All the Year Round.

The Uncommercial Traveller, short stories, and other texts Dickens began publishing in his new

weekly in 1859 reflect his nostalgia, as seen in "Dullborough Town" and "Nurses' Stories".

According to Paul Schlicke, "it is hardly surprising that the novel Dickens wrote at this time was

a return to roots, set in the part of England in which he grew up, and in which he had recently

resettled."

Margaret Cardwell draws attention to Chops the Dwarf from Dickens's 1858 Christmas story

"Going into Society", who, as the future Pip does, entertains the illusion of inheriting a fortune

and becomes disappointed upon achieving his social ambitions.[79] In another vein, Harry Stone

thinks that Gothic and magical aspects of Great Expectations were partly inspired by Charles

xxxi
Mathews's At Home, which was presented in detail in Household Words and its monthly

supplement Household Narrative. Stone also asserts that The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices,

written in collaboration with Wilkie Collins after their walking tour of Cumberland during

September 1857 and published in Household Words from 3 to 31 October of the same year,

presents certain strange locations and a passionate love, foreshadowing Great Expectations.

Beyond its biographical and literary aspects, Great Expectations appears, according to Robin

Gilmour, as "a representative fable of the age". Dickens was aware that the novel "speaks" to a

generation applying, at most, the principle of "self help" which was believed to have increased

the order of daily life. That the hero Pip aspires to improve, not through snobbery, but through

the Victorian conviction of education, social refinement, and materialism, was seen as a noble

and worthy goal. However, by tracing the origins of Pip's "great expectations" to crime, deceit

and even banishment to the colonies, Dickens unfavourably compares the new generation to the

previous one of Joe Gargery, which Dickens portrays as less sophisticated but especially rooted

in sound values, presenting an oblique criticism of his time.

In the time of Charles dickens 204 million people followed the Christian beliefs. This is around 20% of

the 1000 million people of the world population. In the 19th century, more and more people became

religious. For example from 1850 to 1890 religion adherence rates grew by 12%.People also didnt have

to follow a religion and Darwin wasnt an extremely religious person either. Christianity being the most

prominent religion meant that Dickens could use quotes or stories form the bible as his readers would get

the reference. The most disliked religious group were the Jews and so Dickens took advantage of that to

develop negative characters in his books. In his writings, Charles Dickens shows his dislike of

evangelicalism and Roman Catholicism, but, especially in his fiction, he is very reluctant to make

professions of a specific faith beyond the most general sort of Christianity but he did have morals as he

xxxii
believed that the bible was true but only parts of it and other parts are not to be taken literally but only as

guidance. Religion in the 1800s treated women as second class citizens with religious people like Catholic

spokespeople and various religious organisations teaching people that women were put in the position of

being submissive and that this position was their God-given place. Class didnt affect the religiousness

of people. Religion didnt set any laws but religious morals were common place. People were expected to

go to churches at least once per week and they were meant to follow the bible strictly. Some families even

forbid their children to play with toys on Sunday unless they were religious toys such as a model of

Noahs ark and adults were forbidden to drink or have sex on Sunday.

xxxiii
Chapter Outline

To complete the research paper I tried my best to make it fruitful for me and the readers. Very first I

discussed about Charles Dickens novels and writings briefly in the introduction. As I am going to the

prepare research paper on Cultural and social conflict in Great expectation, I thought that If I dont

write something about the Man, it will be injustice to him.

In Chapter 2, I discussed about Charles Dickenss life Major and works. And the next, his most

renowned novel Great Expectations. In Chapter 4, I tried to measure the contribution of

Charles Dickenss to English literature and in the next chapter, I have figured out his

authoritative features.

After that, in Chapter 6, I focused on the philosophy and practical application in society

Charles Dickenss. In Chapter 7, I made the findings of my research paper. And in the last

chapter, I brought out the findings of my research work briefly and precisely and then I wrote a

short conclusion.

xxxiv
 Synopsis of the research

The narrator, Pip recounts his life story from his childhood to how he matures

and grows up to becoming a young man. Throughout this transformation, one

thing remains unchanged. Pip falls in love with a wealthy but heartless girl

named Estella. From that moment on, everything Pip does in his life is no

longer for himself or anyone else but for Estella and only her. Pip even receives

a fortune from a secret benefactor to pursue an education and he does this

along with obtaining wealth, success and high social class in the hopes of

becoming worthy in the eyes of his beloved Estella.

The novel starts out with one of the most significant events of Philip Pirrip

(Pip)s life when he is a young child. As he was sitting one evening, looking at

his parents tombstones, an escaped convict violently grabs Pip, ordering him

to bring food and a file. Even though Pip does everything he is asked, the

convict gets caught anyways. Pip returns to living the normal, tranquil life with

his older sister and her husband, Mrs and Mr. Joe Gargery in Kent, England.

Soon, however, his Uncle Pumblechook takes him to the Satis House where he

meets the strange but wealthy Miss Havisham, who had been stood up at her

xxxv
own marriage, and her beautiful adopted daughter Estella. This is the girl that

Pip falls madly in love with from the moment he meets her and will continue to

do so throughout the rest of his life even though she treats him with only

contempt and hostility. Soon Pip learns to be a blacksmith from his brother-in-

law, Joe, though he is completely unhappy as Estella mocks him for being such

a common labourer. One night, his sister, Mrs. Joe is viciously attacked and

will only be able lie in bed until her death so a nice young girl named Bitty is

hired to take care of her. Pip uses this opportunity to ask her to teach him all

that she knows academically so that he can better himself in the eyes of

Estella.

Before long, a lawyer named Jaggers alerts Pip of a large sum of money that

had befallen him from a secret benefactor and urges him to travel to London to

start his education and pave the way to becoming a gentleman. Pip, already

thinking of Estella, is delighted at his good fortune and believes that he owes

this to Miss Havisham who wants to promote his social status. In London, he

makes friends with two gentlemen named Herbert Pocket and Wemmick while

receiving a good education. Pip continues to pine after Estella but expresses

disdain for his former loved ones like his once beloved Joe. Pip becomes
xxxvi
successful, wealthy and well respected over the years, gaining everything he

had ever wished to be as a child except at gaining the love of Estella. Many

years pass until one particular night when his former convict, Magwitch,

returns to Pip, dramatically announcing his identity as Pips secret benefactor

all these years. Pip shows his utter disgust at this turn of events but agrees to

help Magwitch escape, as he is still wanted by the police. As time goes on, Pip

begins to genuinely care for Magwitch.

Another twist is discovered by Pip when he realizes Magwitch is the birth father

of Estella and that Miss Havisham had never wanted to encourage Estellas

love for Pip but rather persuade her to break mens hearts. Pip is utterly

heart-broken when he hears of news that Estella had married Bentley

Drummle, a cruel upper-class gentleman. Pip visits Miss Havisham one last

time before her death where she asks for his forgiveness and he agrees despite

all the pain that he has suffered. Magwitch must escape before time runs out

and so Pip and his friends sneak him down the river to catch a ship but is

ultimately caught by the police and Magwitch suffers severe injuries that he

later succumbs to. Pip returns to his regular lifestyle focusing on his career

before returning many years later to the Satis House where he had first met
xxxvii
Estella. Once again, Estella and Pip meet in the garden when Estella informs

him of the death of her husband and the cruelty that Drummle had treated her

with over the years of their marriage. Pip recognizes that Estellas once cold

and bitter eyes have turned warm with compassion as she asks for his

forgiveness. He accepts and they walk out of the garden hand in hand, while

Pip believes that they will never be apart ever again

xxxviii
Findings

My research topic is very excellent and perfect .it is also very important to

findings. I have discovered some important themes from this research. Charles

Dickenss Great Expectations is really a great novel that nicely reflected the real picture of

England in eighteenth century throughout the novel Great Expectations.

In my thesis ,I look at each of these parts of Great Expectations to analyze every bit of satire

present in them . I show how this book is the epitome of Charles Dickenss

Social and political criticism.

xxxix
Conclusion

Following comments by Edward Bulwer Lytton that the ending was to sad, Dickens rewrote it. The

ending set aside by Dickenss has Pip still single ,briefly see Estella in London.After becoming Bentley

Drummles window ,she has remarried .it appealed to Dickens due to its originality: the winding up will

be away from all such things as they conventionally go.Dickens revised the ending for publication so

that Pip meets Estella in the ruins of Satis House ,she a widow and he single .His changes at the

conclusion of the novel did not quite end either with the final weekly part or the first bound edition

,because Dickens further changed the the last sentence in the amended 1868 version from I could

see the shadow of no parting from her .I saw no shadow of another parting from her As Pip uses litotes,

no shadow of another partingit ambiguous whether Pip and Estella marry or Pip remains single .Angus

Calder, Writing for an edition in the penguin English Libraary,believed the less definite phrasing of the

amended 1868 version perhaps hinted at a buried meaning at this happy moment ,I did not see the

shadow of our subsequent parting looming over us.

xl