Great Expectations · Concepts

Concepts

Ideas that structure Great Expectations by Charles Dickens — linked to characters, chapters, and questions.

False gentility
Pip’s “great expectations” teach him to be ashamed of Joe — and then to discover that gentility without gratitude is just another form of snobbery.
Instrumental love
Miss Havisham and Estella turn affection into a weapon against men — and Pip learns too late that being chosen as a victim is not the same as being loved.
Guilt and gratitude
Pip’s secret help to Magwitch, his debt to Joe, and his late nursing of the convict are the book’s real education — not the money.
Appearance versus design
Jaggers, Wemmick, Compeyson, and Magwitch all show how legal and social surfaces hide the machinery that actually moves Pip’s life.