There are many themes and motifs in Great Expectations. An example of a motif in the novel is convicts. Convicts have appeared scattered throughout the book since the very beginning of the story. They may relate somehow to the novels theme of crime and punishment. In chapter 27, Pip encounters two convicts riding in the coach with him. They make him feel guilt, another theme in the story, for another encounter Pip had with convicts earlier in the story.
At the beginning, Pip meets a convict and helps free him. Throughout most of his life in the first stage, Pip feels terrible guilt for helping free him. Pip doesn't feel any guilt for most of the second stage until he encounters the two convicts in the coach. This brings back both the motif of convicts and the theme of guilt back into the story and back to the reader's attention.
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