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GREAT EXPECTATIONSPHILIP ALLAN LITERATURE GUIDE FOR GCSE

© Philip Allan Updates

PHILIP ALLAN LITERATURE GUIDE FOR GCSE 1

AQA sample essaysUnannotated

You have 40 minutes to answer the following question. Choose two characters from the list below. Say why you think they are important in Great Expectations and how Dickens presents them: Joe; Mrs Joe; Biddy; Herbert; Miss Havisham.

Grade-A* answerJoe and Mrs Joe provide much of the dynamic which arouses

reader interest in the early part of the novel. This is as a result of the

tension between kindness and cruelty that they create with regard

to the novel’s child protagonist, Pip. However, whereas Joe remains

a significant figure throughout the novel, Mrs Joe’s presentation

loses force after the violent assault upon her by Orlick which takes

place in Chapter 15. After this point, she mainly exists as a plot

device to create suspense regarding the identity of her attacker.

The initial importance of Mrs Joe is to create sympathy for Pip

as a result of the harsh and unfair regime of punishment which

she inflicts upon the young and defenceless boy. In Chapter 2, for

example, having already been terrorised by Magwitch, Pip returns

home to be further terrorised by Mrs Joe. On Pip’s return from the

graveyard, Joe makes it clear that Mrs Joe intends to beat Pip

for having gone missing. Pip’s reaction is one of despair and this

generates enormous sympathy: ‘At this dismal intelligence, I twisted

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

Sample essays

2PHILIP ALLAN LITERATURE GUIDE FOR GCSE


the only button on my waistcoat round and round, and looked in

great depression at the fire.’ Dickens’ description of Pip’s childish

fear is both moving and authentic. Unable to defend himself, he

resorts to the only sources of immediate distraction he can find —

twisting the button and looking at the fire.

The cruel irony that Mrs Joe’s cane is called Tickler only serves to

inflame the reader’s sense of outrage and so further increases the

emotional engagement with Pip. Dickens uses the phrase ‘brought

you up by hand’ for similar ironic effect. And as well as establishing

Mrs Joe’s physical brutality, Dickens also presents her as a verbally

abusive woman whose constant complaints make the young Pip

feel unwanted. As the mature Pip who narrates the novel comments

in Chapter 4: ‘I was always treated as if I had insisted on being born.’

As well as creating enormous sympathy for Pip, Dickens’ presentation

of Mrs Joe also creates suspense as it allows Dickens to trap Pip

between his fear of Magwitch’s dangerous ‘young man’ — should he

renege on his word to steal food and a file for Magwitch — and his

fear of Mrs Joe’s retribution should he be caught in the act.

Despite the extreme unpleasantness of her nature, Dickens

contrives to use Mrs Joe to create humour. This arises partly from

the severity of her appearance, which Dickens depicts through his

association of her with such potentially pain-causing objects as a

‘nutmeg-grater’ and ‘pins and needles’ (Chapter 2). Other humour

arises out of the severity of her temper as, for example, when she

‘knocked his [Joe’s] head for a little while against the wall behind

him’ (Chapter 2). The reason why her behaviour results in humour

rather than horror is because of the comic treatment of the violence:

her attacks never result in actual harm and, therefore, appear more

ridiculous than frightening.

Dickens’ more serious use of Mrs Joe is to develop some of

his cherished themes, especially that of the mistreatment of

defenceless children by heartless adults. Dickens also uses Mrs

Joe to introduce one of the most prominent themes in this novel

— the ambition for higher social status. As Mrs Joe complains in

Chapter 4, ‘Perhaps if I warn’t a blacksmith’s wife…’ Indeed, her

influence in the novel may be far more extensive than might initially

be assumed as it may well be that her intense desire for a higher

social status is part of the reason why Pip is so easily impressed by

the snobbery and arrogance of Estella and Miss Havisham.

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Joe’s role in the novel is largely twofold. He is used by Dickens

to create humour and also to develop the important Dickensian

theme of the essential goodness of the common man. From his

first appearance, Dickens has Pip the narrator characterise Joe

as angelic with the reverential description: ‘Joe was a fair man,

with curls of flaxen hair on each side of his smooth face, and with

eyes of such a very undecided blue…’ (Chapter 2). Unlike Mrs

Joe, who is symbolically associated with pain-causing objects, the

comfort that Joe brings to the young Pip is symbolised through his

connection with fire in an otherwise cold and hostile world. Joe is

both a blacksmith as well as guardian of the hearth, ‘where there

was a bright large kitchen fire, and where Joe was smoking his

pipe’ (Chapter 10).

However, Joe is also described as an ‘easy-going, foolish, dear

fellow’ (Chapter 2) and it is these aspects of his nature which allow

Dickens (via Pip the narrator) to lampoon Joe for the amusement

of his readers. The initial comic dynamic is between Joe and Mrs

Joe as he passively accepts her shrewish violence: ‘She concluded

by throwing me — I often served her as a connubial missile — at

Joe’ (Chapter 2). As mentioned earlier, it is the absence of any real

harm arising from these attacks which allows the comic effect to

take place.

Joe’s role as comic ‘fall guy’ to the narrator’s/Dickens’ deliberate

ridicule continues well beyond the point when Mrs Joe has ceased

to exist as a force in the novel, and this is one of the reasons why he

is a much more significant figure than her. For example, when Joe

comes to visit Pip in London with the message from Miss Havisham

that Estella has returned from abroad, Dickens launches into one of

his most sustained comic assaults on Joe. Joe’s great awkwardness

with regard to dress, speech and physical mannerisms all combine

to create a laughable buffoon who stands in stark contrast to

the much more sophisticated and urbane manner of both Pip

and Herbert. Dickens creates much of the humour through

exaggeration, for instance Joe’s extreme inability to keep his hat on

his head and his grossly inaccurate pronunciation of architectural:

‘architectooralooral’ (Chapter 27). However, Dickens has to qualify

his humorously demeaning presentation of Joe with a reference to

Joe’s great spiritual value by having Pip the narrator quickly follow

with the comment: ‘Utterly preposterous as his cravat was, and as

his collars were, I was conscious of a sort of dignity in the look.’

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This is necessary because Dickens is also using Joe as a foil to

illuminate Pip’s increasing moral decline as he enters the world of

the gentleman.

Unlike Pip, Joe has an innate wisdom, which means that he never

loses sight of fundamental moral certainties and is never swayed

from doing right by the lure of either money or status. Towards

the end of the novel, the comic ridicule of Joe ceases as Dickens

escalates Joe’s other role, that of moral giant. It is Joe, in Chapter

57, who nurses Pip back to health and saves him from the debtors’

prison by paying the outstanding bills that Pip has so frivolously

accrued. Pip’s gratitude is expressed in reverential language: ‘O

God bless this gentle Christian man!’

Both Joe and Mrs Joe are more than just personalities representing

the extremes of human nature. They are devices that enable

Dickens to develop themes, advance the plot and provide insights

into Pip, the novel’s protagonist. It is the multifaceted nature of their

roles which makes them so important to the novel.

Grade-C answerI am going to write my essay on Biddy and Herbert and why they are

important to the book. They are similar in that they are both friendly

with Pip and help to look after him at different times. This is one way

that they are important. But Herbert did not seem so friendly when

they first met and he made Pip fight with him. Fortunately, Pip won

and knocked Herbert to the ground. This was at Miss Havisham’s

house when both of them were boys.

Biddy helps Pip a lot when he is a boy because she teaches him all

that she knows and so gives him an education of sorts. In Chapter

10 it says:

‘The felicitous idea occurred to me a morning or two later when

I woke, that the best step I could take towards making myself

uncommon was to get out of Biddy everything she knew. In

pursuance of this luminous conception I mentioned to Biddy when

I went to Mr Wopsle’s great-aunt’s at night, that I had a particular

reason for wishing to get on in life, and that I should feel very much

obliged to her if she would impart all her learning to me. Biddy, who

was the most obliging of girls, immediately said she would, and

indeed began to carry out her promise within five minutes.’

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Pip wants Biddy to educate him because he wants to be a

gentleman so that he can have the snobbish Estella but he does

not tell this to Biddy because he wants her to help him and she

might fancy him. Dickens is showing that education is important if

you want to be a gentleman and so he is using Biddy here to show

an important theme. The quotation also shows what a nice person

Biddy is because it says that she started to teach him straight away.

Biddy is also important because of the way she is different to

Estella. Biddy is a kind and useful person who, for example, teaches

in a school and is willing to help Pip with his education. She also

comes to look after Mrs Joe when Orlick has hit her very hard.

However, Estella does nothing nice, just acts like a snob all the

time and hits Pip in the face. This shows that she is a spoilt girl and

that being a lady is nothing special. You may have more money and

more people may respect you but if you are not nice then other

people won’t respect you and neither will Dickens. Biddy doesn’t

like Estella either and tells Pip in Chapter 17:

‘“Because, if it is to spite her,” Biddy pursued, “I should think — but

you know best — that might be better and more independently done

by caring nothing for her words. And if it is to gain her over, I should

think — but you know best — she was not worth gaining over.”‘

Biddy also makes a very important comment on the main theme

in the novel which is that Pip wants to be a gentleman. Biddy says,

‘Yet a gentleman should not be unjust neither’ in Chapter 19. I think

Dickens is telling the reader that being a gentleman is not about

money and power but about being nice to other people — just like

Biddy is.

Herbert is also an important character for telling the reader what a

gentleman should be because, although he is not rich, he was born

a gentleman and he behaves like a nice person also. In Chapter 22,

he says to Pip: ‘because it is a principle of his that no man who was

not a true gentleman at heart, ever was, since the world began, a

true gentleman in manner. He says, no varnish can hide the grain of

the wood; and that the more varnish you put on, the more the grain

will express itself.’

Like Biddy, he is telling the reader that being a gentleman is about

the way you behave. Dickens makes him use a metaphor which says

this. Putting varnish on and pretending to be posh and better than

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

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you are does not make you a gentleman. You have to be good and

think about other people in order to be a true gentleman.

As Pip often does not behave like this, Dickens is probably using

Herbert to show how bad Pip’s own behaviour can be now that he

is supposed to be a gentleman, especially Pip’s snobbish behaviour

to Joe and Biddy. It is also because of Pip that Herbert gets into

tremendous debt and this shows how much money gentlemen

waste and how their lives are not useful and don’t really help

anyone. However, Pip also helps Herbert get a job with Clarriker

and that is a good thing for Pip to do as it makes Herbert rich and

lets him marry Clara.

Dickens also uses Herbert as a plot device in that it is Herbert who

saves Pip when Orlick wants to kill him. If Herbert had not found

Pip’s note, Orlick would have killed Pip and that would have been

the end of the novel. This would have upset the reader as it means

the novel would have ended badly and Pip and Estella would not

have got together. This would have upset the reader because this

is a romantic novel and the reader really wants Pip and Estella to

get together.

Both Herbert and Biddy are minor characters but they are important

because of the way they show Pip’s meanness when he becomes

a gentleman. They are also important because of the way they help

him in his life.


© Philip Allan Updates7PHILIP ALLAN LITERATURE GUIDE FOR GCSE

AQA sample essaysAnnotatedGrade-A* answer Joe and Mrs Joe provide much of the dynamic which arouses

reader interest in the early part of the novel. This is as a result of the

tension between kindness and cruelty that they create with regard

to the novel’s child protagonist, Pip.1 However, whereas Joe

remains a significant figure throughout the novel, Mrs Joe’s presen-

tation loses force after the violent assault upon her by Orlick which

takes place in Chapter 15. After this point, she mainly exists as a

plot device to create suspense regarding the identity of her

attacker.2

The initial importance of Mrs Joe is to create sympathy for Pip as

a result of the harsh and unfair regime of punishment which she

inflicts upon the young and defenceless boy.3 In Chapter 2, for

example, having already been terrorised by Magwitch, Pip returns

home to be further terrorised by Mrs Joe. On Pip’s return from the

graveyard, Joe makes it clear that Mrs Joe intends to beat Pip

for having gone missing. Pip’s reaction is one of despair and this

generates enormous sympathy: ‘At this dismal intelligence, I twisted

the only button on my waistcoat round and round, and looked in

great depression at the fire.’ Dickens’ description of Pip’s childish

fear is both moving and authentic. Unable to defend himself, he

resorts to the only sources of immediate distraction he can find —

twisting the button and looking at the fire.4

1 Excellent understanding of how Dickens uses these characters to create dramatic tension.

2 Excellent distinction made between the different ways in which Dickens uses these two characters.

3 Demonstrates a clear understanding of how a minor character is being used to create reader engagement with Pip, the novel’s protagonist.

4 Very good use of PEE (point, evidence, explanation) and a very subtle analysis of Dickens’ use of language to create sympathy for Pip.

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The cruel irony that Mrs Joe’s cane is called Tickler only serves to

inflame the reader’s sense of outrage and so further increases the

emotional engagement with Pip. Dickens uses the phrase ‘brought

you up by hand’ for similar ironic effect.5 And as well as establishing

Mrs Joe’s physical brutality, Dickens also presents her as a verbally

abusive woman whose constant complaints make the young Pip

feel unwanted. As the mature Pip who narrates the novel comments

in Chapter 4: ‘I was always treated as if I had insisted on being

born.’6

As well as creating enormous sympathy for Pip, Dickens’

presentation of Mrs Joe also creates suspense as it allows Dickens

to trap Pip between his fear of Magwitch’s dangerous ‘young

man’ — should he renege on his word to steal food and a file for

Magwitch — and his fear of Mrs Joe’s retribution should he be

caught in the act.7

Despite the extreme unpleasantness of her nature, Dickens

contrives to use Mrs Joe to create humour. This arises partly from

the severity of her appearance, which Dickens depicts through his

association of her with such potentially pain-causing objects as a

‘nutmeg-grater’ and ‘pins and needles’ (Chapter 2).8 Other humour

arises out of the severity of her temper as, for example, when she

‘knocked his [Joe’s] head for a little while against the wall behind

him’ (Chapter 2). The reason why her behaviour results in humour

rather than horror is because of the comic treatment of the violence:

her attacks never result in actual harm and, therefore, appear more

ridiculous than frightening.9

Dickens’ more serious use of Mrs Joe is to develop some of

his cherished themes, especially that of the mistreatment of

defenceless children by heartless adults. Dickens also uses Mrs

Joe to introduce one of the most prominent themes in this novel

— the ambition for higher social status. As Mrs Joe complains in

Chapter 4, ‘Perhaps if I warn’t a blacksmith’s wife…’ Indeed, her

influence in the novel may be far more extensive than might initially

be assumed as it may well be that her intense desire for a higher

social status is part of the reason why Pip is so easily impressed

by the snobbery and arrogance of Estella and Miss Havisham.10

Joe’s role in the novel is largely twofold. He is used by Dickens to

create humour and also to develop the important Dickensian theme

of the essential goodness of the common man.11 From his first

5 Subtle analysis of the way in which Dickens uses irony in order to present Mrs Joe.

6 This candidate has so far displayed a clear awareness of some of the different ways in which Dickens presents his characters to the reader — the character’s behaviour, the character’s dialogue, the narrator’s observations, the author’s own use of language.

7 Again, this candidate’s comments are directly focused on the essay question and continue to be fresh and original, this time focusing on how Dickens makes this minor character significant through the creation of suspense.

8 Excellent analysis of Dickens’ use of imagery to present Mrs Joe to the reader.

9 Excellent analysis of another way in which Mrs Joe is important to the novel — as a comic device. Again, the candidate uses PEE extremely effectively in order to develop the point.

10 Another relevant, original and perceptive point, this time analysing how Dickens uses Mrs Joe to develop themes. Excellent use of PEE again.

11 Very clear and concise introduction to the second part of this essay.

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appearance, Dickens has Pip the narrator characterise Joe as

angelic with the reverential description: ‘Joe was a fair man, with

curls of flaxen hair on each side of his smooth face, and with eyes

of such a very undecided blue…’ (Chapter 2). Unlike Mrs Joe, who

is symbolically associated with pain-causing objects, the comfort

that Joe brings to the young Pip is symbolised through his

connection with fire in an otherwise cold and hostile world. Joe is

both a blacksmith as well as guardian of the hearth, ‘where there

was a bright large kitchen fire, and where Joe was smoking his pipe’

(Chapter 10).12

However, Joe is also described as an ‘easy-going, foolish, dear

fellow’ (Chapter 2) and it is these aspects of his nature which allow

Dickens (via Pip the narrator) to lampoon Joe for the amusement

of his readers.13 The initial comic dynamic is between Joe and Mrs

Joe as he passively accepts her shrewish violence: ‘She concluded

by throwing me — I often served her as a connubial missile — at

Joe’ (Chapter 2). As mentioned earlier, it is the absence of any real

harm arising from these attacks which allows the comic effect to

take place.14

Joe’s role as comic ‘fall guy’ to the narrator’s/Dickens’ deliberate

ridicule continues well beyond the point when Mrs Joe has ceased

to exist as a force in the novel, and this is one of the reasons why

he is a much more significant figure than her.15 For example,

when Joe comes to visit Pip in London with the message from

Miss Havisham that Estella has returned from abroad, Dickens

launches into one of his most sustained comic assaults on Joe.

Joe’s great awkwardness with regard to dress, speech and physical

mannerisms all combine to create a laughable buffoon who stands

in stark contrast to the much more sophisticated and urbane

manner of both Pip and Herbert. Dickens creates much of the

humour through exaggeration, for instance Joe’s extreme inability

to keep his hat on his head and his grossly inaccurate pronunciation

of architectural: ‘architectooralooral’ (Chapter 27).16 However,

Dickens has to qualify his humorously demeaning presentation of

Joe with a reference to Joe’s great spiritual value by having Pip the

narrator quickly follow with the comment: ‘Utterly preposterous as

his cravat was, and as his collars were, I was conscious of a sort of

dignity in the look.’ This is necessary because Dickens is also using

Joe as a foil to illuminate Pip’s increasing moral decline as he enters

the world of the gentleman.17

12 Excellent analysis of Dickens’ use of imagery to present character.

13 Excellent use of terminology to describe how Dickens uses Joe to create humour.

14 Excellent understanding shown of how Dickens uses the relationship between these two characters in order to create comedy.

15 Displays a most pleasing awareness that the narrator is as much a creation of the author as all the other characters.

16 Again, this candidate is very focused on the essay question, this time most effectively addressing the part of the question that requires the candidate to focus on how Dickens presents characters.17 Excellent analysis of authorial intrusion — the way in which Dickens deliberately makes Pip qualify the presentation of Joe so that Joe can still be used for his moral significance.

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Unlike Pip, Joe has an innate wisdom, which means that he never

loses sight of fundamental moral certainties and is never swayed

from doing right by the lure of either money or status. Towards the

end of the novel, the comic ridicule of Joe ceases as Dickens

escalates Joe’s other role, that of moral giant.18 It is Joe, in Chapter

57, who nurses Pip back to health and saves him from the debtors’

prison by paying the outstanding bills that Pip has so frivolously

accrued. Pip’s gratitude is expressed in reverential language: ‘O

God bless this gentle Christian man!’19

Both Joe and Mrs Joe are more than just personalities representing

the extremes of human nature. They are devices that enable

Dickens to develop themes, advance the plot and provide insights

into Pip, the novel’s protagonist. It is the multifaceted nature of their

roles which makes them so important to the novel.20

Grade-C answerI am going to write my essay on Biddy and Herbert and why they

are important to the book.1 They are similar in that they are both

friendly with Pip and help to look after him at different times. This

is one way that they are important. But Herbert did not seem so

friendly when they first met and he made Pip fight with him.

Fortunately, Pip won and knocked Herbert to the ground. This was

at Miss Havisham’s house when both of them were boys.2

Biddy helps Pip a lot when he is a boy because she teaches him all

that she knows and so gives him an education of sorts. In Chapter

10 it says:

‘The felicitous idea occurred to me a morning or two later when

I woke, that the best step I could take towards making myself

uncommon was to get out of Biddy everything she knew. In

pursuance of this luminous conception I mentioned to Biddy when

I went to Mr. Wopsle’s great-aunt’s at night, that I had a particular

reason for wishing to get on in life, and that I should feel very much

obliged to her if she would impart all her learning to me. Biddy, who

was the most obliging of girls, immediately said she would, and

indeed began to carry out her promise within five minutes.’3

Pip wants Biddy to educate him because he wants to be a

gentleman so that he can have the snobbish Estella but he does not

tell this to Biddy because he wants her to help him and she might

18 Displays a clear understanding of the important theme which Dickens uses Joe to develop.

19 Excellent analysis of language again.

20 Very clear and concise conclusion.

1 Uses the first-person address which is fairly typical of a weaker candidate.

2 The introduction is clumsy and not entirely focused on the essay question, although some relevant comments have been made.

3 An extremely long quotation when writing under timed examination conditions.

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fancy him. Dickens is showing that education is important if you

want to be a gentleman and so he is using Biddy here to show an

important theme. The quotation also shows what a nice person

Biddy is because it says that she started to teach him straight

away.4

Biddy is also important because of the way she is different to

Estella. Biddy is a kind and useful person who, for example, teaches

in a school and is willing to help Pip with his education. She also

comes to look after Mrs Joe when Orlick has hit her very hard.

However, Estella does nothing nice, just acts like a snob all the

time and hits Pip in the face. This shows that she is a spoilt girl and

that being a lady is nothing special. You may have more money and

more people may respect you but if you are not nice then other

people won’t respect you and neither will Dickens.5 Biddy doesn’t

like Estella either and tells Pip in Chapter 17:

‘“Because, if it is to spite her,” Biddy pursued, “I should think — but

you know best — that might be better and more independently done

by caring nothing for her words. And if it is to gain her over, I should

think — but you know best — she was not worth gaining over.”’6

Biddy also makes a very important comment on the main theme

in the novel which is that Pip wants to be a gentleman. Biddy says,

‘Yet a gentleman should not be unjust neither’ in Chapter 19. I think

Dickens is telling the reader that being a gentleman is not about

money and power but about being nice to other people — just like

Biddy is.7

Herbert is also an important character for telling the reader what a

gentleman should be because, although he is not rich, he was born

a gentleman and he behaves like a nice person also.8 In Chapter

22, he says to Pip: ‘because it is a principle of his that no man who

was not a true gentleman at heart, ever was, since the world began,

a true gentleman in manner. He says, no varnish can hide the grain

of the wood; and that the more varnish you put on, the more the

grain will express itself.’

Like Biddy, he is telling the reader that being a gentleman is about

the way you behave. Dickens makes him use a metaphor which says

this. Putting varnish on and pretending to be posh and better than

you are does not make you a gentleman. You have to be good and

think about other people in order to be a true gentleman.9

4 This is a very effective explanation as it directly answers the question and shows a most pleasing understanding of the importance of this character to one of the novel’s key themes. Although the candidate erroneously refers to Biddy as a ‘person’, it is obvious from the rest of the paragraph that there is a clear understanding that Biddy is a fictional construct that Dickens is using for specific purposes.

5 Again, the candidate is directly referring to the essay question and is making an excellent point about Biddy’s thematic importance in the novel. However, some of the candidate’s use of language is immature.

6 Again, the candidate has supported the point being made with an effective piece of evidence, although the quotation could have been shorter. The second quoted sentence alone would have proved the point.

7 Another good point about Biddy’s thematic importance but the explanation could have been more developed.

8 The candidate makes a pleasing thematic link between these two characters and is obviously well aware of Dickens’ purpose.

9 Makes a pleasing, if rather clumsy, attempt at analysing Dickens’ use of imagery here.

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As Pip often does not behave like this, Dickens is probably using

Herbert to show how bad Pip’s own behaviour can be now that he

is supposed to be a gentleman, especially Pip’s snobbish behaviour

to Joe and Biddy. It is also because of Pip that Herbert gets into

tremendous debt and this shows how much money gentlemen

waste and how their lives are not useful and don’t really help

anyone. However, Pip also helps Herbert get a job with Clarriker and

that is a good thing for Pip to do as it makes Herbert rich and lets

him marry Clara.10

Dickens also uses Herbert as a plot device in that it is Herbert who

saves Pip when Orlick wants to kill him. If Herbert had not found

Pip’s note, Orlick would have killed Pip and that would have been

the end of the novel. This would have upset the reader as it means

the novel would have ended badly and Pip and Estella would not

have got together. This would have upset the reader because this

is a romantic novel and the reader really wants Pip and Estella to

get together.11

Both Herbert and Biddy are minor characters but they are important

because of the way they show Pip’s meanness when he becomes

a gentleman. They are also important because of the way they help

him in his life.12

10 Displays some good insights into how Dickens uses Herbert as a character foil to Pip in order to provide the reader with a better insight into Pip’s moral failings after he becomes a gentleman.

11 This is a sharp observation which the candidate goes on to explain in reasonable detail, although, again, her own use of language is rather clumsy at times.

12 A simplistic and very brief conclusion, but it does summarise the main points made in the essay and it does directly relate to the essay title once again.



Edexcel sample essaysUnannotatedThe following question is based on an extract taken from

Chapter 38, pages 304–05 of the Penguin Classics edition,

ISBN: 978-0-14-143956-3.

Answer all parts of the question that follows as fully as possible.

(a) Explain how the writer presents the character of Estella in this extract. Use evidence from the extract to support your answer. (8)

(b) Comment on the effect of the language used to show the relationship between Estella and Miss Havisham in the extract. Use evidence from the extract to support your answer. (10)

(c) Explore the importance of love in this extract. Use evidence from the extract to support your answer. (10)

(d) Explore the importance of love in one other part of the novel. Use examples of the writer’s language to support your answer. (12)

(Total = 40 marks)

Grade-A* answer(a) The most striking aspect of Estella’s personality is the maturity

that she has developed since the earlier scenes between her and

Miss Havisham when she was quite simply a spoilt and precocious

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child. One way in which Dickens presents this maturity is through

his choice of Estella’s language, which remains admirably restrained

despite the preposterous nature of Miss Havisham’s demands for

love: ‘All I possess is freely yours.’ Of course, the ability to love is

not one of Estella’s possessions. Admittedly, love would be a normal

expectation of a mother from a child that she has raised but it is

Miss Havisham’s motivation for adopting Estella — revenge rather

than love — which makes her sudden requirement for demonstrable

affection unreasonable.

Similarly, not only is Estella’s language restrained but so is her

behaviour, again indicating a mature disposition. Dickens has

Pip describe ‘the easy grace of her attitude’, which Dickens then

deliberately contrasts sharply with the moaning and the outraged

outbursts of Miss Havisham. The contrast in behaviour between the

two further serves to emphasise Estella’s composure and general

superiority.

Dickens also has Estella respond to Miss Havisham’s childlike

demands for love with reasoned argument, again a most adult

quality. She is able to effectively counter all of Miss Havisham’s

unfair accusations with insightful psychological analysis. As Estella

explains, if she appears unaffectionate, it is not as a result of

ingratitude but as a result of an inability to encompass such an

emotion. And, as she calmly rationalises, the fault is not her own, but

Miss Havisham’s. It is the mentor who taught the child to be proud

and unaffectionate. Estella’s inability to connect emotionally is not

a sign of immaturity or ingratitude, but of damage.

(b) One very subtle way in which Dickens uses language to indicate

the nature of the relationship between the two women is his choice

of words to describe the verbal responses that take place between

them during the dialogue in this scene. He deliberately repeats

the word ‘moaned’ to indicate the strength of Miss Havisham’s

injured feelings. He also uses the words ‘cried’ and ‘shrieked’. For

Estella, however, he repeatedly uses the word ‘returned’, which

suggests that she is more engaged in a logical disputation. This

further emphasises her lack of emotional engagement and her

inability to empathise with Miss Havisham’s distress. The phrase

‘Estella looked at her for a moment with a kind of calm wonder’ also

revealingly betrays Estella’s lack of empathy, especially Dickens’

careful choice of the word ‘wonder’.

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Another striking use of language to reveal Estella’s attitude to

Miss Havisham is the phrase ‘Mother by adoption’. It quite clearly

characterises their relationship as a legal contract rather than an

emotional bond.

A further way that Dickens uses language to indicate the nature

of the gulf between the two characters is through sentence

structures. Estella’s sentences are much longer, which shows her

greater composure. However, her frustration with Miss Havisham

is indicated through the use of some exclamation marks and

some rhetorical questions. Miss Havisham’s sentences, on the

other hand, are short, contain far more exclamation marks and

are prone to repetition, thus revealing a far greater depth of

emotion and, consequently, a diminished capacity for clear and

coherent expression: ‘Let her call me mad, let her call me mad!’ The

syntactical differences between the two speakers clearly suggest

that Miss Havisham feels a depth of passion for Estella which the

latter is unable to reciprocate.

(c) The passage clearly depicts Miss Havisham’s distress at

Estella’s inability to respond to her supposed maternal love, and it

is the depth of this grief which shows the great importance of love

in this extract. The phrase ‘shrieked, as she stretched out her arms’

is a powerful physical sign of Miss Havisham’s anguish. It is also

very noticeable that Estella does not respond to this gesture and,

instead, looks into the fire. This may well be symbolic as writers

often use fire to represent passion, and passion is exactly what

Estella is incapable of feeling.

The context of this passage also tells us much about the importance

of another type of love: romantic love. It is Compeyson’s betrayal of

Miss Havisham’s love some twenty years ago that caused her to

adopt and then corrupt Estella into an unfeeling instrument of

revenge. Furthermore, the narrator of the passage, Pip, is hopelessly

in love with Estella, a love that cannot at present be reciprocated.

In a very powerful sense, all three characters are tragic victims of

love. What better evidence can there be for the importance of this

emotion to the psychological well-being of people?

(d) Another passage that demonstrates the importance of love

is the scene in Chapter 57 (pages 463–64) when Pip recovers

sufficiently from his illness to realise that Joe has been caring for

him while he was delirious. Joe’s love for Pip is demonstrated by the

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fact that he has travelled from the forge, his comfort zone, to the

alien and snobbish environment of London in order to care for the

man who rejected him. When Pip became a gentleman at the end

of Volume 1, he was too embarrassed to be connected with Joe.

His ingratitude for all of Joe’s love and kindness was immediate

and total. However, such is the constancy and purity of Joe’s love

for Pip that he feels compelled to respond to Pip’s desperate need,

and without any hint of what would have been a wholly justifiable

resentment.

Dickens has Pip use religious language in order to emphasise

the superiority of such selfless compassion: ‘O God bless this

gentle Christian man!’ The importance of Joe’s love here is that it

has saved Pip’s life and, therefore, Christian terminology is utterly

appropriate as the entire religion is founded on Christ’s supreme

sacrifice.

The importance of love is also shown in that Joe’s constancy to

Pip has a powerful redemptive quality which enables Pip to finally

understand the moral superiority of the man that he had previously

regarded as awkward and inferior. Again, Dickens skilfully uses

language to express Pip’s enlightenment: ‘So, I kissed his hand’.

The language is reverential and full of religious symbolism because

a devout Christian would kiss the hand of a priest. Therefore, it is a

most appropriate symbol of Pip’s humility and devotion.

Grade-C answer(a) Estella is a very proud person in the passage. I know this

because of the following piece of evidence: ‘“So proud, so proud!”

moaned Miss Havisham.’ The fact that she says it twice is more

evidence of Estella’s pride. Estella also seems like a person who

cannot love. Miss Havisham obviously loves Estella as a daughter

but Estella is distant and cold towards her. This is why Miss

Havisham gets so upset. Even when Miss Havisham stretches out

her arms, Estella still not does show her any love or say anything

nice to her. Miss Havisham also calls Estella ‘hard’.

(b) Miss Havisham is obviously very annoyed with Estella because

of the lack of love that she is getting from her. She accuses Estella

of being ‘proud’ and ‘hard’. This shows how upset she is as you

would not use those words if you were happy with someone and

if you felt they really loved you back. Miss Havisham also uses a

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lot of exclamation marks to show how upset she is: ‘“So proud, so

proud!” moaned Miss Havisham.’ But Estella must be angry with

Miss Havisham as well because she uses them also: ‘I who have

sat on this same hearth on the little stool that is even now beside

you there, learning your lessons and looking up into your face, when

your face was strange and frightened me!’ Estella is saying how

Miss Havisham used to frighten her. Perhaps this is why she does

not love her now.

(c) I don’t think love is very important to Estella as she has been

taught by Miss Havisham not to love. But it is obviously important

to Miss Havisham because she is getting so upset that Estella

does not love her back. But Estella cannot love her back because

Miss Havisham never taught her how to love. The reason why Miss

Havisham brought Estella up like this is because she wants her to

break hearts. This is because Compeyson broke Miss Havisham’s

heart and now she wants to hurt all men by Estella doing the same

thing to them. This is why love is more important to Miss Havisham

than Estella because she has had her heart broken and Estella

has not.

(d) The last page of the novel shows how important love is to Pip.

Dickens had to change the ending so that Estella and Pip got

together or else his readers would not have been happy, so love

must have been important to them also. Pip has been waiting the

whole novel to finally go out with Estella and so it all ends happily.

Estella has had a bad marriage to Drummle and says, ‘I have been

bent and broken’, so he probably hit her and gave her a bad time.

But because she is sad she now knows how Pip feels. So because

she can feel things now she is also able to feel love. Dickens

indicates that she is fond of Pip when Estella says, ‘I have given it a

place in my heart’. She never mentioned before that she had a heart

so she must be able to love now.



Edexcel sample answersAnnotatedGrade-A* answer(a) The most striking aspect of Estella’s personality is the maturity

that she has developed since the earlier scenes between her and

Miss Havisham when she was quite simply a spoilt and precocious

child.1 One way in which Dickens presents this maturity is through

his choice of Estella’s language, which remains admirably restrained

despite the preposterous nature of Miss Havisham’s demands for

love: ‘All I possess is freely yours.’2 Of course, the ability to love is

not one of Estella’s possessions. Admittedly, love would be a normal

expectation of a mother from a child that she has raised but it is

Miss Havisham’s motivation for adopting Estella — revenge rather

than love — which makes her sudden requirement for demonstrable

affection unreasonable.3

Similarly, not only is Estella’s language restrained but so is her

behaviour, again indicating a mature disposition. Dickens has

Pip describe ‘the easy grace of her attitude’, which Dickens then

deliberately contrasts sharply with the moaning and the outraged

outbursts of Miss Havisham. The contrast in behaviour between the

two further serves to emphasise Estella’s composure and general

superiority.4

Dickens also has Estella respond to Miss Havisham’s childlike

demands for love with reasoned argument, again a most adult

quality. She is able to effectively counter all of Miss Havisham’s

1 The candidate demonstrates a clear understanding of Estella’s personality.

2 Excellent foregrounding of the author, displaying an astute awareness that the characters are literary creations and not real people; very close attention paid to the exact wording of the question; an excellent choice of quotation as evidence.

3 Excellent explanation of how the evidence proves the point that the candidate is making about Dickens’ use of language to reveal Estella’s character.

4 The candidate has successfully explored a second way in which Dickens reveals Estella’s character: her behaviour in this scene. Again, the candidate has developed the point with evidence and explanation.

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unfair accusations with insightful psychological analysis. As Estella

explains, if she appears unaffectionate, it is not as a result of

ingratitude but as a result of an inability to encompass such an

emotion. And, as she calmly rationalises, the fault is not her own, but

Miss Havisham’s. It is the mentor who taught the child to be proud

and unaffectionate. Estella’s inability to connect emotionally is not

a sign of immaturity or ingratitude, but of damage.5

(b) One very subtle way in which Dickens uses language to indicate

the nature of the relationship between the two women is his choice

of words to describe the verbal responses that take place between

them during the dialogue in this scene. He deliberately repeats the

word ‘moaned’ to indicate the strength of Miss Havisham’s injured

feelings. He also uses the words ‘cried’ and ‘shrieked’. For Estella,

however, he repeatedly uses the word ‘returned’, which suggests

that she is more engaged in a logical disputation.1 This further

emphasises her lack of emotional engagement and her inability to

empathise with Miss Havisham’s distress. The phrase ‘Estella

looked at her for a moment with a kind of calm wonder’ also

revealingly betrays Estella’s lack of empathy, especially Dickens’

careful choice of the word ‘wonder’.2

Another striking use of language to reveal Estella’s attitude to

Miss Havisham is the phrase ‘Mother by adoption’. It quite clearly

characterises their relationship as a legal contract rather than an

emotional bond.3

A further way that Dickens uses language to indicate the nature

of the gulf between the two characters is through sentence

structures. Estella’s sentences are much longer, which shows her

greater composure. However, her frustration with Miss Havisham

is indicated through the use of some exclamation marks and

some rhetorical questions. Miss Havisham’s sentences, on the

other hand, are short, contain far more exclamation marks and

are prone to repetition, thus revealing a far greater depth of

emotion and, consequently, a diminished capacity for clear and

coherent expression: ‘Let her call me mad, let her call me mad!’ The

syntactical differences between the two speakers clearly suggest

that Miss Havisham feels a depth of passion for Estella which the

latter is unable to reciprocate.4

(c) The passage clearly depicts Miss Havisham’s distress at

Estella’s inability to respond to her supposed maternal love, and it

5 The candidate has successfully developed a third sophisticated and original point regarding the way in which Dickens reveals Estella’s character. PEE (point, evidence, explanation) is strongly in evidence again. This time, the candidate has provided evidence in the form of a highly accurate paraphrase rather than through direct quotation of what Estella says to Miss Havisham in defence of her lack of affection.

1 Excellent analysis of Dickens’ use of language and, again, a most relevant and perceptive approach to the question.

2 As always, the candidate supports the point being made by following the evidence with a most astute explanation.

3 This is analysis of the author’s use of language at the highest level!

4 Again, an excellent level of analysis and a very good level of vocabulary (e.g. ‘syntactical’).

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is the depth of this grief which shows the great importance of love

in this extract.1 The phrase ‘shrieked, as she stretched out her arms’

is a powerful physical sign of Miss Havisham’s anguish. It is also

very noticeable that Estella does not respond to this gesture and,

instead, looks into the fire. This may well be symbolic as writers

often use fire to represent passion, and passion is exactly what

Estella is incapable of feeling.2

The context of this passage also tells us much about the importance

of another type of love: romantic love. It is Compeyson’s betrayal of

Miss Havisham’s love some twenty years ago that caused her to

adopt and then corrupt Estella into an unfeeling instrument of

revenge. Furthermore, the narrator of the passage, Pip, is hopelessly

in love with Estella, a love that cannot at present be reciprocated.

In a very powerful sense, all three characters are tragic victims of

love. What better evidence can there be for the importance of this

emotion to the psychological well-being of people?3

(d) Another passage that demonstrates the importance of love is

the scene in Chapter 57 (pages 463–64) when Pip recovers

sufficiently from his illness to realise that Joe has been caring for

him while he was delirious.1 Joe’s love for Pip is demonstrated by

the fact that he has travelled from the forge, his comfort zone, to the

alien and snobbish environment of London in order to care for the

man who rejected him. When Pip became a gentleman at the end

of Volume 1, he was too embarrassed to be connected with Joe. His

ingratitude for all of Joe’s love and kindness was immediate and

total. However, such is the constancy and purity of Joe’s love for Pip

that he feels compelled to respond to Pip’s desperate need, and

without any hint of what would have been a wholly justifiable

resentment.

Dickens has Pip use religious language in order to emphasise the

superiority of such selfless compassion:2 ‘O God bless this gentle

Christian man!’ The importance of Joe’s love here is that it has

saved Pip’s life3 and, therefore, Christian terminology is utterly

appropriate as the entire religion is founded on Christ’s supreme

sacrifice.4

The importance of love is also shown in that Joe’s constancy to Pip

has a powerful redemptive quality5 which enables Pip to finally

understand the moral superiority of the man that he had previously

regarded as awkward and inferior. Again, Dickens skilfully uses

1 As always, this candidate is rigorously focused on the question.

2 Another excellent analysis of Dickens’ use of language.

3 Yet another highly original and perceptive point ably supported by PEE.

1 A most appropriate choice of scene.

2 Excellent identification of the type of love being depicted here.3 Again, a most tenacious focus on the question.4 Yet another excellent and relevant analysis of Dickens’ deliberate use of language.

5 This candidate continues to impress. What a subtle analysis of one of the most powerful affects of this type of love! The candidate displays tremendous psychological insight here.

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language to express Pip’s enlightenment: ‘So, I kissed his hand’. The

language is reverential and full of religious symbolism because a

devout Christian would kiss the hand of a priest. Therefore, it is a

most appropriate symbol of Pip’s humility and devotion.6

Grade-C answer(a) Estella is a very proud person in the passage. I know this

because of the following piece of evidence: ‘“So proud, so proud!”

moaned Miss Havisham.’ The fact that she says it twice is more

evidence of Estella’s pride.1 Estella also seems like a person who

cannot love.2 Miss Havisham obviously loves Estella as a daughter

but Estella is distant and cold towards her. This is why Miss

Havisham gets so upset. Even when Miss Havisham stretches out

her arms, Estella still not does show her any love or say anything

nice to her. Miss Havisham also calls Estella ‘hard’.3

(b) Miss Havisham is obviously very annoyed with Estella because

of the lack of love that she is getting from her. She accuses Estella

of being ‘proud’ and ‘hard’. This shows how upset she is as you

would not use those words if you were happy with someone and

if you felt they really loved you back. Miss Havisham also uses a

lot of exclamation marks to show how upset she is: ‘“So proud, so

proud!” moaned Miss Havisham.’1 But Estella must be angry with

Miss Havisham as well because she uses them also: ‘I who have sat

on this same hearth on the little stool that is even now beside you

there, learning your lessons and looking up into your face, when

your face was strange and frightened me!’ Estella is saying how

Miss Havisham used to frighten her. Perhaps this is why she does

not love her now.2

(c) I don’t think love is very important to Estella as she has been

taught by Miss Havisham not to love. But it is obviously important

to Miss Havisham because she is getting so upset that Estella

does not love her back. But Estella cannot love her back because

Miss Havisham never taught her how to love. The reason why Miss

Havisham brought Estella up like this is because she wants her to

break hearts. This is because Compeyson broke Miss Havisham’s

heart and now she wants to hurt all men by Estella doing the same

thing to them. This is why love is more important to Miss Havisham

than Estella because she has had her heart broken and Estella

has not.1

6 Another brilliant analysis of Dickens’ use of religious language in order to provide deeper layers of meaning for the reader.

1 The candidate has correctly identified a possible aspect of Estella’s personality. However, he is only relying on Miss Havisham’s opinion of Estella in order to justify this point. Miss Havisham’s opinion of Estella is unlikely to be reliable as she is a misguided character in a great deal of distress.2 This is a good point but the candidate could have deepened it by explaining why Estella is unable to show affection. After all, Dickens has included Estella’s more reliable explanation for her lack of feeling in the passage.3 Quite a good use of PEE, even if the ideas that the candidate is expressing are not very sophisticated.

1 This is a successful response to the question so far as the candidate is clearly looking at how language has been used to show the two characters’ feelings for each other. However, she has failed to foreground the author and acknowledge that these word choices belong to Dickens and not his fictional creations.2 Rather a brief explanation considering the length of the quotation!

1 Shows quite a good understanding of the significance (or lack of significance) of love to both of these characters. However, the candidate has ignored the fact that the question explicitly requires you to ‘use evidence from the extract to support your answer’.

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(d) The last page of the novel shows how important love is to Pip.1

Dickens had to change the ending so that Estella and Pip got

together or else his readers would not have been happy, so love

must have been important to them also.2 Pip has been waiting the

whole novel to finally go out with Estella and so it all ends happily.

Estella has had a bad marriage to Drummle and says, ‘I have been

bent and broken’, so he probably hit her and gave her a bad time.3

But because she is sad she now knows how Pip feels. So because

she can feel things now she is also able to feel love. Dickens

indicates that she is fond of Pip when Estella says, ‘I have given it a

place in my heart’. She never mentioned before that she had a heart

so she must be able to love now.4

1 Good choice of scene.

2 Excellent foregrounding of the author and a surprisingly subtle interpretation of the question.

3 Again, some of this candidate’s vocabulary is immature.

4 Despite the immature vocabulary, the ideas are often sound. Here, the candidate has provided a very subtle analysis of Dickens’ use of language to prove how significant love has now become to Estella. The candidate has also foregrounded the author again.

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