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Charles Dickens

Pacing Guide:

There are 59 chapters & ~451 pages in Great Expectations.

We will spend 30 days on Great Expectations.  Use the pacing guide below to pace your reading so that you will be finished by the end of the month and so that you will be ready for the quizzes each Friday.

14 pages/day - or - 2 chapters/day

Student Exemplars:

Great Expectations Audiobook Part 1:

Part 1: Chapter 1: 00:00:00 Chapter 2: 00:11:30 Chapter 3: 00:32:13 chapter 4: 00:43:03 chapter 5: 01:03:48 chapter 6: 01:26:47 chapter 7: 01:31:16 chapter 8: 01:54:26 chapter 9: 02:23:02 chapter 10: 02:39:06 chapter 11: 02:54:19 chapter 12: 03:24:24 chapter 13: 03:37:31 chapter 14: 03:55:02 Chapter 15: 4:00:10 Chapter 16: 4:25:01 Chapter 17: 4:36:48 Chapter 18: 4:55:37 Chapter 19: 5:25:26 Chapter 20: 5:58:20 Chapter 21: 6:16:15 Chapter 22: 6:26:25 Chapter 23: 6:54:41 Chapter 24: 7:13:16 Chapter 25: 7:26:01 Chapter 26: 7:42:14 Chapter 27: 7:58:22 Chapter 28: 8:16:00 Chapter 29: 8:29:35 Chapter 30: 8:58:26

Great Expectations Audiobook Part 2:

Part 2: Chapter 31 0:00 Chapter 32 12:58 Chapter 33 25:58 Chapter 34 41:48 Chapter 35 55:32 Chapter 36 1:13:38 Chapter 37 1:29:01 Chapter 38 1:45:14 Chapter 39 2:14:32 Chapter 40 2:41:03 Chapter 41 3:09:54 Chapter 42 3:21:58  Chapter 44 3:49:06 Chapter 45 4:06:15 Chapter 46 4:23:10 Chapter 47 4:40:23 Chapter 48 4:54:59 Chapter 49 5:10:29 Chapter 50 5:32:08 Chapter 51 5:41:20 Chapter 52 5:59:34 Chapter 53 6:11:53 Chapter 54 6:42:02 Chapter 55 7:14:20 Chapter 56 7:30:30 Chapter 57 7:43:03 Chapter 58 8:10:25 Chapter 59 8:27:45

Great Expectations Assignment Directions:

You will create a reading log with the class.  Then, you will be assigned (or you may be assigned to pick) 1 of the guiding questions assignments below to respond to in your reading log.  You will be responsible for keeping up with you reading outside of class, as well as with using the audio book above responsibly.  Because this is an ongoing assignment that will take about a month to complete, and because much of the reading and writing will be done on your own at home, no extensions to this assignment will be given.  You are expected to keep up with your reading and writing outside of school even if you are absent from the class!

Great Expectations Guiding Questions 1

Directions:  As you read the novel, you will keep a log (that is, a record) of your journey through it.  Log entries will consist of such things as chapter summaries; comments on the action of the story, characters, language, themes, and so forth; and your personal reactions to those elements of the story. For every other 2 chapters that you read (1-2, 5-6, 9-10, etc.), choose one of the questions below to respond to it on the blank lines at the bottom half of each page of you reading log.  You may NOT ​choose to respond to the same question that you used on the previous log entry.  Once you have finished the novel, you should have responded to each question at least twice.
  1. Summarize the action in these two chapters.  Your summary must be at least 5 sentences long.​
  2. ​Comment on what you think is the significance of these chapters.  What would the novel be like without them?
  3. As questions about the chapters.  Has anything in the chapters caused you confusion?  As one of the characters in the chapters a question -- or ask me a question.
  4. Quote lines from the chapter(s) that you enjoyed and comment onthem.
  5. Describe your reactions to a character, action or idea you confronted in the scene.
  6. Talk about the relationships characters have to one another, quoting specific words or phrases to give evidence for you opinion.
  7. Pretend you are an actor playing one of the characters in the scene. Get inside that character's mind.  Tell how the character feels about herself, about other characters, about the situation of the scene.
  8. Using the list of common western symbols (see the images to the right) identify and track any common western symbols that appear in the text, explain what you think these symbols mean and how they add meaning to the text and/or help to support and​ over-arching theme.
  9. If you did not understand the chapter you read, you may tell me so.  Be specific as to what parts of the chapter gave you problems.  For instance, using your ellipses (...) cite the parts of the chapter(s) that you did not understand.  Then make a plan by listing 2 to 3 steps you can do as a reader, such as using the internet, an audio book, your teacher, your parents, or a friend or sibling, to help yourself better understand what you are trying to read.  Be sure to be specific and tell me what supports you need from me in order to understand the chapter.
  10. *** ANSWER THIS QUESTION LAST AFTER READING CHAPTER 59 ***  Which ending did you prefer and why?  Be specific.

Common Western Symbols

Great Expectations Guiding Questions 2

Directions:  For every other 2 chapters that you read (1-2, 5-6, 9-10, etc.), choose two of the questions below for each of the chapters listed to respond to on the blank lines at the bottom half of each page of your reading log.  If there is only one question offered then respond to that question.  Your responses should be written in complete sentences, and should reflect good academic writing.
(1) Chapter 1:
  1. ​What would be your Great Expectations name? (Your last name to the first vowel and your first name to the first consonant. Ex: Tim Carter would be “Cat”) 
  2. Where is Pip?  Describe it.   
  3. What does it mean that the man had a “great iron on his leg”?  Who is this man?
  4. What does the man want with a file and wittles?
  5. What did the man say that really frightened Pip?  Do you think Pip will come back to the man with what he requested?
(2) Chapter 2:
  1. Pip describes Joe Gargery as “a sort of Hercules in strength – and also in weakness.”  What does he mean by this?
  2. What are your impressions of Mrs. Gargery?  Describe her. Do you know anyone like Pip’s sister?
  3. Pip makes this statement: “Conscience is a dreadful thing when it accuses a man or a boy, but when, in the case of a boy, when this secret burden co-operates with another secret burden down the leg of his trousers, it is (as I can testify) a great punishment.”  What things does Pip have to feel guilty about at the moment?​​
(3) Chapter 3:
  1. How does the weather reflect Pip’s mood?  Give specifics.
  2. Pip is so afraid of getting caught, who does he imagine accusing him? Can you relate to Pip in his distress over stealing?   
  3. Who will Pip be apprenticing with?  Do you think he excited about it?
  4. After reading these three chapters, how would you describe Pip? (Think about his actions and thought processes in his dealings with the Gargerys and the convict) ​
(4) Chapter 7:
  1. How does Pip describe his experiences in learning to read and write?  Do you ever feel this way at school when you are learning a new subject?
  2. How is your compassion developed toward Joe in these pages?  How do you think Pip feels towards him? Is he ashamed of him, feel sorry for him, etc? 
  3. What effect do you think Joe’s dialect has on the development of his character for the reader?  How could Dickens use dialect to show the separation of social classes later in the novel?
  4. After reading the chapter, make a prediction as to what will happen at Miss Havisham’s.  Do you think he will like it there?  What benefits could he reap from being around people of a higher class?​
(5) Chapter 8:
  1. What does the description of Miss Havisham’s house remind you of?  How would you feel right now if you were Pip?
  2. One name Pip calls the manor house is “Enough House”.  What could this name symbolize or characterize about the house?
  3. What are your first impressions of Estella? Do you know anyone like her?
  4. Close your eyes and listen to the description of Miss Havisham.  Where does it sound like she belongs?
  5. What might be the significance of the clocks being stopped at “twenty minutes to nine”?
  6. Explain what Pip means when he says “Her contempt for me was so strong that it became infectious, and I caught it.”  What is this the beginning of?
  7. Who did Pip see hanging?  What could this foreshadow?
  8. After reading the chapter, how has Pip’s view of himself changed now that he has met Estella and Havisham?​
(6) Chapter 9:
  1. After reading the paragraph, think about Pip’s statement to his readers.  Can you think of a time when you had such a memorable day as this?  What kind of a change did it make in you? ​
(7) Chapter 11:
  1. What was this room? Piece together what you have seen in this room and Miss Havisham’s dressing room and guess what might have happened to Havisham to make her the way she is now. 
  2. Why did Estella let Pip kiss her?  What does this say about Estella? 
(8) Chapter 12:
  1. Why do you think Miss Havisham would “prefer (Pip’s) being innocent”?  What does this say about Miss Havisham?
  2. After reading the excerpts, do you think Pip is excited about Joe going to Miss Havisham’s?
(9) Chapter 13:
  1. ​Explain why Joe acts the way he does around Miss Havisham.  Do you think Pip is embarrassed? Why or why not?
  2. How has Pip’s feelings about being Joe’s apprentice changed?  What do you credit this change to?  Is it Pip’s fault? 
(10) Chapter 18:
(11) Chapter 19:
(12) Chapter 22:
  1. Pip is older now and studying in London.  In a pub he runs into the boy he dueled with so long ago in Havisham’s yard.  Herbert begins to tell him the story behind Havisham.
  2. In ways could Havisham be a symbol for Queen Victoria?
  3. Summarize what happened to Miss Havisham.  Does this make you feel sorry for her? Why or why not?  How does this explain Miss Havisham’s strange lifestyle? 
(13) Chapter 29:
  1. Pip describes his love for Estella.  Is it really Love or is it something else?  Do you think you have experienced love like that? 
  2. Thinking about Miss Havisham’s past, why would love be a curse?
  3. What does Havisham say love really is? Do you agree with her? What does this explain about the way she raised Estella and the way she pushes Pip to worship Estella.
(14) Chapter 33:
  1. Estella makes this statement: “We have no choice, you and I, but to obey our instructions.  We are not free to follow out own devices, you and I.”  What insight does she have by making this statement?  Could this be foreshadowing something? What? What could Dickens be saying about life in general through this statement? 
(15) Chapter 38:
  1. ​Pip says he “Never had one hour’s happiness in [Estella’s] society.”  If he is never happy when he is with her, why do you think he keeps coming back?  How often do you think Love goes hand-in-hand with misery?   
  2. Pip admits that Estella is Miss Havisham’s tool for wreaking havoc on men, him including.  What is his reason for staying in love with Estella?  Do you think it is worth Pip suffering so much just based on the idea that he might marry her one day?
  3. Pip says Miss Havisham now feared Estella.  Why would she?  Who do you think is to blame for Estella’s personality?  For Pip’s?
(16) Chapter 39:
  1. Who is the man that comes to see Pip?  Predict why he is there and what he might want.
  2. Why is Pip so horrified that the convict is his benefactor? Discuss what this might mean for him now.   
  3. (“Miss Havisham’s intentions towards me…” to “…never undo what I had done.”)  Summarize the realizations that Pip has come to.  What does he understand now about Estella and Havisham?  Why can he not go back to Joe now?
(17) Chapter 44:
  1. After reading the first excerpt, why do you think Miss Havisham let Pip think she was his benefactor?  How did this play into the game she built around Pip and Estella?
  2. After reading the second excerpt, predict what you think will happen to Estella from what Pip said about Estella’s fiancée.
(18) Chapter 49:
  1. What does Pip want the 900 pounds for?  Why?
  2. Now that we know Estella is an orphan, what could you guess about her lineage?  Is she any different than Pip in her social standing?
  3. After reading the chapter, do you think Miss Havisham set herself on fire?  What are your clues?  Where did they end up laying her and what could this foreshadow?
(19) Chapter 59:
  1. ​Why do you think Joe and Biddy named their son Pip?
  2. Do you think Estella got what she deserved in her marriage?
  3. After reading the chapter, does it end the way you wanted it to?  Does it end the way you think Pip wanted it to?
  4. Read the alternate ending.  Which do you prefer and why?  Spend some time and write down another alternate ending that you think would better conclude the story.  Pick up where Pip and Estella meet in the garden. 
(20) Original Ending:
  1. ​Compare and contrast the endings. 
  2. What does Pip mean when he says Estella’s “suffering had been stronger than Miss Havisham's teaching”?
  3. How does the original ending affect the plot of the novel?

Great Expectations Guiding Question(s) 3: Expectations Journal

Directions: In this novel, things are often not what they seem.  Discuss how the theme of "expectations" is illustrated by and through the major characters in this book.  How are Pip's expectations different from and similar to those of Joe Gargery, Miss Havisham, Estella, and Magwitch?  How do the expectations that the major characters in this book have for themselves and for others evolve as the text progresses?  How do these expectations help forward the plot and help shape character development?  Are these various expectations ever unfair or unrealistic?  This assignment may be done instead of, or in addition to, the guiding question assignments above.  Students should use the space in the reading log normally reserved for their guiding question responses to keep an ongoing record of the theme of expectations in the novel.  This question of expectations will be more relevant for some chapters than for others, as the story develops, therefore students may choose which chapters they feel would be most appropriate to stop and respond to.  However, students must respond in their Expectations Journal a total of 8 times with their final entry being a response to one of the two endings to the novel.

Great Expectations Guiding Questions 4: Socratic Discussion Questions from Oprah

1.  In this novel, things are often not what they seem.  Discuss how the theme of "expectations" is illustrated by and through the major characters in this book.  How are Pip's expectations different from and similar to those of Joe Gargery, Miss Havisham, Estella, and Magwitch?

2.  Why do you think it is one of Magwitch's principal conditions that Pip "always bear the name of Pip" (which is actually his childhood nickname) in order to receive his financial support?

3.  If Pip had not received his "great expectations" and never left Joe's forge, how do you think his life would have been different?  Are the lessons he learns during his physical and emotinal journey necessary for him to arrive at the wisdom he displays as the middle-aged narrator of this tale?  In what ways?

4.  Why do you think Miss Havisham manipulates and misleads Pip into thinking she is his secret benefactor?  What, if anything, does she derive from this action?

5.  Given Dickens' portrayal of Estella, What do you think attracts Pip to her in the first place, and what, when he learns of her cold-blooded manipulation of men, keeps Pip devoted to her until the end, loving her, as he says, "against reason, against promise, against epace"? (page 594)

6.  In the final chapter, Estella says to Pip: "Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching." (page 834)  Discuss the theme of suffering in this book - specifically how it instructs Pip, Miss Havisham and Estella.

7.  In chapter 49, Miss Havisham confesses to Pip that in adopting Estella, she "meant to save her (Estella) from misery like my own." (page 753)  Do you believe this, given Dickens' harsh characterization of Miss Havisham throughout the novel?

8.  In chapter 49, when MIss Havisham is set on fire, do you believe that, given her state of mind, Dickens intends us to read this as an accident ora s a kind of penance/attempted suicide on her part for her cruelty to Pip and Estella?

9.  What do you think makes Pip change his opinion of his benefactor Magwitch from one of the initial repugnance to one of the deep and abiding respect and love?

10.  In chapter 59, when Pip places Joe and Biddy's son (also named Pip) on the same tombstone that opens the novel, what do you think Dickens intends to tell us with this image?  Given the novel's theme of how the sins of others are visited upon us, do you view this image as a foreboding one in a way?