Great Expectations – Irony and Humour

A comprehensive and professionally structured resource exploring how Dickens uses irony, humour and satire to expose vanity, hypocrisy and social pretension in Great Expectations.

This resource examines the gap between young Pip’s experiences and the older narrator’s understanding, showing how retrospective narration makes Pip both sympathetic and open to criticism. It also explores how comic characters, exaggerated behaviour and structural reversals support Dickens’s serious criticism of class ambition, education and false gentlemanliness.

Key features:

• Clear analysis of narrative irony, satire, parody, comic exaggeration, retrospective narration and structural reversal
• Focus on Pip, Pumblechook, Wopsle, Mrs Joe, Trabb’s boy and the darkly comic presentation of Satis House
• Exploration of the title, Pip’s mistaken expectations, the benefactor revelation and the contrast between social appearance and moral reality
• Nine structured exercises covering terminology, writer’s methods, character-based humour, social context, close language analysis, analytical writing, a creative task and extended essay preparation
• Detailed answer key and a 14-slide supporting presentation with teaching content, activities, suggested answers, discussion questions and summary material