Great Expectations

Character Guide

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Pip (Philip Pirrip)

The novel's narrator, an orphan being raised by his sister in the marsh country, who dreams of rising above his humble blacksmith's apprenticeship. His encounters with a menacing convict and a strange rich recluse set his life on an unexpected course.

Joe Gargery

Pip's brother-in-law and a gentle, hardworking blacksmith to whom Pip is apprenticed. He treats Pip with unwavering kindness despite his own rough treatment at home.

Mrs. Joe Gargery

Pip's short-tempered older sister who raised him 'by hand' and constantly reminds him of the trouble he has caused her.

Miss Havisham

A wealthy, reclusive woman who still wears her decaying wedding dress and has stopped all the clocks in her house, Satis House. She invites Pip to visit and play there, for reasons she does not explain.

Estella

Miss Havisham's beautiful, cold young ward, whom Pip meets at Satis House and falls hopelessly in love with despite her contempt for him.

The Convict (later known as Magwitch)

An escaped, desperate convict Pip encounters on the marshes and, out of terror, helps with food and a file. He is quickly recaptured, but the encounter haunts Pip.

Mr. Jaggers

A formidable, closely-guarded London lawyer who announces to Pip that he has 'great expectations' from a mysterious benefactor and becomes his guardian.

Herbert Pocket (the pale young gentleman)

A cheerful, well-meaning young man Pip first meets in a fistfight at Satis House; he later becomes Pip's close friend and roommate in London.

Biddy

A kind, sensible girl from Pip's village who helps teach him and looks after Mrs. Joe; she quietly notices things others miss.

Mr. Wemmick

Mr. Jaggers's clerk, a dry, businesslike man in the office who shows a surprisingly different, warmer side away from work.

Matthew Pocket (Mr. Pocket)

A Cambridge-educated tutor hired to prepare Pip for life as a gentleman once his expectations begin.

Glossary

Expectations

The novel's term for an inherited fortune or prospect of one, promised to Pip by an anonymous benefactor; also a play on youthful hopes and illusions.

Convict hulks

Decommissioned ships anchored offshore and used as floating prisons for convicts, referenced as the origin of the escaped convict Pip meets.

The forge

Joe Gargery's blacksmith workshop, symbolizing honest manual labor as opposed to the false gentility Pip later chases.

Satis House

Miss Havisham's decaying mansion, its name meaning 'enough' in Latin, ironically given the house's atmosphere of arrested time and unfulfilled desire.

Benefactor/patroness

The mysterious person financing Pip's transformation into a gentleman; much of the plot turns on the mistaken assumption of who this is.

Gentleman

A loaded period term for a man of independent means and refined manners, whose meaning the novel repeatedly questions and redefines.

Newgate

London's most notorious prison, referenced via Wemmick's tours and used by Dickens to link respectable society with the criminal underworld.

File

A metal tool for cutting through iron restraints; Pip steals one for the convict early in the novel, along with food, an act that haunts his conscience.

'Walworth sentiment'

Wemmick's private phrase distinguishing his warm home life in Walworth from his cold professional conduct in Jaggers's office.

Portable property

Wemmick's recurring phrase for valuables that can be easily carried off, reflecting his pragmatic, transactional view of possessions and relationships.

Beggar my neighbour

A simple card game Estella and Pip play at Satis House, used to mark Pip's early humiliation over his 'coarse' hands and boots.

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