Y7 English Great Expectations PDF

Great Expectations Context Key Characters The hero, protagonist and narrator of Great Expectations The Victorian Era: the period o...

Great Expectations Context Key Characters The hero, protagonist and narrator of Great Expectations The Victorian Era: the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 Pip who starts as an orphan and receives a large and June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Despite the fact that unexpected fortune. (victimised, lonely, naïve) Britain was seen as a strong global power, this era saw a large amount of social inequality. There was also a lot of change during this A fearsome criminal, Magwitch escapes from prison at era as it saw the advancement of technology and industry with the Magwitch the beginning of Great Expectations and later becomes Industrial Revolution. Charles Dickens wanted to show how difficult Pip’s secret sponsor. (rough, complicated, generous) growing up was in these times, as well as reveal the differences in the lives of the rich and the poor. Miss Havisham’s beautiful adopted daughter, Estella is Social class: In Victorian times, society was strictly layered - not Estella Pip’s unachievable dream throughout the story only into rich and poor, or even upper, middle and lower class, but (beautiful, arrogant, cold) hundreds of 'grades'. People were expected to 'know their place', and the Church taught them to be content in their 'station'. There was a The old woman who lives in Satis House. As a young huge gap between the rich and poor; the poor were very poor and Miss woman, Miss Havisham was deserted by her fiancé the rich did little to help the poor or alleviate their situation Havisham minutes before her wedding, and now she hates all men. Subject Terminology (bitter, manipulative, vengeful) Social problems: At the time, many people were becoming aware of the need to improve the condition in which the poor found Exposition: a detailed explanation of characters and their backgrounds at the themselves. Dickens was a great supporter of social reform - beginning of a text especially in education and prisons. Benefactor: a sponsor Charles Dickens: Dickens was born in England in 1812. He died in 1870. Dickens lived through the Industrial Revolution. When he was Grotesque: focuses on the human body, and all the ways that it can be 12, his father was imprisoned for debt. While his father was in prison, distorted or exaggerated: its aim is to make us feel both empathy and disgust Dickens was sent to work in a boot-blacking factory. Even when his at the same time. father came out of prison, Dickens' mother made him continue working in the factory - for which he never forgave her. Bildungsroman: a coming of age novel which focuses on the development of the Nineteenth century literary traditions: By 1860, although most protagonist from youth to adulthood people in Britain could read and write, books were well beyond the income of ordinary people. Because of this, Dickens' novels were serialised. Great Expectations was published in 36 weekly parts in All Patriarchal: relating to a system/ society where men dominate Year Round, priced 2d (two pence in old money). Protagonist: the leading character in the novel Social Class: a section of society based on social and economic background Narrative Perspective: the point of view from which the story is told. In the case of Great Expectations, Pip is the narrator so there is a ‘First Person Narrative’ Serialisation: when stories were released in a series of weekly instalments instead of as a whole novel – they were serialised.  Why is the genre of a Bildungsroman novel significant? Pip is both the narrator of Great Expectations and its protagonist. His perspective both determines what we see and how we see it. The novel follows Pip from the age of about eight to his mid-thirties and qualifies as a bildungsroman. Great Expectations is divided into three parts corresponding to the phases of Pip's life. The first stage covers his childhood, during which he is 'brought up by hand' by his older sister, his parents having died. The second covers his apprenticeship in London, from his mid-teens to his coming of age, at which time he also comes into his mysterious inheritance, of which he has such great expectations (hence the novel's name). The third part of the novel shows Pip getting a better grip on who he is and who he wants to be, from his mid-twenties to his mid-thirties. It also covers how those 'great expectations' are - and are not - fulfilled. As Pip is our narrator, the reader lives Pip's life with him, and we see: the way contact with rich people makes him dissatisfied how coming into money makes him shallow and selfish, and unhappy how trying to find love with a beautiful, yet cruel, girl makes him unhappy - the plain, good girl would have been better how disappointments change his character for the better how Pip is happier when he settles down to a decent living through hard work - this is one of the main messages of the novel Key themes Techniques Examples SOCIAL CLASSES: There was a big divide between the upper class and lower Simile: describing something by comparing it ‘So she sat, corpse-like, as we played at class people in the Victorian era. Dickens did not like the effects of social to something else (it must use ‘like’ or ‘as’) cards’ class. Pip sees that many of the people of 'high' social class have significant ‘He put down his head, blew a cloud of character flaws, and that people from other social classes are 'better' Metaphor: describing something by smoke out of his nose, and vanished human beings. On the other hand, violent and surly lower working class saying it is something else with a kick-up’ people are to be feared and distrusted. Dickens' message is that the middle class values of godliness, hard work and the gentleness of a 'gentleman' are ‘It was a rimy morning, and very damp. I - with sufficient income - the way to happiness. This message would appeal Imagery: a technique in which the had seen the damp lying on the outside author appeals to the senses i.e. seeing, to his middle class/upper working class readers. of my little window, as if some goblin hearing, touching. had been crying there all night.’ CRIME AND THE LAW: Dickens had a social conscience and was deeply critical of the existing system of law and justice. (Remember that his father ‘One black ox, with a white cravat on - was imprisoned for debt.) Issues relating to crime and the law run Personification: describing an who even had to my awakened throughout Great Expectations. For example: The story starts with Pip conscience something of a clerical air - inanimate object as having human meeting a 'fearful' criminal in a cemetery, who makes him steal a file and fixed me so obstinately with his eyes, feelings. and moved his blunt head round in such food. Dickens' shocking conclusion is that, in Victorian England, some an accusatory manner’ criminals were good men trapped by an unfair system; that punishment missed the guilty; that lawyers were rotters; and that prison was an Listing: when the writer includes ‘A man…who limped, and shivered, and inhumane place - in short, that England's system of justice was wholly several words/ phrases/ ideas, one after glared and growled.’ unjust. the other. AMBITION AND SELF-IMPROVEMENT: In 1859, Samuel Smiles published ‘The shoe upon it, once white, now Repetition: when a word/ phrase is yellow, had never been worn…. the silk his book Self-Help, which told people that if they worked hard they could noticeably repeated throughout a stocking on it, once white, now yellow, improve their station in life. The 19th century was the age of the 'self-made sentence/ paragraph/ whole text. had been trodden ragged.’ man'. Most of Dickens' readers would have wanted to better themselves: Dickens' message is that 'character' is not about money or class, but what She looked at Sarah Pocket with triumph is in your heart. The true heroes are Biddy and Joe. Dickens felt that in her weird eyes, and so I left my fairy ambition does not necessarily bring success. What matters to Dickens is not Semantic field: a set of words that godmother, with both her hands on her what you achieve, but what kind of person you are. are related in meaning crutch stick, standing in the midst of the dimly lighted room beside the rotten bridecake that was hidden in cobwebs. LOVE AND DECEPTION: Dickens explores love and loyalty in Great Expectations. He makes it clear that they underlie happiness and misery. ‘Saw her running at me, shrieking, with For example, Pip’s unrequited love for Estella throughout the novel only Motif: a repeated image that helps to a whirl of fire blazing all about her….she