Syllabus for February 25 - March 1
WHERE IN DICKENS’S GREAT EXPECTATIONS do we see Charles Dickens’s actual life? Starting this week, we will begin looking at Victorian England and the author’s life in an attempt to better understand Pip’s life, his experience’s in the workplace and in terms of romantic interest. How is Dickens like Pip, and Pip like him?
MONDAY
Starting a documentary on Charles Dickens’s life, and A&E biography. Students will keep notes on the importance of the following in his life: childhood, money, love, and life in Victorian England.
HW: Read chapters fourteen and fifteen (the first is very short) tonight.
TUESDAY
Detail from Daniel Maclise’s 1847 painting of Catherine (Credit: Charles Dickens Museum)
We will finish the documentary, and then read in small group an article that provides an overview of Victorian England. Your small group will start here, but after reading the overview, will select ONE area, and go into greater depth.
HW: Read chapters sixteen and seventeen.
WEDNESDAY
Today we will read chapter eighteen together, in which Pip meets the mysterious Mr. Jaggers who had an astounding proposal for Pip, who discovers “a liberal benfactor” who wants a better life for Pip.
HW: Read chapter ninteen.
THURSDAY
Close analysis of chapter twenty, and an introduction to the prison system of Victorian England.
HW: Read chapters twenty-one and two.
FRIDAY
Introduction to Victorian Slum House!
HW: Read chapterrs twenty-three through twenty-five.