Significance of the title related to the rest of the novel: Through out the novel, "great expectations" is mentioned many times, often when pip is describing what he expected out of other people or what he expected would happen to him. However, "great expectations" more accurately refers to his expectations of himself.Whenever he sees something better "like the wealth of ms Havasham and Estella" he desires it. he feels guilty when he doesn't tell his sister the whole truth about the criminal: he expects better of himself.
I cant find where exactly it is in the book, but what the heck was the whole point of having Pip fight Herbert Pockets. It felt like such a tangent at the time and i can't really figure out its significance.
In addition to the main theme of "great expectations," there are other smaller themes going on that AP prompts ask you to identify--I remember that the in-class essay last month required that you identify how a drive for power is used in a novel, as it surrounds a main character and shapes how the book works. If you go to www.collegeboard.com you can take lnks to the free response questions and consider them as you're reading reviewing, in order to get a broader understanding of the book and prepare for the real in-class essay (and the ap test).
Mr. Jaggers: "he will come into handsome property [...], be removed from his present sphere of life and from this place, and be brought up as a gentleman" (139). This is the turning point for Pip; this is the fulfillment of his dreams. Unfortunately his great expectations, most importantly his desire to become a respected gentleman, lead him to disregard Joe and Biddy for being so common; his ambition takes him away from those he was close to, and drives him toward the elusive Estella. In the end he sees his mistakes, and while being brought down lower than he was orginally, he came to accept himself--still the orphaned Pip.
I don't know what the point about the scene between Pip and Herbert Pockets was about either; sometimes I feel that Dickens introduces scenes that don't seem relative to the point of the book...
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Significance of the title related to the rest of the novel: Through out the novel, "great expectations" is mentioned many times, often when pip is describing what he expected out of other people or what he expected would happen to him. However, "great expectations" more accurately refers to his expectations of himself.Whenever he sees something better "like the wealth of ms Havasham and Estella" he desires it. he feels guilty when he doesn't tell his sister the whole truth about the criminal: he expects better of himself.
I cant find where exactly it is in the book, but what the heck was the whole point of having Pip fight Herbert Pockets. It felt like such a tangent at the time and i can't really figure out its significance.
In addition to the main theme of "great expectations," there are other smaller themes going on that AP prompts ask you to identify--I remember that the in-class essay last month required that you identify how a drive for power is used in a novel, as it surrounds a main character and shapes how the book works. If you go to www.collegeboard.com you can take lnks to the free response questions and consider them as you're reading reviewing, in order to get a broader understanding of the book and prepare for the real in-class essay (and the ap test).
Mr. Jaggers: "he will come into handsome property [...], be removed from his present sphere of life and from this place, and be brought up as a gentleman" (139).
This is the turning point for Pip; this is the fulfillment of his dreams. Unfortunately his great expectations, most importantly his desire to become a respected gentleman, lead him to disregard Joe and Biddy for being so common; his ambition takes him away from those he was close to, and drives him toward the elusive Estella. In the end he sees his mistakes, and while being brought down lower than he was orginally, he came to accept himself--still the orphaned Pip.
I don't know what the point about the scene between Pip and Herbert Pockets was about either; sometimes I feel that Dickens introduces scenes that don't seem relative to the point of the book...
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