Literature Essays

Miss Havisham is perhaps one of the most striking characters in Dickens’ novel – “Great Expectations”. She is a manipulative, bitter and twisted woman who is completely out of touch with the real world – and Dickens reinforces this by associating props, gestures and images to fix her character and …

This was Dickens’ second-to-last complete novel. It was first published as a weekly series which made its first appearance in December 1860. Similar to Dickens’ memories of his own childhood and his great use of complex dual perspective we experience in his early years the young Pip seemed powerless to …

Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part One explores the various and contrasting interpretations of the three main protagonists’ attitudes concerning honour, duty and the struggle between being responsible or living a life of self-indulgence. The play extempore is set in the Boar’s Head Tavern, which is the frequent meeting place for Hal, …

I am going to examine the hardships endured at home, in institutions and in society of children in Dickenson times. At this time poverty and cruelty was rife and commonplace in society, institutions which were supposed to care for children, exploited and abused their authority over them. These institutions were …

In this essay I will discuss in detail how both Pip (the main protagonist of the novel) and Abel Magwitch (the convict) experience changes, and how this relates to the setting. They both change drastically in the story, as their personalities mature when placed in different situations. In chapter one, …

Pip’s role in ‘Great Expectations’ is developed through the positive and negative influences of Joe, Abel Magwitch and Miss Havisham. Firstly there is Joe, who Pip, in chapter two, describes as a “dear fellow”. He shows through out the entire book that he is a “dear fellow”. He also always …

Great expectations was written by Charles Dickens not as a novel, but as episodes in a journal. Dickens himself was an entertainer and serious writer. He used his books to send across a message and campaign for social justice. His books contain autobiographical aspects as he spent time as a …

Summary Pip was a common working boy; he was used to his status and was happy. But after he met the cold and proud Estelle, he fell foolishly in love with her. He became ashamed of himself, ashamed of his family and ashamed of his work. That was when he …

John Clare was an English poet who lived mostly in rural Northamptonshire from 1793 to 1864. In 1837, he had a mental breakdown and was admitted to an asylum in Epping Forest. Four years later, he discharged himself and walked the 80 miles home in three and a half days, …

Financial insecurity is a major theme in both Tess of the D’Urbervilles and in The Mill on the Floss with the consequences of it severe in both cases. In the former it causes the protagonist of the novel, Tess, to seek help from her wealthy ancestors – causing the tragedy …