How might falling sales have influenced the content and direction of Great Expectations?Great Expectations was originally published in 36 weekly...

The most notable effect of the public's disapproval and,
perhaps, dropping sales, comes with the conclusion of Great Expectations.
Because the original ending did not meet with the approval of the majority, Dickens altered his
ending to a resolution of sorts. Pip and Estella walk about and Pip takes her hand, and together
they leave "her hand in mine." This change, then, helped to boost
sales.

To generate interest in the novel, Dickens divided it into
three stages of changes that take place in Pip; also, each stage has a different setting: the
forge, London, and finally, a return to the forge. And, so that the reader knows there is more to
come in the stages, Dickens ends the two stages with words that hint at some conflicts yet to
occur. For instance, The First Stage ends as Pip is on the various coaches which will take him to
London. Regretting that he has left Joe in such an abrupt manner, he thinks he will get off the
stage when it makes the first stop and walk back to spend another night with Joe. However, he
cannot make up his mind before

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We changed again, and yet again, and it was now too late,
and too far to go back, an Ii went on. And the mists had all solemnl risen now, and the world lay
spread before me.

Within these three
stages, there are also chapters that end with thought-provoking ideas suggestive of interesting
incidents to follow. For example, at the end of Chapter IX, Pip returns from his momentous visit
to Miss Havisham's with reflections that encourage continuation of the
text,

That was a
memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But it is the same with any life. Imagine
one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you
who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers,
that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable
day.

In addition to creating suspense,
Dickens generates interest in the reader with the sinister characters of Orlick and the man in
the Jolly Bargemen who stares at Pip and stirs his drink with a large file like the one of Joe's
which Pip has stolen. Comic relief with characters such as Wemmick and the ridiculous Pumblechook
and Sarah Pocket, delight the reader and encourage further reading. The reappearance of
characters also arouses the suspense in the reader. For instance, the reemergence of the old
convict of Magwitch at the end of the Second Stage arouses the curiosity of the reader as Pip
faces the dilemma of what to do with his benefactor, who is a condemned
criminal:

I got away
from him, without knowing how I did it, and for an hour or more I remained too stunned to think.
It was not unti I began to think that I began to know how wrecked I was, and how the ship in
which I had sailed was gone to
pieces.

At the end of Stage Two, Pip
also has two shattering realizations that will change the course of his life: He has deserted Joe
and life and the forge for expectations that have vanished; and Miss Havisham has never intended
fo him and Estella to marry. The reader wonders how Pip's life will change as a result of these
realizations. In the Second Stage, each of the subplots is expanded--Pip and the convict, the
injury to Mrs. Joe, Pip's love for Estella. While there are new subplots introduced in the Third
Stage, but most are finally resolved.