What's The Story

The novel Great Expectations  written by Charles Dickens was written and based off the Victorian time period. This  statement defines the  Victorian era in a way that resembles the novel, "It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence for Britain." 

The young Pip is an orphan whose expectations come from society. He is called upon to make peace with the unfortunate life he was given; he's called upon to learn the ways of the world and prosper in life whether it's monetary or through relationships; he's called upon to accept reality and refine his emotions and attributes based on how society views acceptable; he's called upon to perceive and showcase himself as confident young man whether he believes it or not because society has that expectation of him.

Through the characters of the novel, we see examples of round characters, flat characters and foil characters. Some characters that contrast each other are Magwitch and Pip, Jaggers and Joe. These are great examples of foil characters in the way that each have a strong personality that demonstrates different sides of a similar issue. Pips personality varies throughout the story depending on who he is around and what influence they have on him. One character that changes throughout the story was Magwitch in the way he went from cold and cruel to loving and caring from the time he spends with Pip.