Great Expectations

GENERAL 

1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read, and explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose (based on your well-informed interpretation of same).
 
A young orphan named Pip is taken in by his sister and her husband who is a blacksmith. Great Expectations is the story of how Pip grows up encountering many unforgettable people. Some good, some bad, and some dynamic, they all change the way Pip sees the world.

2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.
Dreams are but a step away from delusion... so is loyalty for that matter. Pip is so devoted to his childish view of the world  that he comes close to never realizing his fallacy.
3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).
Dickens is always very descriptive when he writes. He uses imagery to relay what his characters are seeing at the time. A few examples of this are:
1) The convict coming out of the marshes. "... as if he were a pirate come to life, come down, and going back to hook himself up again. It gave me a terrible turn when I thought so; and as I saw the cattle lifting their heads to gaze at him , I wondered whether they thought so too." pg. 5
2) Upon describing a room in Satis House. "I crossed the staircase landing, and entered the room she indicated. From that room, too, the daylight was completely excluded, and it had an airless smell that was oppressive. A fire had been lately kindled in the damp old-fashioned grate, and it was more disposed to go out than to burn up, and the reluctant smoke which hung in the room seemed colder than the clearer air - like our own marsh mist." p. g71
3)Describing the Magwitch.  "Moving the lamp as the man moved, I made out that he was substantially dressed, but roughly; like a voyager by sea. That he had long iron-grey hair. That his age was about sixty. That he was a muscular man, strong on his legs, and that he was browned and hardened by exposure to weather. As he ascended the last stair or two, and the light of my lamp included us both, I saw, with a stupid kind of amazement, that he was holding out both his hands to me." pg. 270
4. Describe a minimum of ten literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the author's purpose, the text's theme and/or your sense of the tone. For each, please include textual support to help illustrate the point for your readers. (Please include edition and page numbers for easy reference.)

Foreshadowing: through out the story Magwitch's return is imminent. Why would Dickens have started the book with giving Pip such a strong impression of the convict?

Metaphor: The metaphor of the mists is resolved on the last page, "... as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so, the the evening mists were rising now." pg. 417

Motifs: the reoccuring doubles through out the novel are a way that Dickens shows how connected Pip's world is. For example, Magwitch and Miss. Havisham both want to shape a child to do their bidding in life. Magwitch makes Pip a gentleman and Havisham makes Estella a heart breaker.



Point of View: The whole story is told through Pip's eyes. "Herbert received me with open arms, and I had never felt before, so blessedly, what it is to have a friend." pg. 293

Foil: Orlick is a foil for Joe Gargery. Joe is kind and loves Pip, whereas Orlick is a spiteful slime ball who cripples Mrs. Joe and blames Pip for ruining his life.

Doppelganger: I would argue that Miss. Havisham is the ghostly figure of her former self. In this case she is her own haunted counter part.

Aphorism: "... life is made of ever so many partings welded together, as I may say, and one man’s a blacksmith, and one’s a white-smith, and one’s a goldsmith, and one’s a copper-smith. Divisions among such must come, and must be met as they come." pg. 192 Wise statements are given by different characters through out the story.

Imagery:"He looked in my young eyes as if he were eluding the hands of dead people, stretching up cautiously out of their graves , to get a twist upon his ankle and pull him in." pg. 5

Syntax: "... who appeared to have now become constitutionally green and yellow by reason of me." pg. 201

Allusion: The allusion to Shakespeare was in chapter 31 when Herbert and Pip attend Mr. Wopsle's Hamlet play. "The joy attended Mr. Wopsle through his struggle with Laertes on the brink of the orchestra and the grave." pg. 219

CHARACTERIZATION 


1. Describe two examples of direct characterization and two examples of indirect characterization.  Why does the author use both approaches, and to what end?
Direct:
1) Joe's blue eyes turned a little watery; he rubbed, first one of them, and then the other, in a most uncongenial and uncomfortable manner." pg. 39
2) "I found him to be a dry man, rather short of stature, with a square wooden face... " pg. 145
Indirect:
1) "That girl's hard and haughty and capricious to the last degree."Herbert to Pip about Estella pg150
2)"Is HE changed?" Miss Havisham asked her.
   "Very much," said Estella, looking at me.
pg. 203 Estella describes Pip.
2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character?  How?  Example(s)?

Yes, Pip's dialogue changes through out the story as he becomes more and more educated, but Orlick was one whose diction and syntax were dramatically different from those of other characters. "... afore I kill you like any other beast -- I'll have a good look at you and a good goad at you. Oh, you enemy!" pg. 363

3. Is the protagonist static or dynamic?  Flat or round?  Explain.

Definitely dynamic, just like Magwitch, Herbert, and Estella Pip's character is formed as he grows up. A head-in-the-clouds child becomes a fully aware of himself adult.
4. After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character?  Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction.
I felt as though Dickens exaggerated Pip's character in order to get his points across. I did feel like I had just read a character, but his mate Herbert was my favorite character, I felt like he could've been an actual person. "Herbert Pocket had a frank and easy way with him that was very taking. I had never seen any one then, and I have never seen any one since, who more strongly expressed to me, in every look and tone, a natural incapacity to do anything secret and mean. There was something wonderfully hopeful about his general air, and something that at the same time whispered to me that he would never be successful or rich. I don't know how this was."pg 151