The plot is complicated and twisting, full of surprises and complexities (part of the requirement of keeping magazine audiences interested from week–to-week). Dickens includes a tremendous number of and detail for his characters, and although some critical reviewers have suggested that his characters were one-dimensional, out of control, and therefore not true representations of real people, reviewer Thomas Connolly suggests that Dickens was at a high point for character development in Great Expectations: “Dickens had learned how to make his characters complex so that they function economically both in the basic plot and in the thematic presentation.”
Other elements to be aware of include Dickens’ use of humor and satire, irony, repetition to create tension, and the use of inanimate objects to convey emotion.
You can find multitudes of interpretations as to what the novel “means;” however, most reviewers place the major themes of the novel into three broad categories: moral, psychological, and social.
