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60 free Great Expectations trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Great Expectations trivia quiz runs through all three stages of Pip's expectations: the convict in the graveyard, the file and the pork pie, the stopped clocks and the rotting cake at Satis House, the pale young gentleman, the leg iron, the London lawyer with the scented soap, Wemmick's castle, the return of the convict, the fire, the chase down the Thames and the meeting in the ruins. Joe, Biddy, Herbert, Jaggers, Orlick, Compeyson and Drummle all get their questions. The second half is about how Dickens made it and what happened next: the magazine he was rescuing, the weekly sales, the friend who talked him into a happier ending, Carlyle's 'Pip nonsense', the Rochester house behind Satis House and the jilted Sydney woman who may have inspired Miss Havisham. Then the screen: David Lean and John Mills, Alfonso Cuarón's New York version, Helena Bonham Carter, Olivia Colman and even South Park. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia articles on the novel, Miss Havisham, Magwitch and the 1946 film, and each explanation adds one detail worth passing on. BrainPickle has a separate quiz on Charles Dickens himself.
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Q 01What is the full name of the orphan nicknamed Pip?
Philip Pirrip
His friend Herbert refuses to call him Philip, saying it 'sounds like a moral boy out of the spelling-book', and gives him a musical nickname instead.
Q 02In which weekly periodical, owned by Dickens himself, was the novel first serialised from December 1860?
All the Year Round
Dickens 'struck in' with the story to rescue the magazine's falling sales after Charles Lever's A Day's Ride flopped with readers.
Q 03Where does the novel famously open?
In a graveyard on the Kent marshes
Seven-year-old Pip is visiting his parents' graves on Christmas Eve 1812 when an escaped convict seizes him.
Q 04What two things does the convict demand that Pip bring him?
Food and a file
Pip steals a file from Joe's tools plus a pork pie and brandy meant for Christmas dinner; the convict later confesses to the theft to clear him.
Q 05What is the trade of Joe Gargery, Pip's kindly brother-in-law?
Blacksmith
Pip is apprenticed to him and once dreamed of nothing better, before Miss Havisham's house teaches him to be ashamed of the forge.
Q 06What is the name of the decaying mansion where Miss Havisham lives?
Satis House
Dickens's friend John Forster said it was based on a real house in Rochester, near where the author lived.
Q 07What has Miss Havisham worn every day since she was jilted?
Her wedding dress
She also wears only one shoe and has left the wedding breakfast and cake to rot on the table.
Q 08At what time have all the clocks in Miss Havisham's house been stopped?
Twenty minutes to nine
It is the exact minute she received the letter from her fiancé calling off the wedding.
Q 09What was the trade of Miss Havisham's father, the source of her fortune?
Brewer
Her wealth comes from rents on properties he left her, which the novel treats as 'pure' money untainted by her own labour.
Q 10Which pompous corn merchant, Joe's uncle, first sends Pip to Miss Havisham's house?
Mr Pumblechook
He later claims to be the original architect of Pip's expectations, and turns the town against Pip when they collapse.
Q 11What is the name of Miss Havisham's beautiful, cold adopted daughter?
Estella
She has been raised specifically to break men's hearts, and warns Pip repeatedly that she cannot love him.
Q 12Which 'pale young gentleman' fights Pip at Miss Havisham's and later becomes his best friend?
Herbert Pocket
Pip wins easily; years later he secretly buys Herbert a partnership at the shipbroker Clarriker's.
Q 13Who is the surly journeyman at the forge who attacks Pip's sister and later tries to murder Pip?
Dolge Orlick
He lures Pip to a sluice-house with an anonymous letter and is about to strike with a hammer when Herbert and Startop burst in.
Q 21To which colony had the convict been transported?
New South Wales
He grew wealthy there as a sheep farmer among other jobs, but any transported convict who returned to England faced execution.
Q 22Under what false name does the convict live after secretly returning to England?
Provis
Pip's first reaction on learning the truth is disgust rather than gratitude, and he stops taking the money.
Q 23Who was the second convict fighting Magwitch on the marshes, and the man who jilted Miss Havisham?
Compeyson
A gentleman fraudster, he got the lighter sentence at their trial by blaming Magwitch, which fuels the lifelong hatred.
Q 14What weapon is used in the attack on Mrs Joe?
A leg iron
Pip is horrified, believing it is the same iron he helped free the convict from with the stolen file.
Q 15What is the profession of Mr Jaggers, who brings Pip news of his expectations?
Lawyer
He constantly chews the same fingernail and washes his hands with scented soap after every client.
Q 16Where in London do Pip and Herbert share rooms?
Barnard's Inn
Pip finds London a place of litter and filth, not the 'soft white city' he had imagined.
Q 17Which brutish fellow pupil of Pip's eventually marries Miss Havisham's adopted daughter?
Bentley Drummle
He wants only the Havisham money and treats her abusively until his death; Jaggers nicknames him 'the Spider'.
Q 18Jaggers's clerk Wemmick lives with his 'Aged Parent' in what kind of home in Walworth?
A miniature castle with a drawbridge and moat
Wemmick keeps his office self and his Walworth self strictly separate, and marries Miss Skiffins, who swaps green gloves for white.
Q 19What annual income is Pip granted when he comes of age at 21?
£500
It is worth about £43,000 today; he and Herbert nonetheless run up debts.
Q 20Who turns out to be Pip's real benefactor?
Abel Magwitch, the convict
Transported to Australia, he made a fortune as a free man and returns under a false name, on pain of death, to see the gentleman he made.
Q 24Who are the real parents of Miss Havisham's adopted daughter?
Molly the housekeeper and the convict
Jaggers saved Molly from the gallows on a murder charge and quietly placed her baby with Miss Havisham.
Q 25How is Miss Havisham fatally injured?
Her dress catches fire
Pip burns himself trying to save her, moments after she has begged his forgiveness for ruining him and her adopted daughter.
Q 26Where are Pip and his friends rowing the convict when the police boat intercepts them?
To a steamboat bound for Hamburg
His old enemy is aboard the police boat to identify him; the two enemies grapple in the river and only Magwitch comes up alive.
Q 27What happens to the convict's fortune after his conviction?
It is forfeited to the Crown
Pip visits the dying man in the prison hospital and tells him his daughter is alive and that he loves her.
Q 28Who nurses Pip through his illness in London and pays off his debts?
Joe
Pip goes home intending to propose to Biddy, only to arrive on the day she has married Joe.
Q 29In which city does Pip work for eleven years with Herbert before returning to England?
Cairo
He rises to third in the shipbroking firm Clarriker's, and only then does Herbert learn who bought his partnership.
Q 30Where does Pip meet the widowed heroine in the novel's final scene?
In the ruins of Satis House
The published ending has him see 'no shadow of another parting from her'; the original ending was far bleaker.