Great Expectations – Criminal Justice

A concise and professionally structured resource exploring how Dickens presents criminal justice, punishment and social judgement in Great Expectations.

This resource provides focused analysis of Magwitch’s treatment by the legal system, the prison hulks, transportation, Jaggers’s professional authority and the unequal treatment of Magwitch and Compeyson. It examines how Dickens separates legal guilt from moral worth while exposing the influence of class, appearance, gender and empire on Victorian justice.

Key features:

• Clear analysis of criminal justice as a central contextual, structural and moral concern in the novel
• Focus on Magwitch, Compeyson, Jaggers, Wemmick, Molly and Pip’s changing judgement of criminality
• Exploration of the marshes, prison hulks, transportation, class bias, Jaggers’s hand-washing and the relationship between punishment and empire
• Activities to reinforce and practise key concepts, including terminology, contextual retrieval, character and institution links, close language analysis, structure, critical perspectives, comparison, creative writing and extended essay preparation
• Detailed answer key included for straightforward checking and review