Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - Review

"It was an unhappy life that I lived, and its one dominant anxiety, towering over all its other anxieties like a high

mountain above a range of mountains, never disappeared from my view."

There are books that (for me) are meant for specific seasons. Great Expectations is a title of a certain reputation that screams 'Winter', and for some reason, sadness. Maybe because I am old enough to know that expectations hardly materialize as we want them, and how often we encounter that we have very little agency in our own life. Therefore, without investigating anything further about this novel, I went ahead and made it my first book of the year. January for me is the saddest month, and Great Expectations somehow managed to make it bright. I give it a 3.5.

In this novel, you will find beautifully crafted sentences and a mastery that only an experienced weaver would have. The plot expands in some ways that my untrusting mind thought “uhh, Charles Dickens is telling me all these things that I have no interest in knowing”. As usual, he reminded me that he actually knows what he is doing and in the end, all the strands we had were stitched back together in a way that only someone with a ‘big picture’ brain could do. 
With that being said, the heart of this novel relies on the characters that you will find. Some of the despicable -and yes, I am looking at you, Orlick-, and some of them are genuinely the sweetest characters you could find- and of course, I mean Joe. My favorite character, Miss Havishman teaches us so many lessons and her story convinced my fool old heart to give her all the sympathy in the world. I believe you will find a character that teaches you a lesson of how not to be, or how to act. 

I recommend you to read this novel in January, or a cold month depending on where you are in the world. I can also recommend you immerse yourself in the story so you can be surprised at the end. Contrary to how I usually jump into books, I will leave you a plot blurp so you can know what type of plot awaits you. Of course, I will like it very much if you take this as an encouragement to read it and not an easy way to act as if you read it. To ensure that, there are no big spoilers down below. You are welcome 

The plot, no spoilers 

With the nickname of Pip, our young protagonist starts the novel as an orphan child contemplating his parent’s tombs. Such a sad existence is established when we learn that Pip lives with his older sister, who is everything but affectionate. His only friend in the world is noble Joe, his brother-in-law. Pip is a good-natured kid, who after being threatened by a convict, agrees to steal food from his house to stay alive, not without much guilt for his sin. I would love to tell you that Pip remains virtuous as all children tend to be while uncorrupted. However, Great Expectations is not the story about dreams, but of reality, and how it hits Pip from childhood to adulthood. 

The convict showed how the life of crime eats humanity out of poor men, but Pip is mostly influenced by good old Joe, a blacksmith that works hard and is content with his life as common and simple as it is. After that first sin, Pip’s life suddenly changes when he meets yet another possibility of life. He meets wealthy and lonely Miss Havisham, who lives in a mansion that is trapped in time due to her own animosity towards moving her own. There, Pip meets the object of his affection, Estella, and his way of seeing life changes. 

Our protagonist is then hit with another life-changing moment: he has an anonymous benefactor who is to make him a gentleman, and with those great expectations placed on him, he is free to believe that his expectations of sharing a life with Estella are only inevitable, right

Advice and Discussion Questions for reading Great Expectations

Look for recurring themes that can help you pay more attention to the details that the novel gives you. In my experience, Dickens almost never tells you irrelevant information and spends a long time covering that is unimportant- even if that is exactly what you think while you read. 

Instead, try to remember the themes that the novel already brought up and see if you can connect them to these subplots that make you want to say 'who are these people and why do I care?' 

One of the themes I noticed was the necessity of being grateful versus feeling guilt for one's actions.  Orphans are their destiny as being without parents, and on that note, human nature and how we are nurtured into being what we are. In this topic, pay attention to Pip, Estella, and Clara. All of them suffer without biological guidance but have people around them that adopted them. 

It can be interesting to analyze the novel under an economical lens and wonder about the corruption of money, the distribution of wealth, and how to penetrate an upper economical sphere there is a disdain for common people and their values. What is the difference between having money and having class? Is class something you have to be born into? What about Estella who effortlessly fits in with the upper class while being an orphan like Pip? Interesting questions that you can dive into. 

Fire is also important in the novel with the destructive but restorative qualities it has, and I am not going to say further, but watch out for it and what it means. 

The biggest debate is 'the expectations', you can wonder, is Pip wrong for wanting more? I personally do not think so, but I think his decision for wanting to change his life was rooted in feeling inferior, and then that same inferiority made him mistreat those who were below him later on. There is a strong feeling that every young character has someone else's expectations over them, in that way, can we condemn them? or is it a matter of living in a changing society that highly values people based on their economical standing? 

If you want to discuss any of these questions or anything else about Great Expectations, feel free to reach me anywhere (Instagram,, Goodreads, Twitter, and of course, here in this new space)