Great Expectations Review

Great Expectations
By Charles Dickens


Another reading assignment for English class. Just another book. I was warned by my friends that Charles Dickens was a boring author, his books long, tedious, and hard to comprehend. As a long-revered classic, the book seemed to dare me to try it as it lay on my desk. Never having read Dickens before, I took up the daunting challenge to read Great Expectations.

Set in the Victorian Era in the 1800s, Dickens brings us to the home of a young boy called Pip. Living with his sister and her husband, his life is relatively dull and uneventful. However, one day Pip meets a run-away convict at his parents' gravesite. The convict is described as a fearsome man, with an iron-leg and long scars. He threatens Pip, forcing him to steal food for him. The convict is recaptured and taken to the prison ship near the marshes. Life seems back to normal for Pip.

Suddenly, an old woman summons Pip to play at her house. Pip is shocked to discover so many secrets hidden in the decaying mansion about this strange and obscure woman. Pip also meets a girl at the house and falls in love with her. However Pip is belittled by the girl because of his low class, and Pip is determined to educate himself. Coincidentally, Pip is bestowed with great expectations by an unknown benefactor, and he moves to London to learn to become a gentleman, and climb up the social ladder. Dickens shifts gears and begins to deliver a fast-paced and an exciting plot which is developed by his characters – the foolish but very human character Pip; the eccentric, bitter bride Miss Havisham; the beautiful but haughty Estella; and the benevolent, father-like Magwitch. Thus begins Pip’s adventures, filled with anger, sorrow and love.

All my previous feelings of doubt and uncertainty vanished as I read the book. I definitely did not find it boring as I had first expected, and though I was challenged to read a different literary style, I thoroughly enjoyed it. This intricate plot-line is full of different incidents which seem to be totally unrelated, but Dickens has thought it all out beforehand, pulling all the events and characters together before the final conclusion.

Though this is not our story, this is still primarily about humans, and we empathize with Pip as the book unfolds Pip’s life – through his surprises, his successes and his disappointments – because we have all been there, too. This is not “just another book”; Great Expectations is one of the most well written books I have ever read, and is definitely a must-read because it truly belongs on the shelf of the most revered classics.