GREAT EXPECTATIONS STUDY QUESTIONS
CHAPTERS 1-3
1. What is Pip’s full name? Who does he live with and why? What does the convict tell Pip to bring to the Battery? What does he threaten to do if Pip does not do this?
2. What does “brought up by hand” mean to Pip and Joe Gargery? What items does Pip take for the convict? What does he do to the brandy to hide what he has taken?
3. When Pip returns to the marsh, he sees a man he thinks at first is “his convict.” What proves that it is not? Who then does he believe it to be?
CHAPTERS 4-7
1. Explain Pip’s comment: “But they wouldn’t leave me alone.”
2. Pip says, “I felt that I could bear no more,” and he runs to the door. Why?
3. How are the two convicts located? Why had the first convict remained on the marsh?
4. Explain this quote: “In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong.”
5. Who is Miss Havisham? Why is Pip to go to her house?
CHAPTERS 8-10
1. What was unusual about Miss Havisham’s appearance? (
2. What is Estella’s attitude toward Pip? Quote at least two statements that indicate those feelings.
3. What is Pip most concerned about as the chapter closes?
4. What advice does Joe give Pip about lying? Quote him. Who is the strange man with Joe? How does Pip recognize him? What does he give Pip?
CHAPTERS 11-16
1. Who is visiting Miss Havisham?
2. Whom does Pip meet in the garden and what do they do?
3. How does Pip answer Miss Havisham as to what he has learned and what he plans to be?
4. What does Miss Havisham arrange with Joe?
5. How does Pip feel about being a blacksmith?
6. What has happened to Mrs. Joe while Pip was at Satis House?
7. Whom does Pip suspect of hurting Mrs. Joe?
CHAPTERS 17-19
1. What does Pip tell Biddy he wants to become?
2. What advice does Biddy give Pip about wanting to be a gentleman?
3. What are the first two stipulations of Pip’s “great expectations”? Who will be Pip’s guardian? Tutor? Where will Pip live?
4. What five statements does Miss Havisham make that cause Pip to believe she is his benefactress?
5. Describe how Pip feels at the end of the chapter about leaving home.
CHAPTERS 20-22
1. Pip overhears people in the street discussing Mr. Jaggers. How is Mr. Jaggers characterized?
2. Who is the “pale young gentleman”? How does he describe Estella?
3. Why does Herbert choose “Handel” as a nickname for Pip?
4. Explain why Miss Havisham is dressed as a bride and why her clocks are stopped at twenty minutes to nine.
CHAPTERS 23-27
1. Wemmick refers to “a wild beast tamed.” To whom is he referring?
2. Describe Pip’s new acquaintances, Bentley Drummle and Startop.
3. What nickname does Mr. Jaggers give Drummle? Why?
4. What does Mr. Jaggers emphasize about his housekeeper’s wrists?
5. How does Pip feel about Joe’s coming to visit?
6. Report at least three things that Pip finds irritating about Joe. What is your opinion of Pip’s criticism?
CHAPTERS 28-33
1. What does Pip learn about the two one-pound notes from the convicts’ conversation?
2. How does Pip feel when he recognizes that it is Estella who is with Miss Havisham?
3. At the end of the chapter, what feelings does Pip express about Estella?
4. What does Herbert suggest about Estella? What is Pip’s response?
5. What does Estella tell Pip about the relatives’ reports to Miss Havisham?
CHAPTERS 34-37
1. What is the main problem Herbert and Pip are experiencing at this point?
2. Why does Pip return to the forge? When Pip leaves, how does he feel about returning again, often, as he has promised to do?
3. On his twenty-first birthday, what does Pip learn he is to receive each year?
4. What arrangements does Wemmick make for Herbert at Pip’s request?
5. Where did Herbert report that he had found a position? Why did Pip cry in his bed that night?
CHAPTERS 38-40
1. What shows that Estella had learned well the lessons that Miss Havisham had taught her?
2. Whom does Pip warn Estella against? Why?
3. What information does the convict reveal?
4. What does Pip now recognize about Miss Havisham’s purposes? What caused him the “sharpest and deepest pain of all”?
5. Jaggers confirms two pieces of information for Pip. Report that information.
CHAPTERS 41-45
1. What do Herbert and Pip decide must be done about Provis?
2. Explain how Magwitch and Compeyson are connected to each other.
3. Report two requests that Pip makes of Miss Havisham and Estella.
4. What message does Pip receive from the night porter? Who sent it?
5. What scheme does Herbert propose for the time of Provis’ escape? How were they to prepare for it?
CHAPTERS 48-50
1. What physical clues lead Pip to associate Molly with Estella?
2. Explain how Molly came to be employed by Jaggers.
3. What was Miss Havisham’s motive for training Estella as she did?
4. What happens to Pip and Miss Havisham at the conclusion of Pip’s visit?
5. Who are Estella’s parents?
CHAPTERS 52-54
1. To what is Pip referring when he says, “It was the only good thing I had done…since I was first apprised of my great expectations”?
2. Why has Orlick decided to kill Pip? What warning does he give Pip?
3. Who is on the galley to identify Magwitch? What happens to him?
4. Why does Pip say, “I only saw in him a much better man than I had been to Joe”?
5. What will happen to Magwitch’s possessions if he is convicted? What promise does Pip make to Magwitch?
CHAPTERS 55-57
1. Explain the irony in Herbert’s offering Pip a position as a clerk.
2. What information does Pip give Magwitch about his child? Quote him.
3. How are Pip’s debts cleared?
4. What are Pip’s plans regarding Biddy?
CHAPTERS 58-59
1. What surprising news does Biddy give Pip?
2. How does Pip now make his living?
3. What does Clarriker reveal to Herbert after Pip becomes “third in the firm”?
4. How long had it been since Pip had seen Joe and Biddy?
5. How had Estella changed over the years?
6. How did Pip feel about their previous parting?
7. How did Pip feel about parting from her now?