Editing Great Expectations (section)

==Genre==
''Great Expectations'' contains a variety of literary genres, including the bildungsroman, gothic novel, crime novel, as well as comedy, [[melodrama]] and satire; and it belongs—like ''[[Wuthering Heights]]'' and the novels of [[Walter Scott]]—to the romance rather than [[Realism (arts)|realist]] tradition of the novel.<ref name="OpenUni">{{cite web|url=http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/culture/literature-and-creative-writing/literature/approaching-literature-reading-great-expectations/content-section-4.2|title=''Great Expectations'' and realism|date=4 July 2013|work=Approaching literature: Reading Great Expectations|publisher=The Open University|access-date=11 December 2015|archive-date=4 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151204010652/http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/culture/literature-and-creative-writing/literature/approaching-literature-reading-great-expectations/content-section-4.2|url-status=live}}</ref>

===''Bildungsroman''===
Complex and multifaceted, ''Great Expectations'' is a Victorian ''[[bildungsroman]]'', or initiatory tale, which focuses on a protagonist who matures over the course of the novel. ''Great Expectations'' describes Pip's initial frustration upon leaving home, followed by a long and difficult period that is punctuated with conflicts between his desires and the values of established order. During this time he re-evaluates his life and re-enters society on new foundations.<ref name="victorianweb.org"/>

However, the novel differs from the two preceding pseudo-autobiographies, ''David Copperfield'' and ''[[Bleak House]]'' (1852), (though the latter is only partially narrated in first-person), in that it also partakes of several sub-genres popular in Dickens's time.<ref name="Davis 134-5">{{harvnb|Paul Davis|2007|pp=134–135}}</ref><ref name="victorianweb.org"/>

===Comic novel===
''Great Expectations'' contains many comic scenes and eccentric personalities, integral parts to both the plot and the theme. Among the notable comic episodes are Pip's Christmas dinner in chapter 4, Wopsle's ''Hamlet'' performance in chapter 31, and Wemmick's marriage in chapter 55. Many of the characters have eccentricities: Jaggers with his punctilious lawyerly ways; the contrariness of his clerk, Wemmick, at work advising Pip to invest in "portable property", while in private living in a cottage converted into a castle; and the reclusive Miss Havisham in her decaying mansion, wearing her tattered bridal robes.<ref name="Davis 134">{{harvnb|Paul Davis|2007|pp=129, 134}}</ref>

===Crime fiction===
[[File:"Molly, let them see both your wrists. Show them. Come!".jpeg|thumb|Jaggers asking Molly to show her scarred wrists, by John McLenan]]
''Great Expectations'' incorporates elements of the new genre of [[crime fiction]], which Dickens had already used in ''[[Oliver Twist]]'' (1837), and which was being developed by his friends [[Wilkie Collins]] and [[William Harrison Ainsworth]]. With its scenes of convicts, [[prison ship]]s, and episodes of bloody violence, Dickens creates characters worthy of the [[Newgate novel|Newgate school of fiction]].<ref>{{citation|author=Keith Hollingsworth|title=The Newgate Novel, 1830–1847, Bulwer, Ainsworth, Dickens & Thackeray|location=Detroit|publisher=Wayne State University Press|year=1963}}</ref>

===Gothic novel===
''Great Expectations'' contains elements of the [[Gothic novel|Gothic genre]], especially Miss Havisham, the bride frozen in time, and the ruined Satis House filled with weeds and spiders.<ref name="victorianweb.org"/> Other characters linked to this genre include the aristocratic Bentley Drummle, because of his extreme cruelty; Pip himself, who spends his youth chasing a frozen beauty; the monstrous Orlick, who systematically attempts to murder his employers. Then there is the fight to the death between Compeyson and Magwitch, and the fire that ends up killing Miss Havisham, scenes dominated by horror, suspense, and the sensational.<ref name="Davis 134-5"/>

=== Silver-fork novel ===
Elements of the [[Fashionable novel|silver-fork novel]] are found in the character of Miss Havisham and her world, as well as Pip's illusions. This genre, which flourished in the 1820s and 1830s,<ref>{{cite book |first=Alison |last=Adburgham |title=Silver Fork Society: Fashionable Life and Literature from 1814 to 1840 |location=London |publisher=Constable |year=1983 |isbn=978-0094636705}}</ref> presents the flashy elegance and aesthetic frivolities found in high society. In some respects, Dickens conceived ''Great Expectations'' as an anti silver fork novel, attacking [[Charles Lever]]'s novel ''A Day's Ride'', publication of which began January 1860, in ''[[Household Words]]''.<ref name="victorianweb.org"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/lever/bio.html |title=Charles Lever (1806–1872): Anglo-Irish Novelist, Physician, and Diplomat |first=Philip V |last=Allingham |access-date=25 August 2012 |archive-date=6 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121006170306/http://victorianweb.org/authors/lever/bio.html |url-status=live }}</ref> This can be seen in the way that Dickens satirises the pretensions and morals of Miss Havisham and her sycophants, including the Pockets (except Matthew), and Uncle Pumblechook.<ref name="victorianweb.org"/>

=== Historical novel ===
[[File:George III Third Guinea 73244.jpg|left|thumb|[[George III]] [[Guinea (British coin)|guinea]], a gold coin worth 21 shillings, the coin illustrated here is a third Guinea equal to 7 shillings.]]
Though ''Great Expectations'' is not obviously a historical novel, Dickens does emphasise differences between the time that the novel is set ({{Circa|1812}}–46) and when it was written (1860–1).

''Great Expectations'' begins around 1812 (the year of Dickens's birth), continues until around 1830–1835, and then jumps to around 1840–1845, during which the [[Great Western Railway]] was built.<ref name="victorianweb.org"/> Though readers today will not notice this, Dickens uses various things to emphasise the differences between 1861 and this earlier period. Among these details—that contemporary readers would have recognised—are the one pound note (in chapter 10) that the [[Country Bankers Act 1826|Bank Notes Act 1826]] had removed from circulation;<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://encyclopedia-of-money.blogspot.com/2010/01/banking-acts-of-1826-england.html |title=Banking Acts of 1826 (England) |access-date=25 May 2018 |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Money}}</ref> likewise, the death penalty for deported felons who returned to Britain was abolished in 1835. The [[gallows]] erected in the swamps, designed to display a rotting corpse, had disappeared by 1832, and [[George III]], the monarch mentioned at the beginning, died in 1820, when Pip would have been seven or eight.

Miss Havisham paid Joe 25 guineas, gold coins, when Pip was to begin his apprenticeship (in chapter 13); guinea coins were slowly going out of circulation after the [[Guinea (coin)#George III|last new ones]] were struck with the face of George III in 1799. This also marks the historical period, as the one pound note was the official currency at the time of the novel's publication. Dickens placed the epilogue 11 years after Magwitch's death, which seems to be the time limit of the reported facts. Collectively, the details suggest that Dickens identified with the main character. If Pip is around 23 toward the middle of the novel and 34 at its end, he is roughly modeled after his creator who turned 34 in 1846.<ref name="victorianweb.org"/>