Charles Dickens' Great Expectations

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Charles Dickens' Great Expectations

Charles Dickens is famous for his unforgettable characters. Some of

his most renowned characters are to be found in 'Great Expectations' a

truly classic novel.

Pip is a genuinely nice character. His mother and father, and this is

what it says on his fathers gravestone "Georginawife of the above,

were dead and buried; and that Alexander, Bartholomew, Abraham, Tobias

and Roger, were also dead and buried." This immediately makes the

reader feel sympathy towards Pip because it is very traumatic to lose

one family member let alone seven! So he was left with his sister Mrs

Joe Gargery, who is married to Joe Gargery a blacksmith. She raised

him 'by hand' to keep him in order. She thinks that Pip owes her for

all that she's done for him. She is very sarcastic and vindictive, but

Joe Gargery is a very quiet, kind man who loves and cares for Pip like

his own son. He wants to take Pip under his wing and make him a

blacksmiths apprentice. Similarly it is Pips dream to work with Joe.

Joe is like a father figure to Pip, almost like the father he never

met. This gives the reader a sense of satisfaction knowing that Pip

has someone to depend on. Pip imagined his father to be a 'square,

stout, dark man with curly black hair,' he thinks this because of the

shape of the letters on his gravestone. Alternatively he thinks of his

mother as a 'freckled and sickly woman.' He knows that the assumptions

of the looks of his mother are probably wrong when he says 'I drew a

childish conclusion'. Whereas Miss Havisham is a rich eccentric woman

who has an extremely extravagant personality, with an odd background.

She was in love in her early life and was due to be married but the

day came and her husband to be left her standing at the altar, he also

stole a large amount of money from her. This turned her love to hatred

and made her hate the male race.

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