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28833_00_Great_ELT_P01-31.QXD 11/17/09 9:04 PM Page 12
12 Great Expectations for ELT
TEACHER’S NOTES
WORKSHEET 5 – CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN DICKENS’S ENGLAND
This worksheet aims to focus on crime and punishment in Victorian England and give students an idea of
what life must have been like. Although Great Expectations was published in 1861, after the prison hulks
had been abolished, the story is set at the beginning of the century, when they were still very much in use.
Dickens was strongly affected by his own experiences as a child of Pip’s age and determined to free himself
from the poverty of his family. This is reflected in Pip’s desire to improve his station in life.
1 Students work individually. Ask them to read through the text and write the suitable preposition in each gap.
For weaker classes, you may like to write the prepositions they will need to choose from on the board.
ANSWER KEY: 1 in 2 to 3 by 4 of 5 in 6 at 7 into 8 in 9 on 10 on
2 Students work in pairs. Tell them to look at the crimes that were punishable by death in the early 1800s
and compare them with the kind of punishment that would be likely today. Suggest that they compare
horse stealing with car theft today, as the horse was a person’s main form of transport in the 1800s. Also,
explain that a shilling was an old coin, equivalent to 5 pence today.
ANSWER KEY: Answers will vary.
Should you wish to investigate this further, a useful website for information is:
http://vcp.e2bn.org/justice/section2194-sentences-and-punishments.html
3 Elicit students’ impressions of what life must have been like during the early nineteenth century for the
people mentioned. If you have the equipment available, you might find it useful to show your students
one of the BBC documentaries on the Victorian period. Alternatively, you could create your own diary
entry for one of the characters mentioned, record it and play the recording to the students to give them
some initial ideas.
ANSWER KEY: Answers will vary.
Optional extension: As homework, ask each student to choose one of the above people and write a diary
entry for a day in their life. While students often complain about going to school, ask them to consider what
life would be like if they couldn’t get an education, but had to work instead. Tell them that their diary
entries do not need to be long but should contain the person’s feelings about their situation. Remind them
that while Dickens felt frustrated about his situation as he had had a taste of education, most children who
worked in a coal mine would have considered this situation normal.