Great Expectations, a novel by Charles Dickens, is a complex, and at times, humorous tale of the love, fortune, and expectations of a Mr. Philip Pirrip. "My father's family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name being Philip, my infant tongue could make of both nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. (Dickens 3) " Pip", as he calls himself, is a dynamic character who undergoes much change, both in his surroundings and in him throughout the course of adolescence. "In this tragic tale of society, dreams, and love from two different worlds, we find irony in life." (Few Words...)
             Pip's first sets of expectations were filled of hope for a new life in London (and new love with Estella). "'What coarse hands he has! And what thick boots!'" I had never thought of being ashamed of my hands before; but I began to consider them a very indifferent pair." (Dickens 65) He grows to love Estella, and at the same time, grows to think that the only reason Estella doesn't love him is because he's "common". "Thus we are led... to consider questions of money and social position, gender and power, caste and class to account for our own experience..." (Reading) Set on the idea that Miss Havisham (Estella's guardian) is his benefactor, he creates his own little fantasy world. His fantasy world is one in which he becomes a gentleman and Estella falls in love and they marry and live happily ever after. In the end, we are lead to believe his reverie comes true, but naturally not after some hardship, for then there would be no book. "I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place; and, as the morning mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light the showed me, I saw the shadow of no parting from her." (Dickens 519)
             After the London disappointment, Pip's second expectations didn't revolve around Estella. Estella is now wed to a Mr. Bentley Drummle, which displeases Pip, but naturally, there's nothing he can do about i...