Great Expectations
Charles Dickens
Contains spoilers for the entire book.
Discussion topics
Topic 01 of 08
The marshes and the forge
How does the frightened boy who steals food for a convict on the marshes shape the man Pip becomes?
Keep the conversation going
- What do Pip's guilt and secrecy in those first chapters tell you about the world he was raised in?
- How did you see Joe at the start, and did that change by the time Pip leaves for London?
There is no single right answer. Bring your own reading.
Discussion topics
How does the frightened boy who steals food for a convict on the marshes shape the man Pip becomes?
Keep the conversation going
- What do Pip's guilt and secrecy in those first chapters tell you about the world he was raised in?
- How did you see Joe at the start, and did that change by the time Pip leaves for London?
Why does Pip become ashamed of Joe and the forge, and who do you hold responsible for that shame?
Keep the conversation going
- What did you make of Joe's visit to Pip in London, and of how each of them behaves?
- Is it possible to rise in the world, as Pip does, without looking down on where you came from?
Is Miss Havisham more a victim or an agent of harm, and does the novel let you settle on one?
Keep the conversation going
- What do the stopped clocks and the decaying wedding feast say about how she has lived with her grief?
- How did her final plea for forgiveness change, or not change, the way you saw her?
Estella warns Pip that she has no heart to give. Do you believe her, and is she to blame for who she was raised to be?
Keep the conversation going
- Why do you think Estella chooses Bentley Drummle, knowing what he is?
- How does learning who her parents are change the way you read her and her place in society?
When Pip learns that his fortune comes from Magwitch rather than Miss Havisham, what exactly is it that horrifies him?
Keep the conversation going
- How does Pip's feeling for Magwitch change between that night and the convict's death?
- What does Magwitch's dream of making a gentleman reveal about his own life and his idea of worth?
Which characters stay loyal to Pip when he least deserves it, and what does their loyalty cost them?
Keep the conversation going
- How do you read Pip's secret help for Herbert, compared with the help he once expected for himself?
- What did you make of Pip coming home to propose to Biddy and finding she had married Joe?
Does the novel suggest that justice falls differently on a gentleman than on a poor man?
Keep the conversation going
- How do the different sentences given to Compeyson and Magwitch shape your sense of fairness in the book?
- What do you make of Wemmick keeping his life at Walworth so separate from his work for Jaggers?
When Pip and Estella meet again among the ruins of Satis House, how hopeful did the ending feel to you?
Keep the conversation going
- How have suffering and time changed Estella, and Pip, by that final meeting?
- What do you think the title's 'great expectations' finally amount to for Pip by the end of the story?
There is no single right answer. Bring your own reading.