One of the greatest things about this novel is that you do not know what the “great expectations” really are! Is it money? Is it the person you dream to spend your life with? Is it getting a well education? A person never knows—Dickens himself didn’t know. I say, not only this novel is a reflection of Dickens life, also it can be a reflection of ours. Another point, when a careful reader digs down deep into this novel’s events, he or she will find that some actions do not make sense, but later on, the reader discovers the answers for his or her unanswered questions. I mean by that, when the run away prisoner saw Pip with the cops and other villagers, he did not tell on him; the reader might have wondered why, for instance! I, myself, asked this question: as long as this prisoner is considered criminal, why did not he take Pip down with him! I mean he could tell the cops that he was helped by this kid, and after that the kid would be treated like a criminal exactly like him, but he simply did not do that. So that brings the fact that this prisoner is not totally bad, and at the end of the novel when Pip discovered that the prisoner is the person who gave him the opportunity to be a gentleman, I was not really shocked, considering the note I mentioned above. Anyway, this novel really IS one of a kind, and it will always be a master piece of the English literature