Great Expectations

Great Expectations is a bildungsroman that charts the progress of the orphan Philip 'Pip' Pirrip from childhood through painful experiences to adulthood, as he moves from the Kent marshes to commercial London. The story is initiated by Pip's encounter with the escaped convict Abel Magwitch in a graveyard. Pip is later taken to the decaying Satis House to 'play' with the eccentric Miss Havisham, who wears a perpetual wedding dress, and her beautiful, cold ward, Estella. Pip becomes infatuated with Estella, which fosters in him a deep dissatisfaction with his common life as an apprentice blacksmith. His life takes a dramatic turn when a lawyer informs him that a secret, anonymous benefactor has given him a large fortune to be educated as a gentleman in London, leading Pip to assume his patron is Miss Havisham and that he is destined to marry Estella. The eventual revelation of his true benefactor shatters his 'great expectations,' forcing him to confront his misplaced values, the nature of class, wealth, and love, and ultimately, discover his true self.

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