Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

An analysis of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Originally published in serialised form during 1860 and 1861, the timeframe for Great Expectations begins a few years after the start of the nineteenth century and ends around 1840. It is therefore appropriate to consider that this novel deals with contemporary issues from sometime around 1800 to no later than 1860. There is enough corroboration in the text – for example when Pip receives the two one pound notes – to suggest that these dates are broadly accurate.

Perhaps one of the most prominent social issues of these times was the treatment of debtors. Debtor’s prisons and the Poor Law can be traced back to the early 1600s. Though an amendment to the Law was made in1834, this did little to improve the conditions in prisons but rather changed the focus of responsibility. Dickens had first hand experience of the conditions of these institutions when his father was imprisoned at Marshalsea debtors' prison in 1824 and fighting the causes of poverty and oppression was a feature of his personal and literary life. In Great Expectations Pip visits Newgate Prison, which housed both debtors and other criminals during the time in question, with Wemmick. Though he gives no great description of the conditions there, the little that is described paints a bleak picture, ‘At that time, jails were much neglected….felons were not lodged and fed better than soldiers (to say nothing of the paupers)…’. Near the end of the novel Pip is threatened with a spell in debtors’ prison himself before Joe settles his debts. Prisons, and the life of prisoners, is a central theme in the story with the prison ship located not far from Pip’s childhood home and his various encounters with Magwitch.

It is also appropriate to consider the type of novel under consideration and whether indeed it is fitting that it should deal with contemporary issues. Arguably, the realist novel - a style of literature that seeks to represent the familiar or typical in real life, rather than an idealised, formalised, or romantic interpretation of it – lends itself most readily to being used to make links to circumstances happening in the real world at the time of writing. I say this because the very essence of realism serves to engender the belief in the reader that the events described could actually happen. It seems only natural then that to link elements of the story to current social or moral issues, events, beliefs, political climates etc., would help to reinforce that sense of realism. Conversely the gothic novel relies to a far greater extent on the reader’s capacity to at least temporarily suspend disbelief. This does not necessarily mean to say that a gothic novel cannot contain reference to current issues but it may be less effective if it were to use supernatural, and thus unbelievable, events to act as a basis for comment on real social issues.

The question really is whether or not the narrative techniques found in a realist novel best serve the purpose of comment on social issues. Great Expectations uses first person narrative with the central character, Pip, telling the story as he remembers it. This form of storytelling is frequently referred to as bildungsroman, and shows the development of the main character over time from childhood to adulthood. Direct speech, which is used liberally throughout, makes us feel as though we are there and being spoken to, and validates Pip’s impressions of minor characters, even the caricatured ones. In the early parts of the novel there are elements of comedy; Pip and Joe’s secret teasing of Mrs Joe, Pumblechook’s pomposity and Mr Wopsle’s thespian antics. There is a great level of detailed description applied to many of the characters, to locations, situations and even apparently trivial objects such as Tickler, one of Mrs Joe’s means of exerting her authority over Pip. All of these techniques bring the reader’s mental picture of the story into sharper focus giving us a well defined canvas on which we can envisage the characters in their setting. To all intents and purposes this could be a real story, if we can conveniently ignore the enormous raft of coincidence which ties some of the characters together and Pip’s verbatim recall. But it is only when we believe that that the story is anchored to reality, we can take on board the themes and ideas it presents – and these could easily be contemporary social issues among others – and similarly anchor them firmly in what we see as the real world. Since a non-realist novel by its very nature takes us away from reality, it is therefore a less effective vehicle for the deliberation of the reality of social issues.

Certainly Great Expectations is fundamentally grounded in the real world and follows many of the characteristics of a realist novel. The background settings of London and Kent are not fictional locations. A number of recognisable streets and landmarks in London such as Barnard’s Inn and Temple are referenced. Even the churchyard which forms the opening scene was based on a Kent churchyard which Dickens is understood to have visited. The central character, while not necessarily following a classical heroic mould, is nonetheless on a journey of moral improvement. While some may argue that Magwitch was a tyrannical figure more at home in a gothic tale the reality is that only in the opening few pages did he really pose any threat to Pip. The threat of Magwitch sustained through volumes one and two were more closely linked to Pip’s fertile and boyish imagination rather than any physical presence. The story is told in its proper linear chronology. Though Great Expectations is related sometime after all of the action has taken place, there are no unexplained or unexplainable gaps in the timeline and no flashbacks. While there is a continuing theme of guilt and shame (for example Pip’s feelings of responsibility for his sister’s death and his abandonment of Joe) the clear messages which Pip embraces at the end of the story are those of love, friendship and the sense of wellbeing that comes through good honest work. Generally speaking the story also deals only with real and intelligible things which we can understand and relate to. Admittedly there is a mild reference to the supernatural when Pip imagines he sees the body of Miss Havisham hanging by the neck in the disused brewery. But little is made of this incident and its absence would not materially affect the plot or its meaning. In any case it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that an individual in the real world may mistakenly believe that they have seen an apparition. There have been plenty of stories in the media of such events over the years to make this a significantly less than unique event.

However, like much of Dickens’s other work, Great Expectations does not fit squarely into the category of realism and leans to some extent on gothic and comic or satiric traditions. Evidence of the gothic influence lies in the setting; the almost primeval marshes of Kent and the sound of gunfire on the prison ship echoing across the darkness, the fire in the forge, the dark and shadowy streets of London at night, the unlit rooms and corridors at Satis House and its overgrown and neglected garden. As far as characterisation is concerned, the early introduction to Magwitch, where Pip describes his physical appearance, the way he walks across the marshes and the way he eats, also has gothic overtones. Even his name has more than a suggestion of menace to it – could mag be an abbreviation of magic and witch be the merchant of same?

On balance, Great Expectations is not a realist novel in its purest sense but is probably closer to this genre than any other. It has a cast of well defined and believable, albeit at times over-caricatured, characters and thus, I believe, provides a powerful medium for the discussion of contemporary issues.