Great Expectations Study Guide

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Great Expectations Study Guide
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Chapter 1 (1-6)

1. What narrative point of view has Dickens chosen
   for this novel?
2. What social class is the criminal, and how can
   you tell?

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Chapter 2 (6-15)

1. Contrast Pips description of Mrs. Joe with his
   description of Joe.

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Chapter 3 (15-20)

1. How does the setting mirror Pips state of mind?

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Chapter 4 (21-30)

1. How does Chapter 4 begin and end?
2. What observation does Pip make about Joes dress
   and appearance?
3. What are the sources of humor in this chapter?

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Chapter 5 (30-41)

1. How is the capture of the two convicts ironic?
2. What facts do we learn about the convicts in this
   chapter?
3. Why does the convict go out of his way to clear
   Pip of any blame for the missing food?

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Chapter 6 (42-44)

1. Why does Pip love Joe? What reason does he give
   for keeping the truth of his crimes from Joe?

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Chapter 7 (44-55)

1. How are Biddy and Pip alike?
2. Compare Joes dialect with the convicts (which
   was shown in Chapter 1).

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Chapter 8 (55-68)

1. How is the name Satis House ironic?
2. Describe Miss Havishman in detail and her
   interaction/feelings towards Pip.
3. How has Pips character developed after
   interacting with Estella?

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Chapter 9 (68-75)

• 1. How does Dickens reinforce Pip and Joes
  closeness?
• Use the following passage from the book to answer
  the next two questions.
• That was a memorable day to me, for it made
  great changes in me. But, it is the same way
  with any life. Imagine one selected day struck
  out of it, and think how different its course
  would have been. Pause, you who read this, and
  think for a moment of the long chain of iron or
  gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have
  bound you, but for the formation of the first
  link on one memorable day (55).
• 2. What links in Pips chain are begun the
  day he visits Satis House?
• 3. Why do you think Dickens allows the narrator
  to pause in the narrative and address the reader
  directly?

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Chapter 10 (76-83)

1. What steps does Pip take to improve himself?
2. What two things does the stranger do to suggest a
   connection with the convict from the beginning of
   the book?
3. What two major plotlines begin to converge at the
   end of this chapter?

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Chapter 11 (83-98)

1. Describe the Pockets.
2. What is the significance of Pips saying of the
   man he meets on the stairway, He was nothing to
   me, and I could have had no foresight then, that
   he ever would be anything to me?
3. What suspicions about Miss Havisham are confirmed
   for the reader in this chapter?

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Chapter 11 (continued)

• Pip fights a young man. How does the young man
  inspire Pip with great respect?
• In the following passage, what is the
  significance of the light from Joes forge?
• when I neared home the light on the spit of
  sand off the point on the marshes was gleaming
  against a black night-sky, and Joes furnace was
  flinging a path of fire across the road (72).