Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens
Great Expectations Essay Topics and Outlines
- Released July 19, 2022
- Literature subject
Grade Levels
Suggested Essay Topics: Chapter 1 - 1. Why is the first chapter so important? 2. Compare and contrast Pip and the first convict. 3. What examples of humor can be found in the first chapter? 4. Explain why the story is more interesting written in first person point of view.
The following Suggested Essay Topics are some ideas for papers that may be written on Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. The suggestions are designed to provide you with both a starting point and a general orientation from which you can write a substantial analytical paper. They are designed to showcase your understanding of major characters, themes, and details from this work as a whole.
Following the Suggested Essay Topics are Sample Essay Outlines you can use as organizational models or even as starting points for writing an analytical paper. Each outline begins with context and a prompt, followed by a thesis statement related to the work, and offers a basic sketch of how an analytical paper could be structured to argue that thesis. They do not, however, substitute for original thinking on your part. In order to fill in the outlines, you will have to think about the themes and draw your own conclusions. In some cases, you may also have to do further research, though this is not necessary with every suggestion. You should not use the exact words of this or any other resource without giving credit to the source.
The ideas, prompts, and suggestions that follow represent many different levels of difficulty, and some of the outlines are more complete than others. If you wish to use one, you should not make a selection at random. Look through several until you find one that seems right. Do not then begin writing immediately. It is best to think things over carefully before putting words on paper. Writing is a highly individual activity, and you should never feel bound to any of the outlines. On the contrary, you should feel free to modify or adapt any outline toward your purposes. Further guidance can be found in the “How to Write” guides of the eNotes Essay Lab (https://www.enotes.com/topics/essay) or by asking one of our tutors a question about your essay (https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/ask).
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Order bidding, 30 ‘great expectations’ essay topics for your inspiration.
Every student dreams about the source of inspiration if their essays concern classical literature. In this article, we collect the most newsworthy ‘Great Expectations’ research topics that will give impetus to write a more fun essay for college.
Research Paper Topics for ‘Great Expectations’ by Dickens
- Northrop Frye says: “Tragic heroes are so much the highest points in their human landscape that they seem the inevitable conductors of the power about them, great trees more likely to be struck by lighting than a clump of grass.” How had the suffering been brought upon others by protagonist contribute to the tragic vision of Dickens’ ‘Great Expectations’?
- The moral and ethical implications of the conflict between Pip and society in ‘Great Expectations.’
- Why does the author use curiosity in ‘Great Expectations,’ and what does he want to show using it?
- One event in Pip’s life that positively altered his perception of love.
- How do the descriptions of the exterior, interior, and places in ‘Great Expectations’ relate to the lives of characters, their development, and fortunes?
- How does Dickens use the setting in ‘Great Expectations’ to drive and change plot and character?
- How do themes of comfort and strangeness, home and away, poverty and wealth work themselves out in the spaces of ‘Great Expectations’?
- What does the map and movement of the novel ‘Great Expectations’ have to do with the context of Victorian capitalism?
- Main characters from ‘Great Expectations’ and their relationship to money, work, and social class.
- What do characters from ‘Great Expectations’ teach readers about life under developing Victorian capitalism?
- Why does Dickens give each role of ‘Great Expectations’ the behaviors, activities, and duties that he does?
- Why does Dickens choose particular characters of ‘Great Expectations’ to describe the England of his days?
- Duress displayed through ‘Great Expectations’ by Charles Dickens.
- Miss Havisham from ‘Great Expectations’ and her correlation to female hysteria of the Victorian era.
- Compare the novel ‘Great Expectations’ with the autobiographical story of Dickens’ life and contrast events with it.
Essay Topics Comparing ‘Brave New World’ and ‘Great Expectations’
- What are the major themes discussed in the novels ‘Brave New World’ and ‘Great Expectations’? How do these themes describe fears of authors and the greater extent of society in the time of their publication?
- Is some validity in the way the castes are described in ‘Brave New World’ and ‘Great Expectations’? Or are they merely a hypothetical presentation of what society under the World State looks like?
- Compare the ways the World State treats its citizens like commodities to benefit the greater good of the State as a whole in ‘Brave New World’ and the same for society in ‘Great Expectations.’
- The theme of love in ‘Great Expectations’ and ‘Brave New World.’
- Compare and contrast John, Helmholtz, and Bernard from ‘Brave New World’ with Pip from ‘Great Expectations.’ Do any of these characters reveal something about authors’ personalities?
- How are castes distinguished from one another in ‘Brave New World’ and ‘Great Expectations’? Are they presented similarly to other aspects of modern society?
- The relationship between political power, religion, and science in the community that exists within ‘A Brave New World.’ Compare these relations with ‘Great Expectations.’
- How is infantility achieved in the novels ‘A Brave New World’ and ‘Great Expectations’? What case is Huxley trying to make about Pavlovian processes in learning and psychology?
- A critical analysis of Mustapha Mond’s arguments against the ideals of freedom in ‘Brave New World.’ Is there any validity to them? How does Charles Dickens describe these ideals in ‘Great Expectations’?
- What is the purpose of conditioning the World State’s citizens to develop infantile-like dependence in ‘Brave New World’? Is this place a more significant burden on the State? Compare with the infantile-like addiction described in ‘Great Expectations.’
- Critical thinking of the characters Bernard, Helmholtz, and John from ‘Brave New World’ and Pip from ‘Great Expectations.’ Are they the only ones that seem critical about the lives of society?
- In what ways are John from ‘Brave New World’ and Pip from ‘Great Expectations’ conditioned in their own ways? Do these mean they are freer than other characters of the novels?
- Differences and similarities between the World State from ‘Brave New World’ and society from ‘Great Expectations.’
- The process in ‘Brave New World’ in which the World State assigns castes and specific social functions for its citizens before they are even born. How could the reader compare it with the society described in ‘Great Expectations’?
- In what ways does Bernard from ‘Brave New World’ show a problem for the World State for not being infantile enough by regulations? How does it resonate with the motifs of Pip’s character from ‘Great Expectations’?
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Great Expectations
Charles dickens.
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Mini Essays
Discuss Pip as both a narrator and a character. How are different aspects of his personality revealed by his telling of his story and by his participation in the story itself?
Pip’s story—the story of the novel—traces his development through the events of his early life; his narration, however, written years after the end of the story, is a product of his character as it exists after the events of the story. Pip’s narration thus reveals the psychological endpoint of his development in the novel. Pip’s behavior as a character often reveals only part of the story—he treats Joe coldly, for instance—while his manner as a narrator completes that story: his guilt for his poor behavior toward his loved ones endures, even as he writes about his early life years later. Of course, Dickens manipulates Pip’s narration in order to evoke its subjects effectively: Pip’s childhood is narrated in a much more childlike voice than his adult years, even though the narrator Pip presumably writes both parts of the story at a single later date. Dickens also uses Pip’s narration to reinforce particular aspects of his character that emerge in the course of the novel: we know from his actions that Pip is somewhat self-centered but sympathetic at heart to others; Pip’s later narration of his relationships with others tends to reflect those qualities. When Magwitch reveals that he is Pip’s benefactor, for instance, Pip is disgusted by the convict and describes him solely in negative terms; as his affection for Magwitch grows, the descriptive terms he chooses to apply to the convict become much more positive.
What role does social class play in Great Expectations ? What lessons does Pip learn from his experience as a wealthy gentleman? How is the theme of social class central to the novel?
One way to see Pip’s development, and the development of many of the other characters in Great Expectations , is as an attempt to learn to value other human beings: Pip must learn to value Joe and Magwitch, Estella must learn to value Pip, and so on. Throughout the novel, social class provides an arbitrary, external standard of value by which the characters (particularly Pip) judge one another. Because social class is rigid and preexisting, it is an attractive standard for every character who lacks a clear conscience with which to make judgments—Mrs. Joe and Pumblechook, for instance. And because high social class is associated with romantic qualities such as luxury and education, it is an immediately attractive standard of value for Pip. After he is elevated to the status of gentleman, though, Pip begins to see social class for what it is: an unjust, capricious standard that is largely incompatible with his own morals. There is simply no reason why Bentley Drummle should be valued above Joe, and Pip senses that fact. The most important lesson Pip learns in the novel—and perhaps the most important theme in Great Expectations —is that no external standard of value can replace the judgments of one’s own conscience. Characters such as Joe and Biddy know this instinctively; for Pip, it is a long, hard lesson, the learning of which makes up much of the book.
Throughout the novel, Pip is plagued by powerful feelings of guilt and shame, and everywhere he goes he tends to encounter symbols of justice—handcuffs, gallows, prisons, and courtrooms. What is the role of guilt in the novel? What does it mean to be “innocent”?
At the beginning of the novel, Pip’s feelings of conscience are determined largely by his fear of what others might think, a state of mind no doubt reinforced by Mrs. Joe’s “Tickler.” He has strong feelings of guilt but an inadequate system by which to judge right from wrong; unable to determine the value of his own actions, he feels guilty even when he does the right thing. He acts with compassion and sympathy when he helps the convict, but he nevertheless feels deeply guilty and imagines that the police are waiting to take him away. As the novel progresses, Pip comes closer to trusting his own feelings; when he helps Magwitch at the end of the novel, he feels no guilt, only love, and he remains with the convict even after the police arrive to take him away. Throughout the novel, symbols of justice, such as prisons and police, serve as reminders of the questions of conscience that plague Pip: just as social class provides an external standard of value irrespective of a person’s inner worth, the law provides an external standard of moral behavior irrespective of a person’s inner feelings. Pip’s wholehearted commitment to helping Magwitch escape the law in the last section of the novel contrasts powerfully with his childhood fear of police and shows that, though he continues to be very hard on his own shortcomings, Pip has moved closer to a reliance on his own inner conscience—which is the only way, as Joe and Biddy show, that a character can truly be “innocent.”
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Great Expectations Essay Topics
Written by Charles Dickens, one of the world’s most legendary and creative novel writers, Great Expectations is a highly pertinent novel in the modern education system. The novel packs an impressive range of literary features, easy-to-follow plot, and a smooth flow, which makes it quite fun to read. The novel’s themes are quite protuberant, something which makes written essays on this novel easy.
So many things should be factored in when determining the length and areas to cover in your Great Expectations essay. The most common factors include the assignment requirements and your level of education.
Not all Great Expectations essay topics are good enough to attract a good grade. When selecting a topic, you must factor in your grade and course alongside the relevance of the contents sourced from Great Expectations. Look for a fresh and materially effective topic that does not cover the most commonly discussed ideas and areas of the Great Expectations novel.
Working on the same topics and ideas those beyond you discussed in the past may make your readers get bored in between the start and end of the essay. Be specific when writing your essay, ensuring you cover unique stylistic elements, themes, and characters. It would be great you make sure the title’s expectations are outlined vividly in the completed paper.
- Qualities and Characteristics That Make Pip the Novel’s Hero?
- Has Money Used a Vital Driving Force in Great Expectations?
- The Main Themes Covered in the Great Expectations
- The Main Plots Covered in the Great Expectations
- The Style used by Pip in Drawing Sympathy from Readers in the Great Expectations
- What Are Great Expectations Explained in the Great Expectations Novel By Charles Dickens?
- How is Pip Manipulated and Misled By Miss Havisham to Think That He is Her Undisclosed Benefactor?
- How Does Miss Havisham Benefit from Manipulating and Misleading Pip in the Great Expectations?
- How Does Magwitch Live Through Miss Havisham?
- A Foreshadow of What Pip Should Have Known Before Miss Havisham Tricked him?
- Details of the Characters and Themes Embodied By Miss Havisham
- The Main Victims in the Great Expectations By Dickens
- Who Learns Through Suffering in the Great Expectations?
- Analyzing the Theme of Reality Vs Appearance in the Great Expectations
- How is Kindness Toward Others Portrayed in the Great Expectations?
- How is Imprisonment Used as a metaphor in the Great Expectations Novel By Dickens?
- How Good and Evil are Depicted in the Great Expectations Novel?
- What Attracts Pip to Estella in the Great Expectations Novel?
- Discuss and Vividly Portray the Effects of Suffering as Portrayed in Great Expectations
- The Changing of Stella’s and Pip’s Relationship Throughout the Novel
- The Great Expectations Shown by Pip in the Novel
- How Does the Use of First-person Narration Make this Story More Interesting?
- The Historical Relevance of the Great Expectations When you Read it from the Context of the Society During the year of publication
- The Reason, the Bond Between Pip and Joe, Keeps Strengthening Throughout the Novel
- How Does the Book Portray the Theme of Betray in Great Expectations?
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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Books — Great Expectations
Essays on Great Expectations
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August 1861
Charles Dickens
Novel, Bildungsroman, Graphic Novel, Social Criticism, Fictional Autobiography
Pip, Estella, Miss Havisham, Abel Magwitch, Joe Gargery, Jaggers, Herbert Pocket, Wemmick, Biddy, Dolge Orlick, Mrs. Joe, Uncle Pumblechook, Compeyson, Bentley Drummle, Molly, Mr. Wopsle, Startop, Miss Skiffins
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1. What significance does the novel’s title, Great Expectations, have for the story? In what ways does Pip have “great expectations”? 2. For much of Great Expectations, Pip seems to believe in a stark division between good and evil, and he tends to classify people and situations as belonging to one extreme or the other: for instance ...
1. Explain how guilt has affected Pip’s life. 2. Define pun, and how it is used in these chapters. 3. Discuss the theme of right and wrong or good and evil. 4. How is the relationship between ...
The following Suggested Essay Topics are some ideas for papers that may be written on Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. The suggestions are designed to provide you with both a starting point ...
Reading these ‘Great Expectations’ paper topics is a useful process to find new ideas for your further academic assignment. Write My Essay Online is a service that can provide you with ideas for topics on any discipline. If you had already been writing your paper about ‘Great Expectations,’ but you have a friend that is looking for some ...
This lesson will include some essay topics from Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. These topics will be organized by theme, or subject, with additional information to help guide your students.
The most important lesson Pip learns in the novel—and perhaps the most important theme in Great Expectations —is that no external standard of value can replace the judgments of one’s own conscience. Characters such as Joe and Biddy know this instinctively; for Pip, it is a long, hard lesson, the learning of which makes up much of the book.
Great Expectations Essay Topics. Written by Charles Dickens, one of the world’s most legendary and creative novel writers, Great Expectations is a highly pertinent novel in the modern education system. The novel packs an impressive range of literary features, easy-to-follow plot, and a smooth flow, which makes it quite fun to read.
Great Expectations is a novel which, in its first part, focuses largely on the education and upbringing of a young boy, Pip. Orphaned at a young age, he is raised “by hand” by his older sister and her husband, a blacksmith. Written from the adult... Great Expectations Charles Dickens.