Great Expectations

Question 1

What does Dickens describe great expectations as?

Answer 1

Comedy and tragedy

Question 2

Why is great expectations a tragedy and comedy?

Answer 2

• Pip encounters funny, cartoon-like people in their quirks and foibles
• they are tragic in their unhappiness or lack of moral vision
• tragic because they live quiet, moral lives, but cannot earn respect and make their way in the world

Question 3

What is satire?

Answer 3

• Humour or sarcasm to ridicule human vices or follies
• ## exaggeration to make a point

Question 4

You know what a Bildungsroman is. What does the protagonist do in these novels?

Answer 4

• questions the status quo or the way things are

Question 5

Dickens’ fiction combines humour, sentimentality, and elements of the grotesque. What does elements of the grotesque mean?

Answer 5

• characters’ outstanding physical or personality traits are exaggerated for comic or dramatic effect (aka Dickensian)