Great Expectations: Understanding the Text (Cambridge (CIE) IGCSE English Literature)

Understanding the Text

All questions in the IGCSE encourage an informed personal response, which means that it is not enough just to know the text you are being examined on really well; you also need to develop a sound understanding of the themes, main ideas, settings, situations and events in the novel you have studied, as well as an understanding of the significance of a particular moment or chapter in relation to the whole text. You also need to demonstrate an awareness of the text as a narrative piece. All of this will help you to develop a sustained, critical understanding of the text through which you are able to demonstrate individuality and insight.

 Each of the sub-topics below will help you to develop a better understanding of the text:

• Background information

• Narrative context

• Key moments in context

Background information

A knowledge of the historical and social context of the novel can help you to develop an informed personal response. However, it is very important that you do not include lots of historical information about Charles Dickens and/or the time in which the novel was written in your answer. Your response to the text should be firstly based on the focus of the question and the key theme(s) the question prompts you to explore.

• Charles Dickens was born on 7th February 1812 in Portsmouth, England

• He wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles:

  • He began his career as a journalist and edited a weekly journal for 20 years

• Dickens wrote Great Expectations in 1861, though the beginning of the novel is set during the Regency Period of 1811-1820:

  • During the Regency Period, aristocracy was not solely determined by noble lineage:

    • Instead, being accepted by the ruling class often hinged on demonstrating that wealth had been acquired in a gentlemanly manner

    • For example, Miss Havisham’s wealth has been earned rather than inherited and this affords her a powerful status

• Unlike the previously dominant hereditary aristocracy (which dictated one's social class solely based on their family lineage) the Victorian era saw a new shift towards social mobility:

• Dickens depicts this new world in the novel as it follows Pip's advancement through the class system, something that would not have been feasible in the traditional system of class hierarchy

• The divisions between social classes is a recurring theme in the novel:

• Although Victorian society is often viewed as a rigidly stratified one with firmly established class distinctions, Dickens reveals a contrasting narrative

• Some of the characters in Great Expectations undergo significant social shifts, moving from affluence to poverty or vice versa

• Dickens demonstrates his support for social mobility among those, like Pip, and he depicts a society that is constantly evolving, where wealth can be acquired and lost in an instant

• Dickens was interested in the numerous ways that people exhibited and asserted their social class identities and goals, including subtle differences in dress, speech, and conduct:

• Victorians were eager to ensure that they were adhering to the conventions of behaviour and etiquette and this was evidenced by the proliferation of guides about proper behaviour and conduct

• The concept of a gentleman or lady in the 19th century referred to individuals who displayed integrity and conducted themselves with grace in their respective societal roles

• However, it was evident that social status and morality were not always linked

• Respectability was a key aspect of Victorian society and there were strict social codes regarding behaviour and moral and social conventions were highly valued:

• Victorian social standards of the time expected gentlemen and bachelors to act in a dignified and respectable manner and gentlemen were expected to adhere to the highest standards of behaviour 

  • Despite his villainous nature, Compeyson appears like a gentleman due to his clothing and education, while Magwitch's ragged appearance hinders his chances of receiving fair treatment under the law

• In Great Expectations, Dickens depicts characters who are on the fringes of social classes:

• He depicts characters who struggle to maintain their appearance of respectability or those who unexpectedly experience social mobility within the volatile Victorian economy

Narrative context

The literary context of a text can be thought of in terms of genre, as well as any ways that a text either conforms to or subverts the conventions of that genre. Great Expectations conforms to the Bilungsroman genre. This will be explored further below.

The Bildungsroman genre in the 19th century

• During the Victorian era, the genre of Bildungsroman emerged as one of the most popular literary types of fiction among Victorian realists and Great Expectations is written in this form:

  • The Bildungsroman genre originated in Germany and directly translates to a “novel of education”

• It generally portrayed the protagonist’s psychological and moral growth from their youth into adulthood

• The conventional structure of a Bildungsroman involved the following:

  • Loss: The protagonist experiences a profound emotional loss at the beginning of the narrative, typically during their childhood or adolescent years

  • Journey: Motivated by their personal tragedy, the protagonist embarks on a journey, either physical or metaphorical, to gain a better understanding of the world

  • Conflict and personal growth: The protagonist’s journey entails mistakes and often clashes with societal norms, though as the narrative progresses, the protagonist gradually embraces the values of society

  • Maturity: By the conclusion of the novel, the protagonist undergoes significant personal development, exhibiting a positive transformation which denotes maturity

• The novel is narrated in the first person by Pip, which presents a personal and subjective account of the narrative

• Pip’s narration is retrospective and this enables his character to explore the consequences of his actions over the course of the novel:

  • It also adds an element of hindsight and self-awareness and Pip’s adult reflections provide a more mature understanding of the events which young Pip experiences

• Dickens was known for incorporating the theme of self-improvement in his writing and it was viewed as a practical instrument of social mobility popularly associated with lower- and middle-class Victorian culture

• Further, conventional assumptions of the time said that increased leisure time and economic resources enabled self-cultivation. However, Dickens portrays these conditions as actually hindering it:

• For example, due to a lack of meaningful work, Pip finds himself in debt and becomes idle and overindulgent

• The Gothic genre also rose to prominence in the late-18th and early-19th centuries and was widespread in Victorian literature:

  • The Gothic genre had become very influential and therefore many works of popular Victorian novels had elements of it

  • In many ways, Magwitch could be viewed as an archetypal Gothic character:

    • He is presented initially as a monster and grotesque

Key moments in context

It is not enough just to analyse a passage or chapter in isolation; you must also consider why that particular passage or chapter is important to the text as a whole. What key themes or ideas does it represent? Does it foreshadow upcoming events? Does it reveal more about a character’s motivations, thoughts or feelings, given what has happened and/or what is to come? The following section includes some key moments from the novel and how they are relevant to the rest of the text, but this list is not exhaustive, and you are encouraged to consider other moments and how these also relate to the novel as a whole.

Key moment

Chapter 1
‘“Hold your noise!” cried a terrible voice, as a man started up from among the graves at the side of the church porch. “Keep still, you little devil, or I’ll cut your throat!”’

Summary of key moment:

• In this chapter, young Pip encounters the convict Magwitch on the marshes for the first time

• Magwitch coerces Pip to fetch him a file and some food

Why this is important in relation to the novel as a whole:

• The character of Magwitch creates an atmosphere of tension and fear at the beginning of the novel:

  • Magwitch is a criminal and an escaped convict and in this chapter he is portrayed as threatening, aggressive and violent

• Pip experiences intense fear and dread when first confronted by Magwitch:

  • Having been coerced by Magwitch to commit a theft at the forge, Pip is overcome with a sense of guilt for having committed a crime

  • This causes Pip to experience an intense internal moral conflict as he is torn between keeping his promise to Magwitch and betraying his beloved Joe

  • Pip’s act of kindness, albeit through fear, sets in motion a chain of events that will shape Pip’s character and life

• Magwitch’s return later in the novel as Pip’s benefactor is a direct consequence of this initial encounter:

  • This meeting on the marshes becomes the catalyst for Pip’s social ascent and “great expectations”

Key moment

Chapter 8
“I took the opportunity of being alone in the courtyard to look at my coarse hands and my common boots. My opinion of those accessories was not favourable. They had never troubled me before, but they troubled me now, as vulgar appendages. I determined to ask Joe why he had ever taught me to call those picture-cards Jacks, which ought to be called knaves. I wished Joe had been rather more genteelly brought up, and then I should have been so too.”

Summary of key moment:

• In this chapter, Pip visits the decaying Satis House and encounters Estella and Miss Havisham for the first time

Why this is important in relation to the novel as a whole:

• Pip’s first visit to Satis House is a significant event in his moral and spiritual development, as it becomes the root of Pip’s dissatisfaction with his life:

  • As a result, Pip almost instantly begins to abandon his moral compass while also losing respect for his loving and innocent foster father, Joe

  • This visit radically alters his perception of social class, love and personal worth and leads Pip to question his own place in society

• In Pip's first meeting with Estella, his innocence is shattered:

  • By agreeing with Estella's assessment of him, his conduct is one of passive acceptance

  • He not only denounces himself but also the environment that has moulded him into who he is

• The juxtaposition between the opulence of Satis House and Pip’s humble origins plant the seed of aspiration and desire for social advancement

Key moment

Chapter 39
“Yes, Pip, dear boy, I’ve made a gentleman on you! It’s me wot has done it! I swore that time, sure as ever I earned a guinea, that guinea should go to you. I swore arterwards, sure as ever I spec’lated and got rich, you should get rich. I lived rough, that you should live smooth; I worked hard, that you should be above work.”

Summary of key moment:

• In this chapter, the revelation of the true identity of Pip’s mysterious benefactor marks a turning point for Pip

Why this is important in relation to the novel as a whole:

• Up until this chapter, Pip had mistakenly assumed that Miss Havisham was his secret benefactor:

  • This revelation shatters Pip’s illusions and his “great expectations”, for in his eyes, it has now become tainted by its association with Magwitch

• Pip is only able to regain the moral values he held as a child once he realises that his elevated rank as a gentleman is based on the riches of a former convict

• It propels Pip into a journey of self-discovery and redemption:

  • He begins to understand that greatness is not derived solely from social status or material wealth but is intertwined with personal integrity and moral principles

  • It also transforms his understanding of what it is to be a “gentleman”