Use of form in Great Expectations
The 'form' of a text is its type and genre. Great Expectations is a novel (type) written in the BildungsromanA type of novel that tells about the early moral, psychological, and intellectual development of the main character. The Harry Potter books are a modern-day example. tradition (genre).
First-person viewpoint
Great Expectations follows Pip's journey from a poor childhood into privileged adulthood and looks at the power that money and social class have to change him as he grows up. As Charles Dickens uses a first personThe 'I' or 'we' used by a narrator who is a participant in a narrative, in contrast to the third person - 'he', 'she' or 'they' - of a narrator who is not directly involved. in this book, it is important to remember that the events that happen and all the other characters are seen through Pip's eyes and that this may affect our views of them. It is also written in past tense and with hindsight. This means that the reader and the narrator (an older, wiser Pip) both know more than the younger Pip who is experiencing the events of the novel.
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. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.
In the novel's opening paragraph Charles Dickens establishes who his protagonistThe chief character in a literary work. is going to be. It is also made clear that this central character is going to narrate the events of his earlier life.
A journey
The specific form of this novel is known as 'Bildungsroman' – 'bildung' means education and 'roman' means novel in German. This type of novel focuses on the childhood and moral, spiritual and physical growth of the central character. It was a popular novel form in the 19th-century and used widely to explore the journey of a young person from childhood to maturity. By the end of such a novel, the central character will have experienced disappointments and upsets but will have emerged as an older and wiser human being.
We owed so much to Herbert’s ever cheerful industry and readiness, that I often wondered how I had conceived that old idea of his inaptitude, until I was one day enlightened by the reflection, that perhaps the inaptitude had never been in him at all, but had been in me.
Towards the end of the novel Pip has a number of moments when he realises that he has been mistaken in the past. Here, he comes to the conclusion that he was wrong to consider Herbert as inferior to himself.
Double ending
Dickens actually wrote two separate endings for Great Expectations. When a friend read the original he advised the author to rethink it. In both endings Pip meets Estella again but in the original, Estella is already remarried and Pip leaves with no hope of them being toegther. You might find it useful to look at both and compare and contrast them.
Tony Jordan discusses the manuscript for Great Expectations with Dr Holly Furneaux