Great Expectations: key quotations

13 short quotations from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens for Pearson Edexcel GCSE English Literature, with who says them, where, the themes and why they matter. Learn a few for each theme.

  1. “Hold your noise!”

    Magwitch, Chapter 1 · crime, childhood

    Magwitch's terrifying first words create a dramatic, frightening opening on the marshes.

  2. “A fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg.”

    Pip (narrator), Chapter 1 · crime, social class

    The convict is described through a frightened child's eyes, an image that later makes Pip's discovery so shocking.

  3. “the small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry, was Pip.”

    Pip (narrator), Chapter 1 · identity, childhood

    Pip first describes himself as small and helpless, making readers sympathise with him.

  4. “few people know what secrecy there is in the young under terror.”

    Pip (narrator), Chapter 2 · guilt, childhood

    Older Pip reflects on how fear forced him to keep secrets as a child.

  5. “I was always treated as if I had insisted on being born in opposition to the dictates of reason”

    Pip (narrator), Chapter 4 · family, childhood

    Dickens uses humour to show how Pip was made to feel like a burden by the adults around him.

  6. “an exquisite art of making her cleanliness more uncomfortable and unacceptable than dirt itself”

    Pip (narrator), Chapter 4 · family, childhood

    Pip's comic description of Mrs Joe shows how harsh and unwelcoming his home was.

  7. “be grateful, boy, to them which brought you up by hand.”

    Mr Pumblechook, Chapter 4 · family, social class

    Pumblechook lectures Pip about gratitude, showing how adults bully him while claiming to help.

  8. “We don't know what you have done, but we wouldn't have you starved to death for it, poor miserable fellow-creatur.”

    Joe Gargery, Chapter 5 · crime, family

    Joe shows kindness to the convict, proving that goodness does not depend on wealth or class.

  9. “I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right”

    Pip (narrator), Chapter 6 · guilt, identity

    Pip admits he hid the truth from Joe, an early sign of the guilt that follows him.

  10. “I do not recall that I felt any tenderness of conscience in reference to Mrs. Joe”

    Pip (narrator), Chapter 6 · guilt, family

    Pip honestly admits he felt no guilt about stealing from his harsh sister.

  11. “I am awful dull, most awful dull.”

    Joe Gargery, Chapter 7 · social class, identity

    Joe humbly calls himself slow, yet he is the novel's most morally wise character.

  12. “Ever the best of friends; an't us, Pip?”

    Joe Gargery, Chapter 7 · family, childhood

    Joe's warm friendship gives Pip the love his sister does not, making Pip's later snobbery more painful.

  13. “Miss Havisham's house, which was of old brick, and dismal, and had a great many iron bars to it.”

    Pip (narrator), Chapter 8 · social class, identity

    Satis House is described like a prison, hinting at the trapped, frozen life inside.

Every quotation was checked word for word against Great Expectations, Project Gutenberg eBook #1400. Editions differ slightly in punctuation, so use your own copy in class. Practise using them in a long answer with the essay planner and Correct my answer.

Source: Pearson Edexcel Level 1/Level 2 GCSE (9-1) in English Literature (1ET0) Specification, Issue 2 (June 2019). Checked 23 October 2026. GCSE-ready is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by Pearson.