[Music] in the introduction of great expectations seven-year-old pip the protagonist looks over the graves of his parents in a cemetery on the marshes where he meets an escaped convict who terrified pip and orders the boy to bring him food in a file pip lives with his older sister mrs. Joe and her husband Joe a blacksmith pip aids the convict and the following day Pip and Joe tag along with soldiers searching for two missing convicts Magwitch and calm person who were really a wealthy reclusive woman named Miss Havisham sends for pip to visit her Miss Havisham is decrepit looking wearing a faded wedding dress pip plays cards with Estella Havisham adopted daughter who insults him during a rising action pip then begins to visit Miss Havisham on a regular basis pip becomes infatuated with Estella but sees himself as far inferior pimp becomes Joe's apprentice but is ashamed of his work one day Miss Havisham tells pip that his services are no longer required pip develops a desire to become a gentleman attacked by an unidentified assailant mrs. Joe loses her ability to speak a young woman named Biddy comes to nurse mrs. Joe after several years of visiting lawyer named mr. Jagger's tells Joe and pip that an anonymous benefactor wants to pay for pip to be educated as a gentleman pip assumes it's Miss Havisham pip heads to London and stays with a young man named Herbert pockets who explains how Miss Havisham was jilted by her lover on her wedding day and has since remained a recluse pip is tutored by Matthew pocket Herbert's father pip becomes friends with Jagger's as Clerk Wemmick pip acts and lives like a gentleman uncomfortable about the crude manner Joe visiting him pip again visits Miss Havisham and sees Estella who is now a beautiful lady mrs. Joe dies and pip briefly returns to attend the funeral at Joe's house on pips twenty-first birthday mr. Jagger's tells pip he will now receive the funds his anonymous benefactor promised two years later Magwitch tells a shocked pip that he is pips benefactor feeling he owes Magwitch a great deal but also ashamed of him pip plans to leave the country with him visiting Miss Havisham and Estella pip realizes that Estella plans to marry the brutish Bentley drummel which breaks his heart Estella marries drummel and pip learns Magwitch is her father pip visits Miss Havisham who begs pip to forgive her after his plead Miss Havisham stress catches fire and pip puts out the flames in the climax of the novel Pip and Magwitch attempt to flee the country in a boat but fail when they're intercepted by a boat containing authorities and calm person Magwitch is severely injured because Magwitch has no official heirs his fortune does not go to pip but instead goes to the government during the falling action pip tells Magwitch that his daughter is alive and that pimp loves her grateful to hear this news Magwitch dies pip falls ill and his nursed back to health by jo pip visits Joe at his home and realizes that it's on Joe and biddies wedding day pip renews his friendship with Joe in the resolution Pip and Estella show signs of getting together but in Dickens his original ending Pip and Estella reconcile but then parts there are essentially five main characters in Great Expectations the first is PIP Philip Europe or PIP is the protagonist of Great Expectations as a boy he seems unsure of his own self-worth and place in the world his parents are dead and he's been raised by his bad-tempered sister mrs. Joe and her husband a blacksmith named Joe mrs. Joe often beats pip and tells him she wishes he was never born as a result pip has a sense of inferiority fortunately Joe befriends Pip and tries to protect him as much as possible because of this Pitt forms a strong bond with the simple kind Joe and looked forward to being his apprentice however Miss Havisham and her adopted daughter Estella trigger pip sense of inferiority under her influence pip comes to view being a blacksmith's apprentice as common to attain validation as a person pip believes he must rise to the upper class transforming himself to win over Estella an opportunity granted to him by a mysterious benefactor then there's a Stella Estella is the adopted daughter of the recluse Miss Havisham she is groomed by Miss Havisham to become an instrument of the jilted recluses vengeance under Miss Havisham's influence Estella suppresses her natural desire for love and to express it as a result her own heart has grown cold she marries an abusive brute Bentley drummel Miss Havisham is another key character Miss Havisham comes from a wealthy family the gained a fortune through a brewery as a young woman Miss Havisham developed into a proud headstrong person she became engaged to a man even though relatives warned her against it when the man jilted Miss Havisham on her wedding day he's deeply wounded her Miss Havisham became a recluse for whom time stopped on her wedding day she lives in a state of frozen time in her home satis house wearing her wedding dress and withering away Abel Magwitch is another important character an escaped convict who tells young pip to get food in a file for him Magwitch at first appears to be a terrifying hardened criminal who hates another convict and calm person an early indication that more lies beneath Magwitch comes when he takes responsibility for stealing food even though pip actually stole it for him later pip learns about magwitch's hard life growing up in poverty without parents and then his life is a transported convict in Australia magwitch's pips secret benefactor who bankrolls pips training to become a gentleman then there's Joe Gargery Joe Gargery is a blacksmith who befriends his wife's younger brother pip Joe is a simple kind man who accepts his life and wants nothing more Joe values hard work honesty and friendship he has respect and integrity Joe act awkwardly toward pip after he becomes a gentleman he eventually marries Biddy pips former friend and tutor and rekindles his friendship with him emotionally evocative symbols chief among them tears the saddest house and money itself occur repeatedly throughout Great Expectations Charles Dickens uses tears to represent passionate emotions like gratefulness love and shame in great expectations tears have a benevolent clarifying effect when pip cries he feels better after word after pip cries tears of shame from Estella's insults he is able to continue in his daily life when pip cries tears of remorse about his treatment of Joe he can more fully sense how wrongly he treated his friend the only tears that do not have a positive effect are the crocodile tears shed by mrs. Camilla because they represent false emotions another important symbol is the saddest house the saddest house represents a lack of growth or death Miss Havisham is hateful and bitter attitude creates a structure in which time seems to stand still literally as all the clocks have stopped at the time her wedding was to have taken place nothing significant changes in satis house the furniture remains in the same position without being dusted for years the wedding cake remains on the table covered in cobwebs Miss Havisham has created her own mausoleum that will house her corpse saddest is Latin for enough the title could be ironic Estella suggests the term saddest implies that a person who owns this house has enough of everything however Miss Havisham doesn't have enough love in fact she does not have enough of anything except money and bitterness money is another key symbol in great expectations money represents the value that society places on someone many characters value themselves and their own personal worth as human beings around their economic money possessing value Charles Dickens uses money in the novel to represent power or control over people for example Miss Havisham uses money like a puppet master to make Estella do exactly what the recluse wants her to do in London also Magwitch chooses money to control pip and make into what Magwitch wants namely a gentleman but Miss Havisham and magwitch's use of money to control people backfires Estella becomes cold toward Miss Havisham pip becomes miserable as a gentleman but doesn't tell this to Magwitch instead wishing he'd never come and he'd never become a gentleman in the first place Great Expectations is underscored by some important duality driven themes social class and ambition guilt and redemption and uncertainty and deceit [Music] from the lower classes to the upper classes great expectations can be seen as an exploration of social class and ambition in Victorian England members of the lower class and middle classes often had the ambition to rise up to a higher class in contrast members of the upper class wanted to maintain their superiority and use it to control other people for their own ends Magwitch the main representative of the lower classes was born into poverty and because of these circumstances fell into a life of crime Dickens shows that some lower-class people become caught in a trap of poverty that makes it difficult for them to improve their lives Magwitch realizes he will never become a gentleman but he has ambitions and make pip a gentleman and thereby attain upper-class status because of the influence of the upper-class Miss Havisham pip comes to view being a blacksmith as inferior work and he has the ambition to become a gentleman hoping to receive the approval of Miss Havisham and her daughter Estella and thereby validate himself as a human being his ambition is to win Estella's approval but for Miss Havisham her ambition is to have a Stella break the hearts of men guilt and redemption is a theme that drives pip whether helping a convict wanting to rise in social station or becoming a gentleman pip is plagued by guilt throughout the novel - pip feels guilt in how his snobbish rise in status makes him look down on Joe but by the novel's end he mends his friendship and is redeemed pip thinks he can attain Redemption only when his dream of marrying Estella and gaining Miss Havisham's approval happens but this vision crumbles eventually pip realizes he can gain self-worth not by becoming a gentleman but rather by working for it as a result he works for many years as Herbert's business partner redeeming himself for most of the novel Miss Havisham shows no guilt but she realizes that she has trained Estella to only break the hearts of men but break her own heart because of this she asks for pips forgiveness consumed by feelings of guilt Miss Havisham is unable to grasp redemption through accepting pips forgiveness Dickens starts the novel with uncertainty and deceit pip is uncertain about what his parents look like then uncertain about the convex this uncertainty leads to his deceitful act of stealing food in a file pips uncertainty about his benefactor is in part caused by Miss Havisham's deceit about being pips benefactor pip becomes involved in the deceitful act of trying to sneak Magwitch out of the country while feeling uncertain whether composit is following him but Dickens shows how removing deceit can also eliminate uncertainty for example pip feels uncertain about the identity of Molly mr. Jagger's is housekeeper but pip becomes sure of her identity as he learns about mr. jaggers's deceitful act of secretly giving Estella to Miss Havisham to raise as her adopted daughter Estella it turns out is the daughter of Molly and Magwitch you