From the marshes to London to the old Satis House left in one instant of time, Philip Pirrip, better known as Pip, the narrator in Charles Dickens's novel Great Expectations, places just enough emphasis on the surroundings to tie them closely to the actions that take place within them. The deep, sometimes metaphorical descriptions of nineteenth century England create an atmosphere that the reader is pulled into from the very first page.
The main conflict that our protagonist Pip battles is an undying love for a cold, almost heartless girl named Estella that is symbolic of any other love that just can't be worked out. Pip goes through his "great expectations," as his situation with a wealthy benefactor is called, thinking that he is meant to be with Estella. And this love for Estella is discovered within Pip at the very first time he meets her. She, like the other characters that appear in the novel, are introduced to the readers as they take their place in the story of Pip's life, which is told in chronological order.
Pip believes that Miss Havisham, mother to Estella, is his benefactor, and intends for him to marry Estella. Contrary to this belief, an escaped convict that Pip helped in the very early stages of his life and the novel is the one responsible for Pip's "great expectations."
In each chapter, Pip goes through changes brought about by the setting, plot, and other, unchanging characters like his best friend Herbert Pocket, his gaurdian Jaggers, and a clerk named Wemmick. These changes ultimately lead to Pip and Estella becoming friends at the end of the novel. Pip's love for Estella, however, is never solved. In the final chapter, they're balanced, and the reader doesn't know which way the outcome will fall.
Besides David Copperfield, Great Expectations is Dickens's most autobiographical novel. It is told in the first person perspective and is very concrete, but also reflective. Therefore, other characters are revealed by their own actions and dialogue. Actions that took place before the novel began are described by characters that were involved in those certain actions by talking to Pip.
Great Expecations is a quest that Pip undergoes as he matures through life, and a search for the love of Estella. Pip discovers that he is meant for Estella, but that what is destined sometimes is complicated by other people and situations, such as certain personality traits inherent in Estella that makes her cold towards Pip. Over all, Pip finds that everyone has problems, yet over them all, most people are good. Magwitch was plagued with events that complicated his life, yet still gave Pip his "great expectations" and made him a gentleman. Estella, at the end of the novel, was worn from a cruel life, and found her place in friendship with Pip. Dickens shows that people, in general, always will have challenges, but there aren't any that cannot be worked out.