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GCSE English Literature · key term
Hopes about the future; in Great Expectations, the word also refers to Pip’s anticipated receipt of property from a benefactor.
Used by AQA and OCR
Paper 1
Revise: Ambition and self-improvementPip wants a better life, but Great Expectations asks what ‘better’ should mean. Education can give him useful abilities; money can give him opportunities; becoming a gentleman might make him acceptable to Estella. None of these changes necessarily makes him kinder or happier.
Paper 1
Pip's anticipated wealth and future prospects. The title also suggests the hopes he builds around social advancement and Estella.
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Chapters 30 to 39 take Pip from confidence in his new social position to the collapse of his explanation for it. He has money from an unnamed benefactor and assumes that Miss Havisham is preparing him to marry Estella. His expectations therefore combine financial prospects with a romantic story he has constructed for himself.
