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{{work}}
{{Infobox book
| title = Great Expectations
| image = "All done, all gone!" Miss Havisham in the passageway at Satis House.jpeg
''Great Expectations'' is one of [[Charles Dickens]]' most famous works (along with ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'', ''[[Oliver Twist]]'' and ''[[A Tale of Two Cities]]''), as the multitude of high school students [[School Study Media|assigned]] this 300+ page book will attest. Ironically, it is his most unconventional work; Dickens [[Deconstruction|deconstructed]] many of his trademark plots and characters in it, including the [[Mysterious Benefactor]] and [[Rags to Riches]] tale. The main character Pip is also far from the simple-minded innocents of ''[[David Copperfield (novel)|David Copperfield]]'' and ''[[Oliver Twist]]'' and arguably has undergone the most [[Character Development]] as a result.▼
| caption = "All done, all gone!" Miss Havisham in the passageway at Satis House
| author = Charles Dickens
| central theme = is raising from our humble origins worthy enough, if we lose our morals on the way?
| elevator pitch = a young man infatuated with a girl being raised to be a [[Emotionless Girl|Emotionless]] [[Gold Digger]] [[Femme Fatale]] suddenly receives a benefactor that helps him to become a [[Suddenly-Suitable Suitor]] for her. But then he discovers the secret behind his benefactor, and it all begins to crumble...
| genre =
| publication date = 1861
| source page exists = yes
| wiki URL =
| wiki name =
}}
▲'''''Great Expectations''''' is one of [[Charles Dickens]]' most famous works (along with ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'', ''[[Oliver Twist]]'' and ''[[A Tale of Two Cities]]''), as the multitude of high school students [[School Study Media|assigned]] this 300+ page book will attest. Ironically, it is his most unconventional work; Dickens [[Deconstruction|deconstructed]] many of his trademark plots and characters in it, including the [[Mysterious Benefactor]] and [[Rags to Riches]] tale. The main character Pip is also far from the simple-minded innocents of ''[[David Copperfield (novel)|David Copperfield]]'' and ''[[Oliver Twist]]'' and arguably has undergone the most [[Character Development]] as a result.
Pip starts the book as a [[The Messiah|guileless]] orphan who lives [[Abusive Parents|under the thumb]] of his shrewish older sister Mrs. Joe, only marginally mollified by her simple-minded but good-hearted husband Joe. His most eventful incident in his childhood is helping a convict on the marshes escape. But after being invited to play at the home of Miss Havisham, an eccentric spinster who's never recovered from being jilted at the altar long ago, and meeting her beautiful but haughty ward [[Stellar Name|Estella]] there, Pip's mindset changes and he begins to resent his simplistic upbringing and the middling blacksmith career and life that seem inevitable for him.
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Then, out of nowhere, [[Mysterious Benefactor|Mr. Jaggers]] shows up at Pip's doorstep and tells his stunned family that he has "[[Title Drop|great expectations]]" bestowed upon him by a mysterious benefactor. Pip will spend the next couple of years training to become a proper gentleman. His benefactor's identity is a secret, but Pip is convinced that it is Miss Havisham. He meets the upper-class members of London society including friendly Herbert and loathsome Drummel, forgets about his old life, and courts Estella with limited success. But it is not until Pip finally discovers who his benefactor is that the plot really begins to thicken and Pip is forced to mature by confronting a variety of surprises, disappointments, and unexpected revelations.
''Great Expectations'' has been subject to many a film adaptation. The two most likely to have been viewed in a high school English class are the 1946 [[David Lean]] one (generally regarded as the best) and the 1998 modern-day adaptation. There has also been a [[Something Completely Different|Completely Different]] ''[[South Park]]'' parody. A 2012 adaptation will{{when}} feature ''[[Harry Potter]]'' veterans [[Helena Bonham Carter]], [[Ralph Fiennes]], [[Jessie Cave]], and Robbie Coltrane, as well as Jason Flemyng, David Walliams from ''[[Little Britain]]'', and Ralph Ineson from ''[[The Office]]''.
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* [[Aluminum Christmas Trees]]: Wemmick's house in London, made out like a medieval castle, may seem like a bit of Dickens' whimsy, but in fact this was a common trend for Victorian businessmen and the only unusual element is that Wemmick has done the work himself.
* [[Ambition Is Evil]]: Pip's infatuation with Estella. Because of her, he wants to be richer and have a better social status, [[What the Hell, Hero?|causing him to become ashamed of his perfectly respectable origins]], become ungrateful to [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold|his hard-working older sister who raised him]] (even if she was a bit of a bitch), and try to "improve" [[Good Is Dumb|Joe]], [[Nice Guy|the nicest character in the book]], so that he can meet Estella's standards.
* [[Anguished Declaration of Love]]: Pip to Estella. It has no effect on Estella, but does bring on Miss Havisham's one of the most literal and redundant cases ever of [[My God, What Have I Done?]] ("and again, ten, twenty, fifty times, what had she done?").
* [[Because You Were Nice to Me]]: {{spoiler|Magwitch spends years trying to enrich Pip because Pip delivered food to him when he was on the run and starving.}}
* [[Big Bad]]: The deceptive and equally cruel Compeyson. He ruins {{spoiler|Miss Havisham}} by pretending to love her, winning a lot of money from her (which was his [[Evil Plan|goal]] the entire time) and then abandoning her before their supposed marriage, and he is also a dangerous criminal, but meets his ultimate doom when {{spoiler|Magwitch}} drowns him.
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{{reflist}}
{{The Big Read}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]▼
[[Category:Literature of the 19th century]]
[[Category:School Study Media]]
▲[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:The Great American Read]]
[[Category:Serial Novel]]
[[Category:British Literature]]
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