Great ExpectationsBy Charles Dickens

First published 1860-1861Serially

Do Now: 14 March 2012

• Choose an important person (or people) in your life who has (have) expectations for you—parents, teachers, friends, coaches etc. What are others’ expectations of you?

• Are their expectations consistent with what you expect of yourself, or do you expect something different?

• Do expectations matter? Why or why not?

Charles Dickens

- Born on February 7, 1812 in England. Second child and eldest son of eight children.- Father mismanaged family $- Lived in poverty ; no longer able to attend school- 1824 (12 years old)- father sent to debtors’ prison; Charles

went to work pasting labels on bottles at shoe polish factory; painful, socially humiliating, haunting (cramped/rats)

- Fiction focuses on class issues= plight of the poor and oppressed and lost, suffering children

- Unsuccessful marriage that produced 10 children- Died in 1870

• Deeply concerned about the struggles of the poor and mistreated people.

• During this period, people who simply could not pay their bills often went to debtors’ prison.– Children of those in debtors’ prison

often had to support themselves.– Up to 16 hours per day for pennies

• A criminal who was considered dangerous might be sent to what is now Australia to serve time.

• London was a rich city, but poor people lived in terrible squalor.

• In Dickens’ time, British convicts were often punished in a way that might seem “cruel and unusual” by today’s standards.

The unique history of Australia is tied to a thread in Great Expectations.

• Convicts thought to pose some threat to society might be shipped off to a distant British territory—what is now Australia.

Great Expectations: Background

During the time when Australia served as a penal colony for England, prisoners were deposited near what is now Sydney.

• Only the strongest and hardest-working people could prosper in the harsh conditions.

• Once sent to Australia, a convict was frequently forbidden to ever return to England.

Great Expectations: Background

DUE BY THE END OF THE PERIODCHAPTER 81. How does Pumblechook treat Pip before his visit to Satis

House? Why?2. Describe Satis House. Though it is a mansion, what other type

of building does it seem to resemble?3. What does Pip conclude about why Miss Havisham and the

room look as they do?4. How do Pip and Estella interact? What do their interactions

reveal about each of them?5. After visiting Satis House, why does Pip feel ashamed?6. What does Pip see hanging by a beam as he leaves? What do

you think is going on here?– By the end of the period tomorrow, you will be required to read and

complete questions about chapters 9 &10. You will have the period tomorrow to work, but please plan accordingly if you are a slow reader. Quiz on 1-10 and background on Friday.

LITERATURE CIRCLES/CLASS PARTICIPATION

• While reading, ALL GROUP MEMBERS SHOULD: – write down questions, take notes on significant quotes

• Additionally, YOU WILL HAVE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING JOBS:– VOCAB MASTER- find and define new vocabulary as it

relates to the chapter– PLOT/CHARACTER STUDY- What significant plot events

occur in this chapter? What new characters do we meet? Describe. What do we learn about central characters?

– QUESTIONER- Create a minimum of three COMPREHENSIVE CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS THAT RELATE TO THE CHAPTER

– ILLUSTRATOR-Create an illustration that connections to the chapter and significant plot or character developments; a corresponding quote should be included

26 March 2012: Do Now

• What factors can be involved in a fight?• What do you think motivated the fight

between Pip and the “pale young gentleman” he meets in chapter 11?

27 March 2012: DO NOW• In preparation for the mini-conferences I’ll have with you

today, please answer these questions. - What do you think are your

strengths when it comes to reading and writing?-At this point in the year, what areas

in reading or writing would you still like to improve upon?

-Which books that we've read this year do you feel you had the best understanding of? Why? If you had to choose two books to incorporate into a research paper, which would they be?

2 April 2012: Do Now• You turn 18 and win five

million dollars. What would you do with the money? Would you change the plans that you have for yourself? Why or why not?

Finally, does money buy happiness?

• In chapter 25 of Great Expectations, Wemmick states: "...When I go into the office, I leave the castle behind me, and when I come into the castle, I leave the office behind me. If it's not in any way disagreeable to you, you'll oblige me by doing the same. I don't wish it professionally spoken of" (Dickens 192). Later in the chapter, Pip describes him in the following passage: "By degrees, Wemmick got dryer and harder as we went along, and his mouth tightened into a post office again. At last, when we got to his place of business and he pulled out his key from his coat-collar, he looked as unconscious of his Walworth property as if the castle and the drawbridge and the arbour and the lake and the fountain and the Aged had all been blown into space together by the last discharge of the stinger" (Dickens 193).

• Dickens is making a statement about the different "lives" that people lead, noting that Wemmick is an entirely different person in the comfort of his home than he is at his job.

• What statement is Dickens making about the demands of Wemmick’s job? Do you think this is the case in our society today? Should workers have to “change” who they are to succeed professionally? Explain.

Do Now: 17 April 2012

25 April 2012: Do Now

• Analyze the following quote: “May I ask you if you have ever had an opportunity of remarking, down in your part of the country, that the children of not exactly suitable marriages are always most particularly anxious to be married?” (Dickens 232)

• Do you think this is true? Why or why not?

• Trabb’s boy- “miscreant” (behaves badly, breaks the law), pg. 226, 227, pg. 228

• Clara- pg. 232• Mr. Waldengarver- Wopsle’s stage name• Sarah Pocket- “green and yellow” friend

• Why does Pip meet Estella’s coach so early? What does this say about him?

• What is Wemmick’s “green-house”? Why is this is an odd metaphor and what does Dickens mean by it?

• Why has Estella come to London? Where is she going and why is she going there?

• Given the way Dickens portrays Estella, what do you think attracts Pip to her? Though Estella treats him badly, Pip maintains hope. In what does his hope lie?

• What are the “Finches at the Grove”? Why does Pip associate with them?

• Describe Pip’s spending habits. What do Pip and Herbert do when their spending seems out of control? Why is this ironic?

• What significant event occurs at the end of chapter 34? Make a prediction about how this will “play out” in the next chapters.