... by easing the boy's fears about starvation and loneliness (Kincaid 72). Just as Fagin becomes Oliver's means of escape, Magwitch, an escaped convict, becomes Pip's means of escape. However, as Fagin provides Oliver with an escape from misery, Magwitch tries to provide Pip with an escape from poverty by becoming his anonymous benefactor. Escape is an integral theme in both Oliver Twist and Great Expectations. Even ... though they both have different goals in mind, Pip and Oliver are seeking various forms of escape from conditions which make them despondent: Pip from his poverty and Olive...

• Word Count: 1452
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... learn it until almost the end of the novel, Estella is the daughter of Magwitch, the convict whom Pip aids as a child. In the end it is shown that Estella does have a heart as She and Pip end the novel hand in hand, together. Abel Magwitch, the most influential character in the story, is a fearsome criminal, who escapes from prison at the beginning of Great Expectations. He terrorizes Pip ... into doing what he wanted. Pip's kindness makes a deep impression on him in the end, and he therefore devotes himself to making a ... fortune and elevating Pip into a higher social class. Behind th...

• Word Count: 1548
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

One major theme in the novel is appearance versus "reality". Discuss several things in the novel that weren't as they seemed to be. For example, Pip's Benefactor. In Great Expectations, Pips benefactor seems to be Miss Haveshem. She seems to take him in as a lad and introduce him to Estella, the young lady that he later falls in love with and is lead to believe that ... Drummle. It is this that reveals the humane part of Miss Haveshem that is not clearly displayed throughout the novel. Pip tells the story. Does hearing it from his point of view limit the reader's true knowledge of what really...

• Word Count: 1542
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... first encounter. In their first meeting there was a definite distinction between their classes. Pip the blacksmith's boy and Estella the ward of a wealthy woman. However at this meeting they are sitting next to one and other on a bench. This signifies equality. This original ending fits with the theme that it is impossible to go back, and one must pay for what has been done. Pips ... desire to become a gentleman clouds his thoughts and he, like Estella, became a snob. However at the end of the first two books of the novel he has moments of deep recrimination. If I had cried before, I sh...

• Word Count: 2210
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

In the novel, Great Expectations, class is a central theme as it was set in the 1820s when class divisions were very strict. It was very important where you stood in social classes. You would be looked down upon if social classes had mixed. It was thought that class was just about the money and about what other people thought of each other, but all it really is perfect ... Estella. He is starting to become shallow just like all the other higher class people, trying to impress. "It is the desire of his benefactor that he is to be immediately removed from his present sphere of life and from th...

• Word Count: 2416
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

... main characters: Miss Havisham, Estella and Pip, is an ongoing theme throughout the novel Great Expectations. All of these people , at some point, have their hearts opened up to love after living their lives without showing any feelings towards the people they care for. First off, Miss Havisham's inability to ... feel, mainly towards men, dates back to when she had been betrayed by her lover. Miss Havisham's father disinherited her brother from the ... just a young child and taught her to act and believe that she was superior to all men. She was always so proud of the fact that Estella h...

• Word Count: 1955
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School