Essay time...

Great Expectations
Great Expectations is a book written by the famous 19th century author Charles Dickens, and is now as famous as its writer as an important book used in many English lessons all around the world. This is because of its many moral lessons taught throughout the book, and is ideal as a literature material.
Great Expectations is written in a semi-autobiographical style, and is the story of the orphan Pip, writing his life from his early days of childhood until adulthood. The story can also be considered semi-autobiographical of Dickens, like much of his work, drawing on his experiences of life and people. The story is divided into three phases of Pip's life expectations.

The first part of the story talks about the humble beginnings of the protagonist, Philip Pirrip, also known as Pip. He is satisfied with his life, even helping a convict, until he is hired by the wealthy Miss Havisham, falling in love with her beautiful adopted daughter, Estella, and thereafter aspiring to leave his simple life and to become a gentleman. Understanding from a lawyer that he has been left a huge fortune, Pip leaves the town for his new future. From these chapters, we see the powerful draw of money and power, such that it is enough for Pip to turn his back on his sister and her kindly husband, Joe Gargery, whom he has depended on almost his entire life up till then, whether it being his bringing up or even when he grows up and finds a job, relying on Gargery to train him as an apprentice. Readers can see that Pip is a representation of the common English peasant child, happy to live his common live but ready to leave that life behind him once the chance to experience a much better one comes along.

The second part of the story discusses Pip’s rise into aristocracy with his newfound fortune. Often living beyond his allowance, he becomes embroiled in rivalry with other men for the love of Estella, and when Joe Gargery pays a visit, Pip is embarrassed to the point of almost hatred at Gargery’s unlearned ways, after living as a “high-class” person for such a long time. These chapters show us the power that money and power can give us, but also the moral values that are given up together with it. It proves that money can and does corrupt the normal person; able to cause him to lose his original identity, as shown when Pip is infuriated at his former guardian, despite the care shown to him in the past by this very person. We learn a moral lesson from the second part of the story, which is to beware of the dangers that power and money can throw us into.

In the last part of the story, Pip’s expectations are changed drastically as he learns from his lawyer that his benefactor is not Miss Havisham but Magwitch, an escaped convict whom we saved many years ago. He learns startling truths that cast into doubt the values that he once embraced so eagerly, and finds that he cannot regain many of the important things that he had cast aside so carelessly. He helps Magwitch escapes, but the convict dies and Pip falls ill. Despite Pip’s unkindness to him in the past, he cures Pip and even clears his debts. In this part of the book, we see the embodiment of kindness and good within Joe Gargery, as he helps his former young charge once again, forgetting all the meanness that Pip had shown to him as a proud, aristocratic young man. Also, we see that Pip still retains some of the sympathy that he had grown up with as a child, crossing countries in order to repay his benefactor and save his life. We understand the uncovering of his benefactor has changed him, and he learns it is only right to give after receiving, just as Magwitch did many years ago.