Great Expectations tells the story about a young man called Pip. By telling us the childhood and great expectations of Pip, the author Charles Dickens, who was a famous English writer in 19th century showed us how a young man led a life in capitalistic society.

　　Pip was born in a poor family. He lost his parents as well as five little brothers in his infancy. As a result, he was brought up by his sister and her husband Mr. Joe Gargery.

　　Mrs. Gargery was really a strong and respectable woman. Although sometimes she was strict and cruel with Pip, she loved him very much. She was forced to do so by life for she had so heavy a burden on her shoulder to make a man out of a boy. Life was hard to her but she never gave up, otherwise Pip and Joe couldn’t manage to go on with life. That was one reason why her death shocked Joe and Pip so deeply.

　　Joe, from beginning to end, was a true gentle man. He loved Pip very much and gave a lot of help to him. In Pip’s infancy, they were both brought up by Mrs. Gargery by hands. In Pip’s words, they were fellow-sufferers. He always stood with Pip though thus might offend his wife. When Pip found his great expectation, Joe chose to let Pip loose. He wanted Pop to deal with the good fortune all by himself. He even refused the money Miss Havisham offered him for bringing up Pip. We understand him because we all know that he brought up Pip just for Pip not for money. Joe got married to Biddy at the end of the story . He really deserved happiness.

　　Pip was the main character of this novel. He had a poor infancy and always sreamt o f becoming rich. He happened to have helped a prisoner who had managed to escape from the prison and needed help badly. Pip might had never thought this would change his life and the prisoner would become