Great Expectations Key Characters Analysis

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  • Created by: dcoles
  • Created on: 01-06-17 13:31
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  • Great Expectations: Key Character Analysis
    • Pip
      • Protagonist of the novel
      • He goes from being a poor young boy in the countryside to a well-to-do young man in London who moves in high society
      • Pip is encouraged to become a gentlemen by:
        • His love for Estella
        • The money he comes into which allows him to move upwards in society
      • Pip is also the narrator who looks back at his younger self with a more mature eye.
    • Estella
      • Brought up to despise men but to use her beauty to attract them and then break their hearts. Pip is possibly the first of her victims
      • Estella's upbringing means she becomes cold and cruel
      • When they are children Estella mocks Pip for his common background, his speech, manners and appearance
      • At the end of the novel, there is a hint that she and Pip will be a couple but there's nothing certain about it
    • Miss Havisham
      • Miss Havisham is a bitter recluse who has shut herself away since being jilted on her wedding day
      • She never leaves the house and has stopped all the clocks so that she is unaware of time passing
      • As a result of her experiences, Miss Havisham hates humanity, particularly, men
      • In a tragic accident, Miss Havisham is horribly burned when her wedding dress catches fire and she dies shortly afterwards
    • Magwitch
      • In the first part of the novel, Magwitch is an escaped convict who meets the young Pip while he is on the run
        • At this point in the story Magwitch is a frightening figure often compared to a hunted animal
      • He reappears (under the name of 'Provis') many years later when Pip has grown up
        • By this time Magwitch is a much older and somewhat kinder figure
      • He is the source of Pip's good fortune

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