Great Expectations: Summary and Complete Study Guide

Magwitch, the convict Pip helped as a child—not Miss Havisham as Pip assumed. This revelation forces Pip to confront his class prejudices and recognize where true worth lies.

When Pip becomes a London gentleman, he's ashamed of Joe's working-class manners and lack of education. This shame demonstrates how class ambition corrupts his natural decency.

Jilted at her wedding, she raises Estella to break men's hearts as revenge. She stopped all clocks at twenty to nine and wears her decaying wedding dress, frozen at the moment of trauma.

Victorian assumptions that social class reflects moral worth. Dickens proves the opposite: working-class Joe and convict Magwitch demonstrate true gentility while the upper class is morally corrupt.

Ambiguous—Dickens wrote two endings. The revised version suggests they might reunite years later, but both endings leave their future uncertain, focusing on Pip's moral growth over romance.

Not education or wealth, but character: Joe is gentle, loyal, forgiving, and treats everyone with dignity. Dickens argues this is true gentility, while upper-class "gentlemen" often lack these qualities.