Great Expectations is an amazing novel about the troubles of a Victorian boy Pip (Phillip Pirrip) and his adventures in the outside world. When the novel opens, Pip is nothing more than a small boy, full of dreams and inventive vocabulary but as the book progresses Pip gets older, more mature and the books becomes more serious.

The tension throughtout the novel is extreme and is used well but widely. The tension as the book opens, builds up and builds up, until such relief floods through the reader it is able to make the reader content again. This is a cause for sympathy and as the novel progresses through Part 1, the sympathy builds. However, as Part 2 progresses Pip's ways change and the sympathetic reader looses sympathy very quickly, although it is not instantanious.

As Pip prepares himself for his voyage, using the money from his secret personal benifactor, Pip's character changes dramatically and creates a new air about him. He makes himself superior and boasting about his sudden wealth. This, is a change in Pip, which loses the sympathy from the reader. Pip's new air causes trouble, which is unsuprising due to his new way of thinking and being.