SparkNotes: Great Expectations: Themes, Motifs & Symbols Themes, Motifs & Symbols Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. Ambition and Self-Improvement The moral theme of Great Expectations is quite simple: affection, loyalty, and conscience are more important than social advancement, wealth, and class. Dickens establishes the theme and shows Pip learning this lesson, largely by exploring ideas of ambition and self-improvement—ideas that quickly become both the thematic center of the novel and the psychological mechanism that encourages much of Pip’s development. At heart, Pip is an idealist; whenever he can conceive of something that is better than what he already has, he immediately desires to obtain the improvement. When he sees Satis House, he longs to be a wealthy gentleman; when he thinks of his moral shortcomings, he longs to be good; when he realizes that he cannot read, he longs to learn how. Pip’s desire for self-improvement is the main source of the novel’s title: because he believes in the possibility of advancement in life, he has “great expectations” about his future.

Ambition and self-improvement take three forms in Great Expectations—moral, social, and educational; these motivate Pip’s best and his worst behavior throughout the novel. First, Pip desires moral self-improvement. He is extremely hard on himself when he acts immorally and feels powerful guilt that spurs him to act better in the future. When he leaves for London, for instance, he torments himself about having behaved so wretchedly toward Joe and Biddy. Second, Pip desires social self-improvement. In love with Estella, he longs to become a member of her social class, and, encouraged by Mrs. Joe and Pumblechook, he entertains fantasies of becoming a gentleman. The working out of this fantasy forms the basic plot of the novel; it provides Dickens the opportunity to gently satirize the class system of his era and to make a point about its capricious nature. Significantly, Pip’s life as a gentleman is no more satisfying—and certainly no more moral—than his previous life as a blacksmith’s apprentice. Third, Pip desires educational improvement. This desire is deeply connected to his social ambition and longing to marry Estella: a full education is a requirement of being a gentleman.

As long as he is an ignorant country boy, he has no hope of social advancement. Pip understands this fact as a child, when he learns to read at Mr. Wopsle’s aunt’s school, and as a young man, when he takes lessons from Matthew Pocket. Ultimately, through the examples of Joe, Biddy, and Magwitch, Pip learns that social and educational improvement are irrelevant to one’s real worth and that conscience and affection are to be valued above erudition and social standing. Social Class Throughout Great Expectations, Dickens explores the class system of Victorian England, ranging from the most wretched criminals (Magwitch) to the poor peasants of the marsh country (Joe and Biddy) to the middle class (Pumblechook) to the very rich (Miss Havisham). The theme of social class is central to the novel’s plot and to the ultimate moral theme of the book—Pip’s realization that wealth and class are less important than affection, loyalty, and inner worth. Pip achieves this realization when he is finally able to understand that, despite the esteem in which he holds Estella, one’s social status is in no way connected to one’s real character.

Drummle, for instance, is an upper-class lout, while Magwitch, a persecuted convict, has a deep inner worth. Perhaps the most important thing to remember about the novel’s treatment of social class is that the class system it portrays is based on the post-Industrial Revolution model of Victorian England. Dickens generally ignores the nobility and the hereditary aristocracy in favor of characters whose fortunes have been earned through commerce. Even Miss Havisham’s family fortune was made through the brewery that is still connected to her manor. In this way, by connecting the theme of social class to the idea of work and self-advancement, Dickens subtly reinforces the novel’s overarching theme of ambition and self-improvement. Crime, Guilt, and Innocence The theme of crime, guilt, and innocence is explored throughout the novel largely through the characters of the convicts and the criminal lawyer Jaggers. From the handcuffs Joe mends at the smithy to the gallows at the prison in London, the imagery of crime and criminal justice pervades the book, becoming an important symbol of Pip’s inner struggle to reconcile his own inner moral conscience with the institutional justice system.

In general, just as social class becomes a superficial standard of value that Pip must learn to look beyond in finding a better way to live his life, the external trappings of the criminal justice system (police, courts, jails, etc.) become a superficial standard of morality that Pip must learn to look beyond to trust his inner conscience. Magwitch, for instance, frightens Pip at first simply because he is a convict, and Pip feels guilty for helping him because he is afraid of the police. By the end of the book, however, Pip has discovered Magwitch’s inner nobility, and is able to disregard his external status as a criminal. Prompted by his conscience, he helps Magwitch to evade the law and the police. As Pip has learned to trust his conscience and to value Magwitch’s inner character, he has replaced an external standard of value with an internal one. Motifs Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes. Doubles One of the most remarkable aspects of Dickens’s work is its structural intricacy and remarkable balance.

Dickens’s plots involve complicated coincidences, extraordinarily tangled webs of human relationships, and highly dramatic developments in which setting, atmosphere, event, and character are all seamlessly fused. In Great Expectations, perhaps the most visible sign of Dickens’s commitment to intricate dramatic symmetry—apart from the knot of character relationships, of course—is the fascinating motif of doubles that runs throughout the book. From the earliest scenes of the novel to the last, nearly every element of Great Expectations is mirrored or doubled at some other point in the book. There are two convicts on the marsh (Magwitch and Compeyson), two invalids (Mrs. Joe and Miss Havisham), two young women who interest Pip (Biddy and Estella), and so on. There are two secret benefactors: Magwitch, who gives Pip his fortune, and Pip, who mirrors Magwitch’s action by secretly buying Herbert’s way into the mercantile business. Finally, there are two adults who seek to mold children after their own purposes: Magwitch, who wishes to “own” a gentleman and decides to make Pip one, and Miss Havisham, who raises Estella to break men’s hearts in revenge for her own broken heart.

Interestingly, both of these actions are motivated by Compeyson: Magwitch resents but is nonetheless covetous of Compeyson’s social status and education, which motivates his desire to make Pip a gentleman, and Miss Havisham’s heart was broken when Compeyson left her at the altar, which motivates her desire to achieve revenge through Estella. The relationship between Miss Havisham and Compeyson—a well-born woman and a common man—further mirrors the relationship between Estella and Pip. This doubling of elements has no real bearing on the novel’s main themes, but, like the connection of weather and action, it adds to the sense that everything in Pip’s world is connected. Throughout Dickens’s works, this kind of dramatic symmetry is simply part of the fabric of his novelistic universe. Comparison of Characters to Inanimate Objects Throughout Great Expectations, the narrator uses images of inanimate objects to describe the physical appearance of characters—particularly minor characters, or characters with whom the narrator is not intimate. For example, Mrs. Joe looks as if she scrubs her face with a nutmeg grater, while the inscrutable features of Mr. Wemmick are repeatedly compared to a letter-box.

This motif, which Dickens uses throughout his novels, may suggest a failure of empathy on the narrator’s part, or it may suggest that the character’s position in life is pressuring them to resemble a thing more than a human being. The latter interpretation would mean that the motif in general is part of a social critique, in that it implies that an institution such as the class system or the criminal justice system dehumanizes certain people. Symbols Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts. Satis House In Satis House, Dickens creates a magnificent Gothic setting whose various elements symbolize Pip’s romantic perception of the upper class and many other themes of the book. On her decaying body, Miss Havisham’s wedding dress becomes an ironic symbol of death and degeneration. The wedding dress and the wedding feast symbolize Miss Havisham’s past, and the stopped clocks throughout the house symbolize her determined attempt to freeze time by refusing to change anything from the way it was when she was jilted on her wedding day. The brewery next to the house symbolizes the connection between commerce and wealth: Miss Havisham’s fortune is not the product of an aristocratic birth but of a recent success in industrial capitalism.

Finally, the crumbling, dilapidated stones of the house, as well as the darkness and dust that pervade it, symbolize the general decadence of the lives of its inhabitants and of the upper class as a whole. The Mists on the Marshes The setting almost always symbolizes a theme in Great Expectations and always sets a tone that is perfectly matched to the novel’s dramatic action. The misty marshes near Pip’s childhood home in Kent, one of the most evocative of the book’s settings, are used several times to symbolize danger and uncertainty. As a child, Pip brings Magwitch a file and food in these mists; later, he is kidnapped by Orlick and nearly murdered in them. Whenever Pip goes into the mists, something dangerous is likely to happen. Significantly, Pip must go through the mists when he travels to London shortly after receiving his fortune, alerting the reader that this apparently positive development in his life may have dangerous consequences. Bentley Drummle Although he is a minor character in the novel, Bentley Drummle provides an important contrast with Pip and represents the arbitrary nature of class distinctions.

In his mind, Pip has connected the ideas of moral, social, and educational advancement so that each depends on the others. The coarse and cruel Drummle, a member of the upper class, provides Pip with proof that social advancement has no inherent connection to intelligence or moral worth. Drummle is a lout who has inherited immense wealth, while Pip’s friend and brother-in-law Joe is a good man who works hard for the little he earns. Drummle’s negative example helps Pip to see the inner worth of characters such as Magwitch and Joe, and eventually to discard his immature fantasies about wealth and class in favor of a new understanding that is both more compassionate and more realistic. SATIS HOUSE Inspiration INSPIRATION Dickens and Beyond: Bronte, Austen, and Rhys My novel is, of course, inspired by Great Expectations. But its true source is--as it was for Dickens--Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. When her novel was published in 1847, Dickens disliked it enough to parody the story, creating a version far less romantic and more attuned to the harsh realities of English Victorian society. There are many parallel characters in the two classics.

I see Miss Havisham, as I believe Dickens did, as a composite of Bronte's tormented Edward Rochester of Thornfield Hall and his wife Bertha Antoinetta Mason, the "mysterious lunatic" secretly kept under lock and key in the mansion's tower. Bronte shows us only Bertha's violent insanity, chalking it up to genetic predisposition, presenting her primarily as an obstacle to the happiness of the virtuous governess Jane Eyre and her employer. But in Wide Sargasso Sea, published in 1966, British author Jean Rhys digs deeper, placing Bertha in the context of her native Jamaica. Through Rhys's 20th-century lens, Bertha's madness becomes an understandable if not logical response to the colonialism and patriarchy that allow her no control over her own destiny. Similarly, Miss Havisham is a casualty of rigid society, but, for me, her madness is also a source of the power she wields over the people around her. Many dismiss her as weak; I see her as incredibly strong-willed and tenacious--the ultimate "drama queen." These contradictions have sparked my curiosity and fueled my imagining of her story.

According to Dickens's timeline notes, Miss Havisham would have been a contemporary of Jane Austen, and so that beloved author's life and works are influencing my narrative as well. Setting: Rochester in Kent, England With a past reaching back to Roman times, the ancient city of Rochester rests alongside the River Medway, just 30 miles east of central London and 45 miles west of the channel ports. It is home to England's second oldest cathedral and a medieval castle that represents one of the country's finest examples of Norman architecture. Charles Dickens lived in the area as a child and as an author, featuring the city and its denizens in a number of his works, including Great Expectations, The Pickwick Papers, and The Mystery of Edwin Drood, his final and incomplete novel. Restoration House, a short walk from the castle and cathedral, served as Dickens's model for Miss Havisham's Satis House. The manor name derives from a stay by Charles II on the eve of his return to the English throne in 1660. Dickens himself was spotted leaning against the iron gates on the day before he died in 1870.

Today visitors can tour the house and gardens, as well as the cathedral and castle. Family Trade: Brewing Who doesn't like beer? It is the world's oldest, most popular, and most fascinating fermented beverage. Man may have begun brewing beer even before he learned to bake bread. The craft figures prominently in English history and in the life of Miss Havisham, whose father was a wealthy brewer. His business adjoined the manor house and provides rich context for the family's story. Content copyright satis house : definition of satis house and synonyms of satis house (English) Satis House is a fictional estate in the Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations . Satis House is the home of Miss Havisham , a rich woman, heiress to her father's fortune, who was abandoned by her intended husband on her wedding day. In rage and disappointment, she "lays waste" to the buildings and grounds, even stopping the clocks at the exact time she learned of her lover's betrayal. The name Satis House comes from the Latin for enough, and is the name of a real mansion in Rochester , Kent , near where Dickens lived.

It gained its name from a comment by Queen Elizabeth I who stayed there as a guest of the owner, Richard Watts . As she left, Watts asked his queen if she had been comfortable during her stay. Offhandedly, she replied: "Satis". [1] The building itself is based on the nearby Restoration House . [2] [3] Maybe Dickens had the Indian Sati in mind too: A Hindu widow who immolates herself on the funeral pile with her husband's body (Oxford English Dictionary) The character Estella , Miss Havisham's adopted daughter, describes the name to Pip, the protagonist, this way: Pip: 'Is Manor House the name of this house, miss?' Est.: 'One of its names, boy.' Pip.: 'It has more than one, then, miss?' Est.: 'One more. Its other name was Satis; which is Greek, or Latin, or Hebrew, or all three—or all one to me—for enough.' Pip: 'Enough House,' said I; 'that's a curious name, miss.' Est.: 'Yes,' she replied; 'but it meant more than it said.

It meant, when it was given, that whoever had this house, could want nothing else. They must have been easily satisfied in those days, I should think. [...]' Satis House reflects the corruption, decay, and fate of its owner. In the novel, the building is destroyed after its owner's death, but its fate varies in the better known dramatic adaptations. In the most famous film production of Great Expectations , the 1946 version, the building remains in its corrupted state to serve as a setting for the final scene. In the mini-series version of 1989, the estate survives until the last scene but is due to be torn down. It is described by Pip (the main character) in chapter 8. He notes the iron bars in the windows of the house; also including some detail on the boarded-up window. There is also a large brewery on the side of the house connected to the house by lanes and an open wooden gate. References The symbol of Satis House in Great Expectations from LitCharts | The creators of SparkNotes Theme Wheel Satis House is a symbol of frustrated expectations.

The word "satis" comes from the Latin word for "enough," and the house must have been given its name as a blessing or as a premonition that its residents would be satisfied with the lives they led between its walls. Yet throughout the novel, Satis House houses nothing but dashed dreams and bitter disappointments. Miss Havisham turns the house into a shrine to her betrayal by Compeyson for twenty years. Likewise, Pip's most tenderly cherished expectation—that he will marry Estella—is formed and destroyed at Satis House. The disappointments Satis House contains can only be repaired at the expense of the house itself. Thus, Miss Havisham rediscovers her heart just as her wedding chambers are destroyed by fire. Thus, Pip and Estella look towards a happier relationship only after the house is razed. Satis House Quotes in Great Expectations The Great Expectations quotes below all refer to the symbol of Satis House. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one: ).

Note: all page and citation info for the quotes below refers to the Dover Publications edition of Great Expectations published in 2001. Book 1, Chapter 15 Quotes Miss Havisham and Estella and the strange house and the strange life appeared to have something to do with everything that was picturesque. Related Characters: Pip Pirrip (speaker), Estella Havisham, Miss Havisham Related Symbols: Satis House Download it! Satis House Symbol Timeline in Great Expectations The timeline below shows where the symbol Satis House appears in Great Expectations. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance. Book 3, Chapter 43 ...of shopping for more gentlemanly goods). Told at Richmond that Estella has gone back to Satis House , Pip feels disconcerted—he has always chaperoned her trip in the past. (full context) Pip travels back to the village to visit Satis House and is surprised to run into Bentley Drummle at the Blue Boar. The two have... (full context) Book 3, Chapter 44 Pip goes to Satis House and explains to Miss Havisham and Estella that he has met his patron but doesn't...

(full context) Book 3, Chapter 49 Pip asks about Estella's past. Miss Havisham tells him Mr. Jaggers brought Estella to Satis House after Miss Havisham asked him to find her an orphan girl. She does not know... (full context) Book 3, Chapter 59 Still, Pip secretly wishes to revisit the site of Satis House for Estella's sake. He has heard that she has been abused by and separated from... (full context) Cite This Page Choose citation style: Ross, Margaret. "Great Expectations Symbols: Satis House." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 16 Sep 2013. Web. 19 Jan 2017. Ross, Margaret. "Great Expectations Symbols: Satis House." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 16 Sep 2013. Web. 19 Jan 2017. Ross, Margaret. "Great Expectations Symbols: Satis House." LitCharts LLC, September 16, 2013. Retrieved January 19, 2017. Ross, Margaret.

"Great Expectations Symbols: Satis House." LitCharts LLC, September 16, 2013. Retrieved January 19, 2017. Copy to Clipboard Great Expectation, How Charles Dickens shows Miss Havisham change over the novel. - GCSE English - Marked by Teachers.com Great Expectation, How Charles Dickens shows Miss Havisham change over the novel. Extracts from this document... Introduction Isabelle Rose GCSE coursework Great Expectations Pre 1914 Prose`` How does Dickens show the change in Miss Havisham over the course of the novel? "Great Expectation" is about a young boy named Pip and follows him throughout his life. Pip meets Miss Havisham a lady with a broken heart who has an adopted daughter named Estella, Estella is a "pretty young girl" that pip falls in love with. A close analysis of the novel reveals Miss Havisham is not the person she is perceived to be. The bitter and vengeful Miss Havisham is one of the main characters in Dickens' novel Great Expectations. She is central to the novel and holds the plot together.

Dickens waits until Chapter 8 to introduce the character to the reader, like Pip we are scared and frightened when we meet her for the first time. "I should have cried out, if I could". This shows that Miss Havisham intimidates Pip; and as a result, we fear for Pip; and are also uncomfortable as readers. Also, the word 'haunting' is associated when we think of Miss Havisham. This is because of her "ghostly" appearance, her disturbed state of mind, and the way she haunts Pip. ...read more. Middle He is powerfully attractive to the mysterious ways of Satis House and Estella. He accepts her cruelty as he truly loves her, he follows her taunting and harshness and wishes to become a rich gentlemen; to please Estella and to stop her name calling and for her not see him as "coarse", "rough" boy. This is when Pip wants to higher his social class, starting the course of "Great Expectations". Miss Havisham is the feeder to the way Pip thinks and manipulates him into thinking that she is the benefactor for him becoming a gentleman living in London.

She leads him to believe this by slyly hinting that she knows more. "Mr Jaggers is your guardian I understand?" This makes pip believe that it is her that is helping him to becoming a gentleman. Although in the end we find out it is a convicted he helped when he was younger. Satis House, the reflection of Miss Havisham's state of mind "in every crevice"; decaying. She has enclosed herself within the walls of Satis House letting no outside world in. The only way you can get in is through the front gate which is guarded at all times. ...read more. Conclusion Towards the end of the novel in chapter 49 Dickens use of ominous language prepares the reader the Miss Havisham's death. "Funeral music", "the cathedral chimes" All these quotes prepare the reader for something to go wrong, like a death is going to occur. Dickens also explains when he walks pasted the "priory garden, seemed to call to me that the place was changed" this shows the future will change by a death. Miss Havisham's death made a big difference to the novel. In chapter 49 Miss Havisham dies after server burns from an accidental fire.

Her death is very painful. "She was shrieking, with a whirl of fire blazing all about her", this death in some ways seems to release her from all her hurt and pain. The fire is symbolic; pip "dragged the heap of rottenness in the midst, and all the ugly things that sheltered there". This shows it dragged all the decay and the living death away. The fire ended it all. In conclusion to this Miss Havisham has changed from an evil witch who only thinks about herself to a woman who feels guilty for all the things she has done. ...read more. The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Great Expectations section. Found what you're looking for? Start learning 29% faster today 150,000+ documents available SparkNotes: Great Expectations: Chapters 8–10 Great Expectations Chapters 8–10, page 2 page 1 of 2 Summary: Chapter 8 Over breakfast the next morning, Pumblechook sternly grills Pip on multiplication problems. At ten, he is taken to Miss Havisham’s manor, Satis House.

The gate is locked, and a small, very beautiful girl comes to open it. She is rude to Pumblechook and sends him away when she takes Pip inside. She leads him through the ornate, dark mansion to Miss Havisham’s candlelit room, where the skeletal old woman waits by her mirror, wearing a faded wedding dress, surrounded by clocks stopped at twenty minutes to nine. The girl leaves, and Miss Havisham orders Pip to play. He tells her earnestly that he is too affected by the newness and grandeur of the house to play. Miss Havisham forces him to call for the girl, whose name is Estella. Estella returns, and Miss Havisham orders her to play cards with Pip. Estella is cold and insulting, criticizing Pip’s low social class and his unrefined manners. Miss Havisham is morbidly delighted to see that Pip is nonetheless taken with the girl. Pip cries when he leaves Satis House. Summary: Chapter 9 When Pip returns home, he lies to Joe, Mrs.

Joe, and Pumblechook about his experience at Satis House, inventing a wild story in which Estella feeds him cake and four immense dogs fight over veal cutlet from a silver basket. He feels guilty for lying to Joe and tells him the truth in the smithy later that day. Joe, who is astonished to find out that Pip has lied, advises Pip to keep company with his own class for the present and tells him that he can succeed someday only if he takes an honest path. Pip resolves to remember Joe’s words, but that night, as he lies in bed, he can’t help but imagine how “common” Estella would find Joe, and he falls into a reverie about the grandeur of his hours at Satis House. Summary: Chapter 10 Pip continues to suffer through his schooling, but a new desire for education and social standing makes him agree to take extra lessons from his sensible friend Biddy. Later the same day, when Pip goes to the pub to bring Joe home, he sees a mysterious stranger stirring his drink with the same file Pip stole for the convict. The stranger gives Pip two pounds, which Pip later gives to Mrs. Joe.

He continues to worry that his aid to the convict will be discovered. Analysis: Chapters 8–10 With the introduction of Miss Havisham and Estella, the themes of social class, ambition, and advancement move to the forefront of the novel. Pip’s hopes (encouraged by Mrs. Joe’s and Pumblechook’s suggestive comments) that Miss Havisham intends to raise him into wealth and high social class are given special urgency by the passionate attraction he feels for Estella. His feelings for the “very pretty and very proud” young lady, combined with the deep impression made on him by Satis House, with its ornate grandeur, haunted atmosphere, and tragic sense of mystery, raise in Pip a new consciousness of his own low birth and common bearing. When he returns from Satis House in Chapter 9, he even lies about his experience there, unwilling to sully his thoughts of it with the contrasting plainness of his everyday world: Estella and Miss Havisham must remain “far above the level of such common doings.” Pip’s romantic sensibility, first visible in his tendency to linger around his parents’ gravestones, is powerfully attracted to the enigmatic world of Satis House.

His desire for self-improvement compels him to idealize Estella. Her condescension and spite match Pip’s feelings about himself in the world of Satis House. He accepts her cruelty—“Why, he is a common labouring-boy!”—without defending himself because he sorrowfully believes her to be right. In fact, he only cries when he is forced to leave her. The differences between their social classes manifest themselves even in small things; while playing cards in Chapter 8, Estella remarks disdainfully, “He calls the knaves, jacks, this boy!” 1 Discovering Dickens - A Community Reading Project MAPS & ILLUSTRATIONS A Note on the Maps: William Smith's 1815 Map and Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales with Part of Scotland gives a detailed account of the geography and geology of most of Great Britain. It consists of several large maps, each about 16x24 inches, mounted on canvas. These maps can be folded into smaller squares, and some of the seams -- where the map folds and the canvas shows through -- are visible on the sections of the maps reproduced here.

The whole work consists of 16 large maps (a "General Map" of England, Wales and Scotland, and 15 regional maps), together with a "Memoir" discussing the geological study they illustrate. Detail from Map 12, in a reduced size, is reproduced here. This portion of Smith's 1815 Map and Delineation of the Strata of England [etc.] shows the area with which Chapters 8-10 of Great Expectations are concerned. Miss Havisham lives in Rochester; Dickens was composing the novel at Gads Hill, near Chatham. This drawing of England indicates the portion of the country illustrated by Smith's 1815 Strata map. The cover (below) of Robert Langton's essay, Charles Dickens and Rochester (1880), illustrates (to the extent that the engravings are still legible) several pertinent views. In the upper left corner is an illustration of Gads Hill Place, where Dickens had a house. Much of Great Expectations was composed at Gads Hill, such that Dickens was close to the scene of his narrative as he was writing it. Pip's market town (Rochester) is near Gads Hill.

The illustration at the bottom of the cover, under the by-line, shows High Street in Rochester -- the location of Uncle Pumblechook's corn-chandler's shop in the novel. The illustration below, also from Langton's Charles Dickens and Rochester (1880), shows the house on which Dickens based Miss Havisham's mansion. In Great Expectations, a brewery is attached to the house instead of a vineyard, and the house is called "Satis House" (its real name is "Restoration House"). According to Smith's History of Rochester (478-9), Restoration House was built in the late 16th century, and takes its name from a visit (of May 28-29, 1660) of the restored monarch, Charles II. It is still standing in Rochester today. ALLUSIONS There are a number of remarkably snarling passages in Shakespeare's Richard III.

The first speech in the play, and the first of Richard's soliloquies, is a good introduction to Richard's habits of speech and thought: Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace Have no delight to pass away the time, Unless to spy my shadow in the sun And descant on mine own deformity. And therefore since I cannot prove a lover To entertain these fair well-spoken days, I am determin'd to prove a villain And hate the idle pleasures of these days. Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous, By drunken prophecies, libels and dreams To set my brother Clarence and the King In deadly hate the one against the other. And if King Edward be as true and just As I am subtle false and treacherous, This day should Clarence closely be mewed up About a prophecy which says that "G" Of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be. (I.i.24-40) (The Duke of Clarence is a "G" because his name is George.

Richard has been deformed since birth, and is ambitious to be King.) GLOSSARY OF HISTORICAL THINGS & CONDITIONS Beggar my neighbor: The card game that Pip plays with Estella is a simple children's game. The game is played between two players, with a full deck; the object is to accumulate all the cards. The deck is divided between the two players, and the game commences when the first player plays a card, face up. If the card is a number-card (2-10), the other player plays a card. If, however, the card played is a court-card (jack, queen, king, or ace), the other player has to play a certain number of cards (if a jack was played by the first player, the second player must play one card; if a queen was played, two cards must be played; if a king, three cards; if an ace, four cards). If the cards thus played in accordance with the appearance of a court-card are number cards (2-10), player 1 (who played the court card) takes the trick and adds it to the bottom of his/her part of the deck.

If, however, player 2 plays a court card in the process of furnishing the number of cards required, the tables turn, and player 1 has to issue the appropriate number of cards. The game goes on in this fashion until one of the players has possession of the whole deck (Collins, "...Beggar Your Neighbor"). Given the chief disparity between Pip and Estella -- one of social class -- the name and nature of this card game tends to reinforce the socio-economic significance of their encounter. Dip-candle and no snuffers: A dip candle was not moulded, like most modern candles, but rather "made by repeatedly dipping a wick in melted tallow" (OED, "dip-candle"). The Dictionary of Daily Wants (1858-9) gives the following account of SNUFFERS. -- A kind of scissors constructed to cut off the superfluous wick of the candle during combustion. Snuffers are very frequently defective, either working so stiffly as to prevent their proper application or opening and closing so loosely that no hold can be retained on the wick....

Snuffers will sometimes not act, owing to their becoming clogged with snuff; they should therefore be cleaned out every day, to secure their efficiency. (921) Mr. Wopsle's great-aunt's "low-spirited dip-candle without snuffers" (Ch. 10) would have been a very poor light indeed. Without snuffers, it would have smoked; with snuffers, there would have been the additional inconvenience of that dysfunctional article. One-pound notes: When Pip finds that the shilling he has received from the stranger in the Three Jolly Bargemen is wrapped in two one-pound notes, Joe and Mrs. Joe lay the money aside as too great a sum not to be restored to its original owner. Pip's shilling is worth 12 pence. The two pounds are worth 40 times as much as the shilling (1s = 1/20�). One-pound notes were, by the time Dickens was writing, an obsolete currency. They were originally issued from 1797-1821, and briefly reissued during a fiscal crisis in 1825-6.

Easily forged, the English government tried to phase them out in the early part of the century (Meckier 184). Sedan-chair: Uncle Pumblechook interprets Pip's (fallacious) report that he played with Miss Havisham and Estella in a coach without any horses to it (Ch. 9) as a description of a sedan-chair. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a sedan-chair was a carried conveyance, originally something like a litter. Rheumatic paroxysm: Rheumatism is "a disease of which inflammation and pain of the joints are prominent features" (OED, "rheumatism"). Many of the diseases called rheumatism in Dickens' time are now known as distinct conditions (for example, arthritis). Rheumatism was originally thought to be caused by "a defluxion of rheum" (OED), meaning moisture or liquid from mucous membranes or glands. 19th century manuals of domestic economy prescribe various remedies, from blood-letting to draughts and pills. The Dictionary of Daily Wants (1858-9) describes RHEUMATISM.

-- A very painful disease which effects the muscles and joints of the human body, chiefly the larger joints and most important muscles, as those of and around the shoulder, hip, knees, and back. Rheumatism is divided into acute and chronic; or that condition, when the disease is in vigour and freshness attended with extreme pain, and more or less of general fever, and that state, when the system, by long acquaintance with the disease, has become familiar to its attack, and it comes on from any trifling exposure to cold, and after affecting a larger or smaller surface, declines of its own accord -- all the symptoms, however, being materially lighter than in the acute state. Besides being acute and chronic, rheumatism is very often both general and local.... (842) The form of rheumatism with which Mr. Wopsle's great-aunt may be afflicted would presumably be a form of "general" and "chronic" rheumatism, as the attack is apparently regular (occurring each time the primer begins to circulate) and affects the whole body.

Her "paroxysms" are not those described by the Dictionary of Daily Wants as pertaining to "acute" rheumatism, for she exhibits no signs of "great heat, much thirst, headache, a quick bounding pulse, [etc.]." Indeed, her pulse does anything but bound. Digested read: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens | Books | The Guardian Digested read Digested read: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens What larks! John Crace digests the readers' favourite Dickens novel in a Guardian Books poll celebrating the bicentennial of the writer's birth Illustration for the Guardian by Neal Fox Share on Messenger Close It was Christmas Eve and I was alone in the nettled churchyard visiting the graves of my parents and their five infant children when a terrible man with a great iron on his leg leapt out in front of me. "Hold your noise, you little devil," he cried, "or I will slit your throat. What's yer name?" "Philip Pirrip, sir. But everyone calls me Pip." "Well, Pip. I want you to bring me some victuals and a file. And tell no one." I crept home slowly, fearful of what lay ahead.

Since my parents had died I had been brought up by my sister, Mrs Gargery, who was as fearsome as her husband, Joe, the blacksmith, was simple. Many was the time I had felt the Tickler in her hand. Yet that night I could not help myself stealing a pork pie from the kitchen and a file from the forge. "You're a good boy, Pip," said the stranger in the churchyard. Time moved slowly on Christmas Day, as I was afeared my sister would discover the pork pie was missing. Then a cannon shot rang out. "Meantersay there be a second convict escaped from the Hulks out on the marshes," said Joe in his Kentish dialect. "We must help the Constables track 'em down." We went out into the darkness and espied a badly beaten convict hobbling off into the night. Then we found the man whom I had helped.

"I want you all to know," said the convict, looking me straight in the eyes, "that it was me who stole the pork pie and the file." So relieved was I to be let off the hook that it never occurred to me to wonder how a prisoner could have swum away from the hulk while wearing a leg iron. Luckily it didn't seem to have occurred to anyone else either, and when, a few years later, I was paid to play at Satis House it was all soon forgotten. Miss Havisham was a fearful sight, a woman who had not seen the light of day for many years, and I was terrible in awe of her when she commanded me to play with her adopted daughter, Estella. "You are a very common boy," Estella said, "and I shall tease you and break your heart." Oh Estella! What beauty! I was smitten from the moment I saw her and swore to myself she was the girl for me, even though I was only 10 years old. I learnt to despise the commonness of my own home, and though I loved Joe dearly and admired his loyalty, I couldn't help wishing he was a bit less stupid.

And that Biddy, the young girl who had come to live with us, was a little bit prettier and posher. "Darling Biddy," I told her. "If only you weren't quite so hideous and from the lower orders, then I might reconcile myself to marrying you one day. Then all would be well. But sadly, you aren't." "That's nice," said Biddy. The conversation might have turned awkward had not a stranger arrived some years later to announce that I had Great Expectations. "Young Pip has been chosen to be brought up as a gentleman in London," said the stranger, a lawyer named Jaggers. "Here is £25 on account. The only condition is that the benefactor's name must never be revealed." "Yer goin' ter be a gennelmun in Lunnun,' cried Joe. "Indeed I am," I exclaimed. "Perhaps now I can marry Estella one day. I must say goodbye to Miss Havisham, for I am certain she must be my guardian angel." "So you're off, Pip," said Miss Havisham.

"Just don't open the curtains." London, city of opportunity yet city of destitution, where wealth and poverty walked side by side etc. My first lodgings were in Little Britain, a crowded, fetid area of Cheapside close to Newgate where both felons and the unlucky poor swung from the gallows. My housemate was an amiable soul named Herbert Pocket. "What's you name?" he asked me. "Pip." "Then for no very good reason, I shall call you Handel." "I am in love with Estella," I said. "Then let me fill you in on the backstory, Handel. Miss Havisham was abandoned at the altar by the man she loved and from that day has never ventured from Satis House, and has brought Estella up to take revenge on men by hardening her heart against them." "Indeed, Herbert," I replied. "That is such an important piece of backstory it bears repeating in case any reader should have missed it." We spent many happy times together and I was educated in the ways of the gentleman by his father.

Then one day I heard from Jaggers that my sister had been beaten senseless by an unknown assailant, so I went home to pay my respects to Joe and Biddy. "'Tis a terrible thing," said Joe, though in truth it made little difference to me or anyone else, as she had been such a one-dimensional character. I did, though, have my suspicions that the perpetrator of this vile assault was Dolge Orlick, Joe's journeyman apprentice. "I can't prove you did it, Orlick," I said, "but as you will beat me unconscious for no great reason later in the book, I think we all know you did." Back in London, I had word that Estella was betrothed to Bentley Drummle, a loathsome ne-er-do-well from my lunching club. "He is not worthy of you," I pleaded with her. "What about me?" "It is true that you are more of a gentleman these days," Estella replied, "and had I known that, I wouldn't have been quite so beastly all those years ago.

But, you see, my heart has been hardened by Miss Havisham, so I cannot love anyone." Had not Jaggers summoned me to see him on the day of my majority some years later, I might have wondered at the psychological implausibility of an old woman training a child to be a psychopath, but luckily I was so caught up by the possibility of my benefactor's name being revealed that the thought quite slipped my mind. "If you thought your benefactor's name was to be revealed, then you are greatly mistaken," said Jaggers. "Though I can tell you you are to receive £500 per year. Truly these are Great Expectations." Indeed they were, though for the time being the money would barely settle the debts I had accrued, nor allow me to secretly provide Great Expectations for Herbert who was fundamentally as useless as I. And so time passed amid the dirt and grime of Little Britain, until one night I returned to my lodgings to find that fearful man from the Kentish marshes at my door. "My name is Abel Magwitch and I'm your benefactor." How my head reeled.

All these years I had dreamed of the nobility of Miss Havisham, and my destiny was in the hands of a convict. "Yes," he continued. "After I was transported to the colonies I vowed to make a fortune and use the money to make a gentleman out of the boy who had helped in the churchyard. And so that I have done. It is my revenge on the oppressive, imperialist class structure of Victorian Britain." "Indeed it might be, sir," I replied. "But this puts me in a very awkward situation, because, being now a gentleman, I cannot accept your money. Yet you seem a decent cove, so I am minded to help you. But first, pray, tell me if there are any other coincidences I should know about." "That there are. You see, I was led astray by an upper-class villain named Compeyson and he was the other convict out on the marshes that night whom I tried to batter with my irons." "Don't tell me that this Compeyson is the man who left Miss Havisham at the altar, that he is now searching for you in London, and that you are actually Estella's father." "Lord have mercy.

How did you know?" "I just had the feeling that's the way things were going. But we must first get you out of the country." Despite our best plans, Compeyson was drowned in our escape and Magwitch mortally injured. Had I not been so concerned about the decline in my fortunes, I might have wondered why Mr Dickens had forgotten I should have been arrested as an accomplice in a fugitive's escape. Instead, I made my way to Satis to beg Miss Havisham to secretly confer several thousand pounds on Herbert. "That I will," she replied. "I have been an evil witch, but now I can set light to the house and die happy." Seldom have I felt my spirits lower, and yet I felt a surge of hope that my pursuit of material wealth had been undone, and so I resolved to live a life more simple and made my way to Kent to do Biddy the favour of asking her to be my wife. "Meantersay Biddy and I were married yesterday," said Joe.

Had I not been so concerned by this importune turn of events, I might have wondered why two of my oldest friends hadn't told me they were together or invited me to their wedding, and so I resolved to work humbly for Herbert for the next 12 years. And so it came about that I was back in London many moons later and I espied Estella in the street. Her beauty was still indescribably majestic. "Drummle has conveniently died," she said knowingly. "And I sense I am less psychopathic." "Then perhaps we may be friends." "I wouldn't count on it." It's Charles Dickens's 200th birthday, but you've not had time to read the books.

Thank heavens for digested read Published: 6 Feb 2012 Celebrations will honour novelist born in 1812 with film, debates, drama and exhibitions around the world Published: 5 Oct 2011 John Crace makes the famously autobiographical novel flash before your eyes Published: 1 Feb 2012 Follow Oliver Twist's walking route from Angel Islington to the courthouse of Mr Fang in the first of three audio tours marking the Books Season Published: 23 Sep 2011

Question: ‘Satis’ is the name of the house in which Charles Dickens novel?
Answer: Great Expectations