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Great Expectations
Themes, Motifs & Symbols
Themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work
...
Dickens establishes the theme and shows Pip
learning this lesson, largely by exploring ideas of ambition and selfimprovement—ideas that quickly become both the thematic center of
the novel and the psychological mechanism that encourages much of
Pip’s development
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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
...

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
...
He is extremely hard on himself when he
acts immorally and feels powerful guilt that spurs him to act better in
the future
...

Second, Pip desires social self-improvement
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Joe and Pumblechook, he entertains fantasies of becoming a
gentleman
...

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
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This desire is
deeply connected to his social ambition and longing to marry Estella:
a full education is a requirement of being a gentleman
...
Pip
understands this fact as a child, when he learns to read at Mr
...
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
...

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
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Drummle, for instance, is
an upper-class lout, while Magwitch, a persecuted convict, has a deep
inner worth
...
Dickens
generally ignores the nobility and the hereditary aristocracy in favor
of characters whose fortunes have been earned through commerce
...
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
...
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
...
) become a superficial
standard of morality that Pip must learn to look beyond to trust his
inner conscience
...
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
...
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
...


Doubles
One of the most remarkable aspects of Dickens’s work is its structural
intricacy and remarkable balance
...

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
...
There are two convicts on
the marsh (Magwitch and Compeyson), two invalids (Mrs
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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
...
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
...

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
...


Comparison of Characters to Inanimate Objects

4

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
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Joe looks as if she scrubs her face
with a nutmeg grater, while the inscrutable features of Mr
...
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
...


Symbols
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract
ideas or concepts
...
On her decaying body, Miss
Havisham’s wedding dress becomes an ironic symbol of death and
degeneration
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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
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The Mists on the Marshes
5

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
...
As a child, Pip
brings Magwitch a file and food in these mists; later, he is kidnapped
by Orlick and nearly murdered in them
...
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
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In his mind, Pip has connected the ideas
of moral, social, and educational advancement so that each depends
on the others
...
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
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6



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