Great Expectations Plot

2. Great Expectations Plot • Pip helps the convict by getting him a file and food. The convict is caught by the militia and sent back to the prison boat. • Pip is paid to play at Miss Havisham’s house. He meets Estella and falls in love with her and the extravagant lifestyle he sees there. Pip is actually being used as a tool to train Estella to be cruel to men. • Pip stops attending Satis House and trains to be a blacksmith with Joe. When he is 18-ish, a mysterious benefactor gives Pip a huge sum of money to become a gentleman (the money is controlled by Mr Jaggers). Pip assumes the money is from Miss Havisham so that he can eventually marry Estella. • Pip moves to London where he becomes a snob, spending his money to keep up with ‘the Finches’. He is looked after by Herbert (Miss Havisham’s relative) • Pip’s snobby behaviour causes him to fall out with Joe as he is embarrassed by Joe. • Estella is brought out into society and encourages men to fall in love with her (apart from Pip!). Pip falls madly in love with her and attempts to pursue her. • Drummle (Pip’s tormentor) becomes engaged to Estella. • Pip discovers Magwitch in his rooms. Magwitch, the convict, was Pip’s secret benefactor and not Miss Havisham.

3. Magwitch is caught by the police and Pip helps him in prison where Magwitch dies. Pip loses the money Magwitch gave him and realises he has been a snob. • Pip becomes ill and Joe uses his savings to pay off Pip’s debts. • Pip goes to see Miss Havisham and calls her out for letting him believe she was his benefactor and that he was destined to marry Estella. He asks for money to be gifted to Herbert so he can marry Clara and live happily. • Miss Havisham dies from setting herself on fire. • Years later Pip tells us that he is happy with life. Joe and Biddy are married with children. Herbert and Clara are married with children. Pip is uncle to these children and has travelled the world for his work at the merchant company. He re-visits Satis House as it is to be sold and meets a widowed Estella. Apparently they leave together.

4. Quotes • A file and “some bread, cheese, a half a jar of mincemeat… brandy, a meatboneand a beautiful round compact pork pie.” • List shows the amount of items he brings • Word choice reveals high quality of the items • Word choice of ‘beautiful, round compact pork pie’ suggests item is precious.

5. “we don’t know what you’ve done but we wouldn’t have you starved to death for it, poor miserable fellow creature, would us Pip? • Rhetorical question shows that Joe is expressing his moral standpoint over helping a fellow human. • Word choice of ‘poor miserable fellow creature’ shows he thinks the convict is in an awful state.

6. “I was so hurt, spurned, humiliated, angry, offended… Sorry - I cannot hit upon the right name for the smart” • List of feelings shows he is struggling to identify what he felt. • Word choice of ‘smart’ shows that the insult hurt him both emotionally and physically. • Pip cannot understand the emotions he is feeling at this point. Even as an adult re-telling the story he struggles to identify what he felt.

7. Pip is ‘impatient’ and ‘out of temper’ with Joe • Word choice shows how out of character Pip is behaving. He is becoming aggressive and frustrated. • “You won’t find half so much fault in me if… you come put your head in at the forge window” • Word choice ‘fault’ suggests Pip finds something humiliating in Joe’s behaviour. • Word choice ‘forge’ reminds Pip of his roots, that he comes from a trade/working background and that he is ‘honest’. • ‘took my place by Magwitch’s side’ acknowledging the ‘affection, gratitude and generosity’ of Magwitch. • Word choice of ‘my place’ shows Pip owning his relationship with Magwitch. Takes responsibility for Magwitch. • List shows how kind Magwitch has been to Pip and Pip is now reciprocating.

8. “I work pretty hard for a sufficient living and therefore, yes, I do well” • Word choice sufficient shows he is comfortable in his life. • Word choice of ‘pretty hard’ shows that he has learned the value of honest work and effort. • “saw no shadow of another parting from her” • They will not part again.

9. THE POEMS! • The Ferryman’s Arms is about waiting for the ferry to go home and waiting for death to take you to the afterlife. • Nil Nil is about the decline of a football team and the death of a pilot and also about the inevitability of all our declines/deaths. • 11.00 Baldovan is about 2 boys getting a bus into town and also about how they will grow up and things will change. • Rain is about rain in the movies being played alongside sad moments and about the sad existence of life. • Waking with Russell is about Paterson waking up next to his child and is about Paterson realising he has a purpose in life now. • The Circle is about Jamie painting and making mistakes as he does so and it is about the fact that we can’t control all elements of our life but we do have levels of input.

10. 10 marker • Identify the question through the poem in front of you. (1 mark) • Quote and analyse from the poem in front of you thoroughly!! (2 marks) - • Identify the question through another poem (1 mark) • Quote and analyse (1 mark) THOROUGHLY (2 marks) • Quote and analyse (1 mark) THOROUGHLY (2 marks) • Quote and analyse (1 mark) THOROUGHLY (2 marks) - • Identify the question through a second poem (1 mark) • Quote and analyse (1 mark) THOROUGHLY (2 marks) • Quote and analyse (1 mark) THOROUGHLY (2 marks) • Quote and analyse (1 mark) THOROUGHLY (2 marks)

11. The Ferryman’s Arms • “ten minutes to kill” • pun/play on words/ double meaning as he has time to waste but also he needs to defeat death • “drawn, like a moth, to the darkened back room” • simile compares the speaker to a moth because both are pulled towards a light in the darkness. Comparison between the moth and dead people going towards the light at the end of the tunnel too. • Structure places the ‘jetty’ in the poem. • “from somewhere unspeakable/ to here” sibilance makes the words sounds hissed. Doubled as Gaelic place name against afterlife

12. Nil Nil • “Jackets on infinite notional fields” • Word choice – ‘infinite notional’ suggests size and openness of the created football pitch whereas in the past it was a real team. ‘jackets’ instead of goalposts. • “a plague of grey bonnets” • Metaphor compares the celebratory hats to a swarm of locusts in the air. The reference to plague suggests the scale of the hats in the air and that there was a huge number telling us the team was well supported. • ‘the plot thinning down to point so refined’ • Metaphor and plosive word choice. Life comes to an end. The plosive-ness makes the phrase sound sharp and pointed. • Structure. Told in two stanzas that represent the two stories – the football team and the pilot. There is also an epigraph to make the poem look like it begins with a philosophical quote.

13. 11.00 Baldovan • “let us down in another country” • Word choice ‘another’ shows that they have moved to a new part of town to go out for the day, but also that they grow up and things change. • “Are ye sure? Are ye sure?” • Repetition and the rhetorical question show the speaker’s uneasiness both about going into town and about being a grown up. • Long sentence and repeated use of ‘and’ • Shows panic at what will happen when he grows up. He is overthinking the future and starting to feel anxious about what is going to happen to him on both the trip into town and when he grows up. • Structure: Poem is in couplets the whole way through. As the speakers panic kicks in these lines use enjambment to run onto the next line to highlight his panicky thoughts.

14. Rain • Structure: 7 quatrains and a line. Final quatrain is in italics to show it is an external voice speaking, perhaps a greater force (God or narrator). • “the dress lies ruined on the grass/ or the girl walks off the overpass” • Word choice and rhyme. “ruined” loss of innocence, ‘walks off’ suggests suicide. Morbid depressed tone. • “forget the ink, the milk, the blood –” • Word choice and list – he wants us to focus on what is important. • “And none of this, none of this matters”

15. Waking with Russell • Structure: sonnet. It is a love poem to his son. • “When you cut in front and lit it” • Metaphor of Russell being a source of light/meaning and purpose to Don to give his life an intent. • “until the smile poured through us like a river” • Word choice ‘poured’ suggests force of their happiness. Simile of ‘like a river’ also highlights force of happiness and the weight it hits them with. They are super happy. • “I kissed your mouth and pledged myself forever” • Word choice ‘pledged’ suggests the seriousness of his promise to care for and love Russell.

16. The Circle • Structure: 9 quatrains. (does each one represent a planet in the solar system) • “one great heavenly design” • Word choice of ‘great’ suggests his work is impressive, ‘heavenly’ suggests there is something divine about his task. Jamie is a mini god. • “the flutter in his signature” • Word choice “flutter’ suggests Jamie’s disability. ‘signature’ suggests his identity. • “living word” • Metaphor. Although there are some things we are expected to do in life, we have elements of control over what we do.