The story of Great Expectations was Dickens's signature novel and deals with the story of a little boy, who we learn to call `Pip', and his journey into adulthood. The perception put forward of childhood by Dicken's in the novel is indeed complex and at times varied, partly with the theme of vulnerability, largely because of Mrs. Joe, Estella and Miss. Havisham, and partly with the theme of happiness and naïve innocence, which he feels because of Biddy and Joe, for example. The representation of Pip's childhood is also to a degree a reflection of Charles Dicken's childhood himself, and the opinions put forward by Pip in the novel, fundamentally tell us the views of the author on how he perceived childhood.

Pip, is the orphan, who we first meet crying in the churchyard, near to the grave-stones of his perished parents and five infant siblings. He...