Setting

Great Expectations

by Charles Dickens

Great Expectations: Setting 1 key example

Definition of Setting

Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or it can be an imagined... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the... read full definition
Setting
Explanation and Analysis:

Great Expectations is mostly set in Victorian England, with occasional references to other countries. For example, the novel mentions Egypt when Pip's best friend Herbert Pocket emigrates there. The convict Provis, like about 40,000 other British criminals before him, is transported to and returns from New South Wales, Australia. "Transportation" was the 18th and 19th century version of exile or punitive deportation, where people who had committed crimes as small as stealing a loaf of bread could be sent as indentured servants to the New World, and forbidden from returning on pain of death.