# Great Expectations — Concepts

> Key concepts in Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.

- [False gentility](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/great_expectations_se/concepts/false-gentility.md): 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](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/great_expectations_se/concepts/instrumental-love.md): 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](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/great_expectations_se/concepts/guilt-and-gratitude.md): 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](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/great_expectations_se/concepts/appearance-vs-design.md): Jaggers, Wemmick, Compeyson, and Magwitch all show how legal and social surfaces hide the machinery that actually moves Pip’s life.

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