Bildungsroman and character development: Charles Dickens' Great Expectations

Abstract

This paper traces the elements of the Bildungsroman in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations - how an individual influences others, and how a certain event can trigger a whole series of circumstances that develop and reveal themselves before readers. The novel contains not only the elements of the protagonist's maturing process, and the formation of other characters' personalities, but it also depicts the class relations and social criticism of the Victorian England. The paper analyses the elements of Bildungsroman, a novel which follows the protagonists' spiritual development through learning and life experience. Great Expectations traces the main protagonist's development from early childhood to finishing his education to adulthood, when he becomes able to fulfill moral requirements towards himself and the society.