Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Use your imagination; there are loads of references to colours, I spent 5 minutes coming up with these, Remember if you write about it, then you have to prove it with a quote.

Bright colours of the country against the Dark, Smokey colours of London.

Old Clothes to New of Pip and their colours

Darkness in the home of Miss Haversham.

Mist = Danger

The Mists on the Marshes

The setting almost always symbolizes a theme in Great Expectations and always sets a tone that is perfectly matched to the novel’s dramatic action. The misty marshes near Pip’s childhood home in Kent, one of the most evocative of the book’s settings, are used several times to symbolize danger and uncertainty. As a child, Pip brings Magwitch a file and food in these mists; later, he is kidnapped by Orlick and nearly murdered in them. Whenever Pip goes into the mists, something dangerous is likely to happen. Significantly, Pip must go through the mists when he travels to London shortly after receiving his fortune, alerting the reader that this apparently positive development in his life may have dangerous consequences.

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/greatex/themes.html

Study Guides.

These links will give you a summary of the book, character analysis, plot and much more, so that you will be able to answer literary questions.

http://www.bookrags.com/notes/gex/

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/greatex/

http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/greatexpectations/

http://www.pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/barrons/grtexpt02.asp

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/id-118.html

http://www.pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/monkeynotes/pmGreatExpect02.asp

http://www.novelguide.com/greatexpectations/

http://dickensfordummies.homestead.com/index.html

What a wonderful quote. Dickens keenly felt the injustice leveled against both children and adults of his time. In his day there were no child labor laws in England or the US. His books “David Copperfield” “Oliver Twist” and A Christmas Carol” and “A Tale of Two Cities” focused on the need for justice and consideration to be extended to people of all ages and social standings, not just to the titled few. Because of his writings, attention was paid to how very unjustly poor working children were treated, and the laws were changed. In his time as in ours, injustice in the lives of both children and adults has caused much pain and death. If one survives, the long lasting rage and bitterness may well lead to yet more destruction on the part of the victim. While these days it is fashionable in some circles to accuse Dickens of being “trite”, his books lit a candle to expose some dark sides of the human condition.