Great Expectations
Charles Dickens (1861)
“A poor boy is given a secret fortune and ruins every relationship that matters — then has to figure out who he actually is.”
Character Analysis
Pip narrates his own worst behavior with painful honesty — the sign of a man who has processed his shame rather than suppressed it. His central failing is snobbery dressed as aspiration: he convinces himself that wanting to be a gentleman is about love for Estella, when it is also about rejecting the people who actually love him. His growth is not from poor to rich but from self-deceived to honest — and the cost of that growth is everything he thought he wanted.
Narrates in formal, literary Victorian prose as an adult. As a child, his language is simpler and more direct. His class anxiety shows in the detail of what he notices — hands, boots, table manners — and the shame he attaches to the bodies of people he loves.