Evaluate Key Quotations and their Impact in 'Great Expectations'

In the exam, you will need to be able to select key quotations and comment on what these show us about a character or a theme.

Try to learn a bank of key quotations from the novel so that you can draw on these in your exam response.

For higher marks, you will need to be able to analyse the quotations closely and evaluate their impact, as well as commenting on how they reflect key contextual factors.

Try to answer the following questions each time you discuss a quotation:

- what choices of language/structure is Dickens making? e.g. metaphor/alliteration/imagery etc.

- what are the connotations of these?

- what effect does it have on the reader?

- how does it reflect something about the context of the time in which Dickens was writing?

This activity will help you to evaluate the impact of some of the most important quotations from 'Great Expectations'.

You should always refer to your own text when working through these examples. These quotations are for reference only.