He wrote Great Expectations while he was getting a divorce. Many critics including Jerry Fredericks think his problems with his wife is the reason he originally made Pip and Estella never get together. His editor made him change the ending to alittle happier one though. Many, like the British Playwright George Bernard Shaw didn't like the ending. Shaw said, "Its beginning is unhappy, its middle is unhappy, and the happy ending ruins it.".
Charles Dickens has a lot of critics. A lot say his characters are not interesting and his plots are average. A critic Stephen Johnson said, "His plots are not upto the plots of other great authors. His characters are over exaggerated and it ruins many of his stories. But others think his characters are great and his plots and themes are very well written. Dickens died in 1870 and is known as one of Englands most famous writers.
The plot of the story starts out on Christmas Eve ,a young Pip, an orphan being raised by his sister and her husband, meets a really scary man in the village churchyard who had just excaped from one of the ships docked at the port. The man, a convict scares Pip into stealing him some food and a file to try and file away his leg shackle. This whole incident is important as it gives Pip,who must steal the goods from his sister's house his first taste of true guilt and also Pip's kindness warms the convict's heart and Pip will be rewarded for it later in the story. The convict does many years later show his real gratitude.
At his sister's house Pip is a boy without "expectations". Mrs. Joe beats him alot and is never nice and never has anything good to say about her little brother. Her husband Joe is a really nice man and although he's a blacksmith who doesn't have a lot of ambitions. Its assumed that Pip will follow in his footsteps and become a blacksmith as well. Only when Pip gets invited unexpectedly to the house of a rich old woman in the village named Miss Havisham does Mrs.
