Charles Dickens’ Personal Experiences in Great Expectations Many novels are based on the author’s life. Some of the novel’s were influenced by the author’s life. Often in cases like these, one author may write many novels with a similar theme, plot, setting, or characters. This is true in Great Expectations. Charles Dickens drew on his personal experiences in Great Expectations. The main character in the novel, Pip, portrays a life that is very similar the life of Charles Dickens, his creator. From reading Great Expectations and information about Dickens’ life, I learned that P