It is not enough just to analyse a passage or chapter in isolation; you must also consider why that particular passage or chapter is important to the text as a whole. What key themes or ideas does it represent? Does it foreshadow upcoming events? Does it reveal more about a character’s motivations, thoughts or feelings, given what has happened and/or what is to come? The following section includes some key moments from the novel and how they are relevant to the rest of the text, but this list is not exhaustive, and you are encouraged to consider other moments and how these also relate to the novel as a whole.
Key moment
Chapter 1
‘“Hold your noise!” cried a terrible voice, as a man started up from among the graves at the side of the church porch. “Keep still, you little devil, or I’ll cut your throat!”’
Summary of key moment:
- In this chapter, young Pip encounters the convict Magwitch on the marshes for the first time
- Magwitch coerces Pip to fetch him a file and some food
Why this is important in relation to the novel as a whole:
- The character of Magwitch creates an atmosphere of tension and fear at the beginning of the novel:
- Magwitch is a criminal and an escaped convict and in this chapter he is portrayed as threatening, aggressive and violent
- Pip experiences intense fear and dread when first confronted by Magwitch:
- Having been coerced by Magwitch to commit a theft at the forge, Pip is overcome with a sense of guilt for having committed a crime
- This causes Pip to experience an intense internal moral conflict as he is torn between keeping his promise to Magwitch and betraying his beloved Joe
- Pip’s act of kindness, albeit through fear, sets in motion a chain of events that will shape Pip’s character and life
- Magwitch’s return later in the novel as Pip’s benefactor is a direct consequence of this initial encounter:
- This meeting on the marshes becomes the catalyst for Pip’s social ascent and “great expectations”
Key moment
Chapter 8
“I took the opportunity of being alone in the courtyard to look at my coarse hands and my common boots. My opinion of those accessories was not favourable. They had never troubled me before, but they troubled me now, as vulgar appendages. I determined to ask Joe why he had ever taught me to call those picture-cards Jacks, which ought to be called knaves. I wished Joe had been rather more genteelly brought up, and then I should have been so too.”
Summary of key moment:
- In this chapter, Pip visits the decaying Satis House and encounters Estella and Miss Havisham for the first time
Why this is important in relation to the novel as a whole:
- Pip’s first visit to Satis House is a significant event in his moral and spiritual development, as it becomes the root of Pip’s dissatisfaction with his life:
- As a result, Pip almost instantly begins to abandon his moral compass while also losing respect for his loving and innocent foster father, Joe
- This visit radically alters his perception of social class, love and personal worth and leads Pip to question his own place in society
- In Pip's first meeting with Estella, his innocence is shattered:
- By agreeing with Estella's assessment of him, his conduct is one of passive acceptance
- He not only denounces himself but also the environment that has moulded him into who he is
- The juxtaposition between the opulence of Satis House and Pip’s humble origins plant the seed of aspiration and desire for social advancement
Key moment
Chapter 39
“Yes, Pip, dear boy, I’ve made a gentleman on you! It’s me wot has done it! I swore that time, sure as ever I earned a guinea, that guinea should go to you. I swore arterwards, sure as ever I spec’lated and got rich, you should get rich. I lived rough, that you should live smooth; I worked hard, that you should be above work.”
Summary of key moment:
- In this chapter, the revelation of the true identity of Pip’s mysterious benefactor marks a turning point for Pip
Why this is important in relation to the novel as a whole:
- Up until this chapter, Pip had mistakenly assumed that Miss Havisham was his secret benefactor:
- This revelation shatters Pip’s illusions and his “great expectations”, for in his eyes, it has now become tainted by its association with Magwitch
- Pip is only able to regain the moral values he held as a child once he realises that his elevated rank as a gentleman is based on the riches of a former convict
- It propels Pip into a journey of self-discovery and redemption:
- He begins to understand that greatness is not derived solely from social status or material wealth but is intertwined with personal integrity and moral principles
- It also transforms his understanding of what it is to be a “gentleman”