Great Expectations Coming Of Age Analysis

Great Expectations is a coming-of-age novel written by the famous English author Charles Dickens, in the 19th century’s Victorian Era. Great Expectations is about Pip, a poor orphan boy whose life is changed by two different meetings – one with a peculiar old lady and the beautiful girl Estella living with her and the other with an escaped convict who leaves him a fortune. Estella treats Pip poorly; however, he still falls in love with her. Pip lives with his sister and her husband, Joe when he leaves to go to London to be educated as a gentleman, and after many years he reunites with Estella. Great Expectations relate to the Victorian Era because it sheds light on differences between people in society, depicted growth and personal development and was

Great Expectations might seem like an autobiography of Charles Dickens life because there are many resemblances between the author and Pip. When Charles Dickens was young, he had to work at a boot-blacking factory in London instead of going to school, seen, as his family was so poor. Just like Pip was working as an apprentice of Joe, the village blacksmith. According to biography.com (2015), Charles Dickens felt abandoned and betrayed by the adults who were supposed to take care of him, and I believe this spread in to Pip’s life in the novel. Seen as both despised the work they had to do. Pip grew up in a life filled with poverty and destitute, similar to what Charles Dickens had to experience at a young age. In addition, they had to work their way up in society to achieve a higher social class. Charles Dickens begun his literary career as a journalist, and later he became a well-known author. Pip begun his education as a gentleman with help from the fortune he received, and later in the novel he goes abroad to work. These similarities connects Pip’s life with the author’s life and gives an insight into Charles Dickens life through Pip’s