Great Expectations(远大前程) Summary

Great Expectations Summary

Great Expectations is the story of Pip, an orphan boy adopted by a blacksmith's family, who has

good luck and great expectations, and then loses both his luck and his expectations. Through this

rise and fall, however, Pip learns how to find happiness. He learns the meaning of friendship and

the meaning of love and, of course, becomes a better person for it.

The story opens with the narrator, Pip, who introduces himself and describes a much younger Pip

staring at the gravestones of his parents. This tiny, shivering bundle of a boy is suddenly terrified

by a man dressed in a prison uniform. The man tells Pip that if he wants to live, he'll go down to

his house and bring him back some food and a file for the shackle on his leg.

Pip runs home to his sister, Mrs. Joe Gragery, and his adoptive father, Joe Gragery. Mrs. Joe is a

loud, angry, nagging woman who constantly reminds Pip and her husband Joe of the difficulties

she has gone through to raise Pip and take care of the house. Pip finds solace from these rages in

Joe, who is more his equal than a paternal figure, and they are united under a common oppression.

Pip steals food and a pork pie from the pantry shelf and a file from Joe's forge and brings them

back to the escaped convict the next morning. Soon thereafter, Pip watches the man get caught by

soldiers and the whole event soon disappears from his young mind.

Mrs. Joe

comes

home

one evening,

quite

excited,

and proclaims

that

Pip

is

going to

for

Miss Havisham,

Pip

is

brought

to

Miss

Havisham's

place,

a

mansion

called

the

House,

where

sunshine

never enters. He meets a girl about his age, Estella,

Pip

instantly

falls

in

love

with

her

and

will

love

her

the

rest

of

the

story.

He

then

meets

Miss

Havisham,

a

willowy,

yellowed

old

woman

dressed

in

an

old

wedding

gown.

Miss

Havisham

seems most happy when Estella insults Pip's coarse hands and his thick boots as they play.

Pip

is

insulted,

but

thinks

there

is

something

wrong

with

him.

He

vows

to

change,

to

become

uncommon, and to become a gentleman.

Pip

continues

to

visit

Estella

and

Miss

Havisham

for

eight

months

and

learns

more

about

their

strange life. Miss Havisham brings him into a great banquet hall where a table is set with food and

large wedding cake. But the food and the cake are years old, untouched except by a vast array of

rats, beetles and spiders which crawl freely through the room. Her relatives all come to see her on

the same day of the year: her birthday and wedding day, the day when the cake was set out and the

clocks were stopped many years before; i.e. the day Miss Havisham stopped living.

Pip begins to dream what life would be like if he were a gentleman and wealthy. This dream ends

when Miss Havisham asks Pip to bring Joe to visit her, in order that he may start his indenture as a

blacksmith.

Miss

Havisham

gives

Joe

twenty

five

pounds

for

Pip's

service

to

her

and

says

good-bye.

Pip explains his misery to his readers: he is ashamed of his home, ashamed of his trade. He wants

to be uncommon, he wants to be a gentleman. He wants to be a part of the environment that he had

a small taste of at the Manor House.

Early in his indenture, Mrs. Joe is found lying unconscious, knocked senseless by some unknown

assailant. She has suffered some serious brain damage, having lost much of voice, her hearing, and

her memory. Furthermore, her

the housework and to take care of Mrs. Joe, Biddy, a young orphan friend of Pip's, moves into the

house.

The years pass quickly. It is the fourth year of Pip's apprenticeship and he is sitting with Joe at the

pub when they are approached by a stranger. Pip recognizes him, and his

he had once run into at Miss Havisham's house years before.

Back at the house, the man, Jaggers, explains that Pip now has

given a large monthly stipend, administered by Jaggers who is a lawyer. The benefactor, however,

does not want to be known and is to remain a mystery.

Pip

spends

an

uncomfortable

evening

with

Biddy

and

Joe,

then

retires

to

bed.

There,

despite

having all his dreams come true, he finds himself feeling very lonely. Pip visits Miss Havisham

who hints subtly that she is his unknown sponsor.

Pip goes to live in London and meets Wemmick, Jagger's square- mouth clerk. Wemmick brings

Pip to Bernard's Inn, where Pip will live for the next five years with Matthew Pocket's son Herbert,

a cheerful young gentleman that becomes one of Pip's best friends. From Herbert, Pips finds out

that

Miss

Havisham

adopted

Estella

and

raised

her

to

wreak

revenge

on

the

male

gender

by

making them fall in love with her, and then breaking their hearts.

Pip is invited to dinner at Wemmick's whose slogan seems to be

another.

cottage has been modified to look a bit like a castle, complete with moat, drawbridge, and a firing

cannon.

The next day, Jaggers himself invites Pip and friends to dinner. Pip, on Wemmick's suggestion,

looks carefully at Jagger's servant woman -- a

and seems to regard Jaggers with a mix of fear and duty.

Pip journeys back to the Satis House to see Miss Havisham and Estella, who is now older and so

much more beautiful that he doesn't recognize her at first. Facing her now, he slips back

coarse and common voice

Pip

sees

something

strikingly

familiar

in

Estella's

face.

He

can't

quite

place

the

look,

but

an

expression on her face reminds him of someone.