Great Expectations: Character Mind Map & Summary
Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations: the key characters, the big revelations, the two endings, famous lines and the exam facts.
The Character Mind Map
Tap any name to open the details.
Pip (Philip Pirrip)
An orphan raised “by hand” by his harsh sister and her gentle husband Joe, a blacksmith. Suddenly given “great expectations” of wealth by a secret benefactor, he becomes a snobbish gentleman in London and neglects Joe. When he learns who his benefactor really is, he loses his fortune but grows into a better man.
My father’s family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip.Ending: works abroad; meets Estella again at Satis House
🔨 Home & the Forge
The Kent marshesJoe GargeryThe blacksmith · Pip’s brother-in-law
Role: Simple, loving and good; the true moral centre of the novel. He nurses Pip and pays his debts.
Life is made of ever so many partings welded together.Marries Biddy
Mrs JoePip’s harsh elder sister
Role: Raises Pip “by hand” with a cane called Tickler.
Dies after an attack by OrlickBiddyPip’s friend and teacher
Role: Kind and wise; she sees Pip’s faults clearly.
Marries Joe🕰️ Satis House
Miss Havisham’s worldMiss HavishamThe jilted bride
Role: Abandoned on her wedding day, she still wears her wedding dress and has stopped all the clocks at twenty to nine. She raises Estella to break men’s hearts.
Dies after her dress catches fireEstellaMiss Havisham’s adopted daughter
Role: Beautiful and cold; Pip loves her hopelessly. She marries the brutal Bentley Drummle and suffers, which softens her.
⛓️ London & the Convict
The secret behind the fortuneAbel MagwitchThe escaped convict · “Provis”
Role: Helped by young Pip on the marshes, he becomes rich in Australia and is Pip’s secret benefactor. He returns to England illegally.
Dies in prison before his executionMr JaggersThe powerful lawyer
Role: Manages Pip’s money and keeps everyone’s secrets.
Herbert PocketPip’s best friend
Role: Cheerful and loyal; he calls Pip “Handel”. Pip secretly helps him start in business.
CompeysonThe villain
Role: The man who jilted Miss Havisham and Magwitch’s old criminal partner and enemy.
Drowned in a struggle with MagwitchMemory Hook: The 3 Stages of Pip’s Expectations
Dickens divided the novel into three “stages”. Each is a stage in Pip’s growth.
The Big Revelations
The secrets that turn the plot upside down.
The Two Endings
A classic exam question.
Quick Summary
The plot in five stops.
Stage 1The Marshes
- Young Pip helps an escaped convict. He is sent to play at Satis House and falls for Estella.
Stage 2Great Expectations
- Jaggers announces that Pip has a secret benefactor. Pip goes to London to become a gentleman and grows ashamed of Joe.
Stage 3The Return
- Magwitch appears and reveals he is the benefactor. Pip is horrified, but slowly comes to care for him.
Stage 4The Escape
- The attempt to smuggle Magwitch abroad fails; Compeyson drowns; Magwitch dies in prison, and his fortune goes to the Crown.
Stage 5Home Again
- Pip falls ill and Joe nurses him. He works abroad for years, then meets the widowed Estella again at Satis House.
Must-Know Exam Facts
Quick points for UGC NET, SET and PGT.
Publication
Serialised weekly in Dickens’s All the Year Round, December 1860 – August 1861.
Form
A first-person bildungsroman (coming-of-age novel), told by the older Pip looking back.
The Two Endings
The original, sadder ending was changed after advice from Bulwer-Lytton.
Setting
The Kent marshes, Rochester (the model for Satis House’s town) and London.
Famous Images
Miss Havisham’s stopped clocks and rotting wedding cake; Wemmick’s little “castle” at Walworth with his deaf father, the “Aged P”.
Key Themes
Social class and snobbery, guilt and innocence, money, and loyalty and gratitude.
100+ Key Works of English Literature
All the character mind maps in one printed book.
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