Great Expectations Socratic Seminar

Name:________________________
You will participate in a Socratic Seminar focused around specified passages from
Great Expectations. A Socratic Seminar involves you, as a class member, conducting a
conversation with other class members with minimal teacher interjection. This means
that you are responsible for the quality and depth of the conversation. This is an
opportunity to demonstrate your reading of the text and learn from others who have
read the text the point is not to show off what you know, but to push one anothers
thinking and take away some new perspectives to consider. This will require advance
preparation on your part.
Before the Seminar:
Read and re-read provided core questions (pg.3 of this handout) making
organized notes.
Select passages from the text providing evidence that supports your answer to
the core questions.
Analyze the passages with as many perspectives as you can (characterization,
plot, time period, literary devices, theme, etc.)
Develop open-ended questions that you have in relation to the passages. Openended questions do not have one right answer and encourage discussion (ex: In
Huck Finn, how do various characters interpret freedom in this passage?
Reference your inferential and thematic questions from your chapters.)
Remember: The ease of the seminar depends entirely on the preparation of
you and your classmates, and this preparation will be turned in for 30% of
the final grade).
During the Seminar:
Use literature vocabulary (protagonist, conflict, setting, etc.)
Stay focused: build on comments, connect ideas, negotiate understandings
Support Ideas and Opinions with evidence from the passages, examples from
other texts we may have read that connect thematically; clearly explain and
elaborate on ideas
Paraphrase classmate ideas; synthesize ideas when needed
Actively listen (look at speaker, take turns, value comments, be respectful)
Ask questions
-Can you clarify?
- What did you mean by?
Respectfully disagree
- I thought something different
- Another way to look at that is
PARTICIPATE! (for 40% of the final grade)
As an Observer:
Actively listen & do not talk
Take notes
Star anything you find especially insightful
After the Seminar (30% of final grade):

Complete a response to one of the open ended questions posed during the course
of the seminar
Staple this to the notes you prepared in advance
Submit both to the inbox

Grading: You will receive credit for participating thoughtfully in the seminar,
preparing notes ahead of time, and observing and recording your thoughts in a
thoughtful, respectful manner. Verbal participation in the seminar is required for full
credit.

The information below will help you in your preparations of the selected
passages.
Literary Style
In his fiction, Dickens combines humor, sentimentality, and elements of the
grotesquea type of literature in which characters outstanding physical or
personality traits are exaggerated for comic or dramatic effect. This style has come to
be known as Dickensian, and this term is today used to refer to any work that has
characteristics of Dickenss writing. For instance, as Pip learns more and more about
the Havisham household in Volume I, Dickensian style abounds in the descriptions of
Miss Havisham and the strange features of her home. Dickens also tended to write
about the plight of the working class, and in his emphasis of Londons unjust social
structure, he would often satirize (ridicule) the aristocratic upper class as well.
Note also that Great Expectations was first published in serial form (Dickens published
one or two chapters at a time in a magazine), which explains Dickens use of
cliffhangers and a rather wordy style (he was paid by the word).
Themes

Pips isolation and forced secrecy.

Pip as a figure lacking volition his life is determined by external forces that are out of his control.

The impact knowledge can have on ones perspective.

The harsh practicality of the poor working class and the extravagant impracticality of the rich upper
class.

The futility of love/the effects of unrequited (unreturned) love.

The warm simplicity of life in the country vs. the cruel, dirty, machine-like existence of life in the city.

Loyalty/Family ties vs. Social advancement.

Yours:

Your open-ended questions (develop at least 3):

Remember that Inferential/Interpretive Questions have multiple possible answers that can be supported through the text. Ex. Joes
seems to be both a father figure and a peer for Pip. How is Joe both and which do you think he should be? Thematic/Essential
questions focus on overarching themes presented through the text. Ex. Is suffering the best life lesson?

Core Questions (Analyze the textselect at least 5 of the questions answer with textual evidence and
connections to the meaning of the work as a whole as well as to other works)
1.

In this novel, things are often not what they seem. Discuss how the theme of expectations is illustrated by and
through major characters in this book. How are Pips expectations different from and similar to those of Joe, Miss
Havisham, Estella, and Magwitch?

2.

Why do you think it is one of Magwitchs principal conditions that Pip always bear the name Pip in order to
receive financial support?

3.

Why does Miss Havisham manipulate and mislead Pip into thinking she is his secret benefactor?

4.

Given Dickens portrayal of Estella, what do you think attracts Pip to her in the first place? Even when Pip realizes
that Estella has been raised to break hearts, why do you think he still remains devoted to her? Why is he not attracted
to Biddy?

5.

Miss Havisham confesses to Pip that in adopting Estella she meant to save her [Estella] from misery like my own.
Do you believe this given Dickens harsh characterization of Miss Havisham throughout the novel? Do you agree
with Pips decision to forgive her?

6.

When Miss Havisham catches on fire, do you think this was an accident or was she trying to commit suicide because
of the guilt she felt about her actions/decisions regarding Estella and Pip? If it was not an accident, did she deserve
it?

7.

Several of the characters in the book seemed transformed from bad to good; we see this with Mrs. Joe. Who else
changes/transforms from bad to good in the book? What is the source of their transformation? What does this say
about the concept of redemption?

8.

Where do we see irony in the novel (the opposite of what we expect)?

9.

How are the following sets of characters similar? How are they different? <Biddy and Estella> < Magwitch and
Joe> <Jaggers and Wemmick> < Orlick and Compeyson>

10. Discuss the role of Miss Havisham in the novel. Some critics have said that she represents an imprisoned state of
mind. What does this mean? Do you agree with this?
11. Many people are bothered by the character of Uncle Pumblechook. However, Uncle Pumblechook and Pip have
similarities. How are they similar?
12. Pips character changes at the end of the book. Which Pip did you like the most (Pip as a boy, Pip as a young
gentleman, Pip at the end of the book as a middle-aged man)?
13. Do money and connections in life really help a person? How or how not?
14. What are the main themes (life lessons) of this book?