Great Expectations is a famous novel by Charles Dickens. This novel is full of sensational and grotesque elements. In the very opening chapter we find a very sensational incident in which fearful stranger seizes Pip by the chin as if he would cut his throat. He then takes Pip by both arms and tilting him back, asks him to get him some food and a file early next morning, failing which he will take out the boy's heart and liver.
Miss Havisham is a wonderful creation of Dickens in his novel Great Expectations. In her youth she was courted by Compeyson who ultimately deserted her extracting a lot of money from her. In all this trickery and deceit, her half-brother, Arthur, had played a leading part. Since that evil incident, Miss Havisham had remained confined to her own room and was leading a life of seclusion.
Great Expectations is an account of Pip's moral education. The novel shows his progress from a vulnerable child to snobbish gentleman. Yet Pip is largely the victim of his circumstances. He retains his basic goodness amidst all odds.
In Great Expectations Dickens depicts a picture of Victorian society. He wrote with the purpose of stressing the social evils of his time. His novels expose many of the evils and abuses that were rampant in Victorian society. His view of Victorian society as embodied in this novel must have been highly unflattering to his contemporaries. We see here a society riddled by cruelty, greed and injustice.
Great Expectations deals with a number of themes. But the central theme of this book may be regarded as the greed for money and class-consciousness and the corrupting influence which they produce upon human beings in a materialistic society people are servile towards wealth, position and rank.
