Great Expectations Plot Summary

PIP WANTS TO BE A GENTLEMAN

• Pip is visiting his parents' graves when he is attacked by an escaped convict . The convict forces Pip to steal food and a metal file from his siter and brother-in-law.

• The next day Pip is just about to be found out when soldiers arrive at the house-they are looking for two convicts. Later they find them and arrest them. The convict that Pip had helped lies to protect him.

• Pip starts visiting Miss Havisham, a strange, rich old lady, so he can play with her adopted daughter Estella. Estella is cruel to Pip, mocking him for his 'common' and 'uncivilised' ways. Pip falls in love with her anyway.

PIP'S DREAM COMES TRUE

• Miss Havisham talks to Joe about Pip becoming a blacksmith. She gives him some money to pay for the apprenticeship. BUT Pip is dissapointed-he'd hoped for more.

• Another convict escapes and Pip's sister is attacked with an old leg iron. Some of the characters think the attcker was the escaped convict, but Pip and joe think it was Orlick.

• Pip meets Jaggers, who tells him he's been given a lot of money-but Jaggers cannot say who it is from. Pip thinks it is Miss Havisham. Pip moves to London to 'become a gentleman.'

PIP SETTLES INTO HIS NEW LIFE

• Pip meets Herbert-who is related to Miss Havisham. They quickly become friends, and Herbert teaches Pip manners and the correct etiquite for being a gentleman. He also explains how Miss Havisham was jilted and bought up by Estella to get her revenge on all men.
• Joe visites Pip in London. Pip is ashamed of him because he is not a gentleman and Pip thinks he is common. Joe tells Pip that Miss Havisham wants him to visit.
• Pip goes back to Kent and sees Estella again-he loves her more than ever. He doesn't bother to visit Joe and Biddy.

PIP MEETS THE CONVICT AGAIN

• Estella comes to live in London and Pip often visits her-but he is jealous of her many admirers.

• Pip's sister dies. After her funeral, Pip promises Biddy that he'll come home more often to help Joe-but she knows that he wont.

• Herbert and Pip are in a lot of debt. Pip wants to help his friend, so he secretly pays a company to hire Herbert.

• Pip gets an odd visitor-Magwitch, the convict he helped. He's back from Australia where he has made his fortune. He tells Pip that he is his benefactor.