Great Expectations: Character Quotations (Edexcel GCSE English Literature)

Key word or phrase to memorise:  “so new” and “so melancholy”

What the quotation means: Pip expresses his discomfort to Miss Havisham, explaining that he cannot play for her because the place is so unfamiliar, so odd, so beautiful, and also sad

Theme: Social class

• Dickens builds sympathy for the small, scared Pip as he meets Miss Havisham:

  • His discomfort is conveyed through the use of a list

  • Repetition of “so” stresses his extreme reaction to her grand house

• Dickens presents differences in social class through contrasting settings:

  • Pip finds Miss Havisham’s mansion unfamiliar in its grandness, implied with “fine” and linked with “strange”

  • However, Pip also implies he is not used to the dark “melancholy” mood

  • Pip’s home, in contrast, is small, loud and warm

Key word or phrase to memorise: “put me right”

What the quotation means: Pip expresses his longing for Biddy to make him love her and forget his desire to be a gentleman

Theme: Ambition and self-improvement

• Dickens contrasts the relationships between Pip and Biddy and Pip and Estella:

  • Biddy, as Estella’s foil, is a good role model and companion for Pip

  • Pip acknowledges in “put me right” that he may be on the wrong course 

  • This foreshadows his development

• Nevertheless, the vague “wish” suggests Pip is more focused on his future:

  • This portrays his determined ambition to be a gentleman

Key word or phrase to memorise: “I did for a while forget” and “but I shall never forget these”

What the quotation means: Pip tells Joe that when he was focused on becoming a gentleman, he forgot the positive elements of a simple life with Joe, but now he has changed he will never forget his roots and the good times they have shared 

Theme: Guilt and shame 

• Dickens’ bildungsroman presents Pip’s shame as he realises his earlier mistakes:

  • The repetition of “forget” refers to Pip’s misguided snobbery

  • The conjunction “but” signals the contrast of “a while” to “never”

• Pip’s admission to Joe shows him as self-aware and regretful about his actions:

  • His return to Joe marks his enlightenment as Dickens returns Pip to Joe and his childhood home

Key word or phrase to memorise: “easily satisfied”

What the quotation means: Estella tells Pip that Miss Havisham’s mansion is called “Satis House” (which means "house of the satisfied"), but that she believes that the people who named it must have had low standards if they found this house to be satisfying 

Theme: Social class

• Dickens introduces Estella as cold and snobbish to present ideas about social class: 

  • Her snobbish words portray her as spoilt and arrogant

• Dickens plays on the word “satisfied” as a symbol for the characters’ dissatisfaction:

  • Dickens presents class divides as damaging for all parties 

  • While Miss Havisham and Estella are wealthy, they are also miserable

  • Pip’s desire for wealth and status  does not bring him satisfaction

Key word or phrase to memorise: “tenderness” and “never had any such thing”

What the quotation means: When they are reunited, Estella tells Pip that his feelings for her are futile as she has never given her kindness to anyone, and does not even know what it is 

Theme: Ambition and self-improvement

• Dickens uses Estella to present the danger of Miss Havisham’s need for vengeance:

  • Estella stresses to Pip that she has always repressed any compassion, emphasising this with “never” 

  • She stresses how unfamiliar the feeling is to her with “any such thing” 

  • She is presented as a victim despite her cold and callous characterisation 

• Dickens portrays the damage of Miss Havisham’s malice on Estella:

  • Estella, unlike Pip, perhaps cannot change

Key word or phrase to memorise:  “my only determined resistance” 

What the quotation means: Estella tells Pip that she owns “Satis House” and that it is all she has left, suggesting that not only is it her only possession, but also the only thing that proves she has fought for something in all her pitiful years

Theme: Guilt and shame

• Dickens illustrates Estella’s guilt about her lack of defiance against Miss Havisham:

  • Estella links “wretched” with “only determined resistance” to imply that she has been too passive and weak

• Dickens presents Estella as humbled, and thus, developed as a character: 

  • Her development is implied by her ironic words that the house is the only thing that brings her satisfaction

  • This contradicts earlier attitudes

  • The cyclical nature of this alludes to Estella’s continued isolation

Key word or phrase to memorise:  “sick fancy” 

What the quotation means: Miss Havisham gives a strange command for Pip to play in front of her and explains that it is because she has a kind of illness that makes her a little delusional or erratic

Theme: Integrity and reputation

• Dickens introduces Miss Havisham as fanciful and unstable:

  • She says that she is “sick” and bored

  • Though she is cruel, she is honest and straightforward 

• Dickens’ ambiguous and mysterious Miss Havisham is a villain and a victim:

  • Her reputed wealth isolates her

  • She tells Pip that she is “done” with adults to explain her desire for play

  • Yet she remains determined to avenge her betrayal by hurting Pip

Key word or phrase to memorise: “a lady” and “far out of reach”

What the quotation means: Miss Havisham expresses her pleasure that her plot to break Pip’s heart by making him fall in love with Estella is working, and asks Pip if he feels he has “lost” Estella now that she is a “lady” and, thus, out of his grasp

Theme: Social class

• The pressure Pip feels to improve his status and wealth is a key idea in the novel:

  • Here, Dickens illustrates how Miss Havisham uses social inequalities to carry out her plot to hurt Pip

  • While she seeks revenge on males, she discriminates against class

  • Miss Havisham plays on the idea of Estella being “far out of reach” as she is “abroad” “educating for a lady”

Key word or phrase to memorise: “cold, cold heart” 

hat the quotation means: Miss Havisham is shocked to be the subject of Estella’s insolent disdain and exclaims that Estella is made of “stone” and is cruel and cold-hearted

Theme: Ambition and self-development

• Dickens exposes Miss Havisham’s hypocrisies when Estella turns on her:

  • Miss Havisham’s shock at Estella’s “cold, cold heart” is ironic

  • Dickens depicts how making Estella cold-hearted works against her

• Great Expectations explores ideas about the ability to reflect and change:

  • Miss Havisham is unable to show remorse when Estella confronts her

  • She refuses to accept that she raised Estella to be “hard” and “proud”

Key word or phrase to memorise: "frog" and "eel"

What the quotation means: After Magwitch has threatened Pip in the churchyard, Pip wishes him a good night. Magwitch replies sarcastically that he would rather be a “frog” or an “eel” as the night ahead will be so wet and cold he would be better off being a small water creature

Theme: Social class

• Dickens’ characterisation of Magwitch examines ideas about social injustice:

  • Magwitch is both a villain and victim

  • He is introduced as a violent criminal, as well as a desperate man

• Dickens creates sympathy for Magwitch, despite his mistreatment of Pip:

  • His humorous reply to Pip portrays him as modest and harmless 

  • Dickens suggests that his lower class status makes him vulnerable 

  • His vain “wish” to be a small animal conveys his limited autonomy

Key word or phrase to memorise: “Noble” and “never forgot it”

What the quotation means: Magwitch seeks out Pip to tell him that he is his benefactor, and begins by explaining that Pip was “noble” and principled when he helped him in the marshes and he has never forgotten his kindness 

Theme: Integrity and reputation

• The novel examines nobility assumed by wealth compared with noble behaviour:

  • Magwitch’s reputation as a criminal makes him the subject of prejudice

  • However, Dickens implies he has integrity as he repays an old debt

  • Dickens illustrates the impact of the kindness shown in “never forgot it”

• His praise of Pip is perhaps ironic as Pip is less than “noble” at this point in the novel:

  • Dickens portrays Pip as snobbish and dismissive of Magwitch here

  • Perhaps this draws attention to the nobility of Magwitch’s actions

Key word or phrase to memorise:  “not be knowed to belong to me” 

What the quotation means: When Magwitch is arrested and about to depart in a boat, he tells Pip that he is happy that he has seen Pip as a gentleman and that it is better that he leaves as his companionship would damage his reputation

Theme: Ambition and self-improvement

• Ironically, Magwitch himself does not develop as a character:

  • His perspective on wealth and status stays the same and his ambition, to see Pip as a gentleman, satisfies him

  • He cannot see that Pip’s status has not brought him happiness or character

  • Perhaps Dickens implies that his victimisation makes him accept the status quo