Then, without warning, Dickens thrusts drama into the story, instantly grabbing a reader’s attention. So far the setting has been eerily quiet, so using bold dialogue ‘Hold your noise!’ was a very effective way of starting the story in a sense and adding substance to it. The man that comes towards Pip shouts ‘keep still you little devil, or ill cut your throat!’ – An instant threat, this makes us as readers very afraid for the vulnerable young boy. Dickens then goes on to describe the man, and we are made aware that he is an escaped prisoner of some sort as Dickens says ‘a great iron on his leg’. The fact that he is a criminal indicates that he may well be a very dangerous man who wouldn’t hesitate in hurting Pip as he would have nothing to loose. This point is reinforced as Dickens describes the man to be scruffy in describing him as ‘a man with no hat, and with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied around his head’. This portrays quite the opposite of an ideally dressed man of that time, hence him having nothing to loose. By now the readers would have a strong disliking for this man, this scruffy criminal that had jumped out at frightened young Pip and threatened him. However as Dickens continues to describe the man, he makes us feel almost sorry for him as he describes him to be ‘a man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars’. By his continuous use of the word ‘and’ Dickens makes his readers take notice and focus on words rather than reading through the descriptive phrases like a list. He also makes us recognise how many things this man has suffered through, as with pauses in-between the phrases we are made aware of the amount of things he had endured. In this sentence Dickens also uses words that describe many different types of physical injury, in example – lamed, cut, stung, torn. This makes us think about how much suffering the man has been through, experiencing many types of physical pain. Dickens then goes on to say ‘who limped and shivered’ – this makes us aware that the criminal is hurt so much that he has trouble walking, and how cold he is, increasing our level of sympathy for him also. The readers are then made aware of the situation again and the danger Pip is still in as the criminal ‘glared and growled, and whose teeth chattered in his head’ as he ‘seized’ Pip by the chin. We are then made to have great sympathy for Pip as he begs and ‘pleas’ in ‘terror’. Then, every time the criminal speaks to pip it is an order, and he is forceful with trying to extract the information he wants from Pip, as he shouts his orders almost every time. I know this due to the writer’s continuous use of exclamation marks. Pip then points out where he lives, which unfortunately is ‘a mile or more from the church’, the place where Pip is currently situated. This tells us that he is very far from safety.
The criminal then turns Pip upside down, a clear display of his strength compared to Pip’s weakness. Dickens then describes the criminal as ‘sudden and strong’ which reinforces this point. Pip was then ‘trembling’ from fear, whilst the criminal ate the bread from Pip’s pocket ‘ravenously’; this shows us that the criminal has animal tendencies, perhaps as he has been reduced to his ‘caveman-like’ state of mind in order to survive. This indicates once again how desperate the man is, and how starving he must have been. Dickens then says how Pip is ‘undersized’ for his ‘years’ and ‘not strong’, compared with the criminal’s strength, recklessness, desperation and savage ways Pip was sure to loose in a fight. Dickens then reminds us of the man’s desperation and hunger when he says ‘Darn me If I couldn’t eat em’ when referring to Pips cheeks. Pip ‘held tighter to the tombstone’ which he was sat on – another reference to his fear. Dickens also uses words like ‘timidly’ when referring to Pip speaking to the criminal, once again showing his vulnerability and childlike behaviour. Pip also refers to the criminal as ‘sir’, even though he is clearly not a gentleman (the way he is dressed, the way he talks improperly – ‘sumever’, ‘partikler’, ‘I am a angel’) which shows that Pip is a very polite child and has respect for all of his elders. Once the criminal finds out that Pip’s uncle is a blacksmith, he says ‘blacksmith, eh?’ and looks ‘down at his leg’ – this tells us that he has made the connection between the blacksmiths tools and the iron on his leg, he is thinking that Pip maybe able to retrieve some sort of tool which could remove the iron on the criminal’s leg. In doing this he recognises that Pip could be of use to him, and things start to look prosperous in the hope of Pips life not being endangered to the readers. The criminal orders Pip to bring him a file and food and drink – ‘wittles’. Dickens explains from Pips point of view that after each question he ‘tilted me over a little more, so as to give me a greater senses of helplessness and danger’ – ‘me’ being Pip of course. This tells us in itself what the criminal is trying to do, and reminds us of how helpless Pip actually is. The criminal then gives Pip short orders, and after every one Dickens says (from the point of view of Pip) ‘he tilted me again’. He did this four times, the constant use of the phrase builds up tension, constantly making us as readers fear for Pip’s safety. After finally placing Pip on a tombstone, the criminal recaps on what Pip must do to ensure his own safety; and just in case the threat of the criminal coming after Pip isn’t enough, he threatens him with an even worse fate in the form of ‘a young man’ who in comparison with himself makes the criminal an ‘angel’. The criminal then tells Pip of what the young man would do to him should he fail to obey the criminals orders. Dickens then uses his third language pattern yet in the first chapter to build up tension, he says ‘may lock his door, may be warm in bed, may tuck himself up’ ect, all creating the idea of safety, but then the idea is shattered with the use of the simple but effective word ‘but’. Pip agrees to do what the criminal says, yet the criminal curses Pip if he doesn’t, and finally tries to ensure that Pip will definitely come back with one more threat of the ‘young man’. The criminal’s constant threats towards Pip shows how desperate he is for food, and how in need he is for some help or hospitality. Then, Pip says ‘Good night sir’ and the criminal responds in saying ‘much of that!’ almost in a friendly, bantering type of way, just to lighten the mood. He then says something humorous ‘I wish I was a frog, or a eel’ and makes a joke out of having to stay the night in the cold, wet marshland. It’s almost as if, being human, he just needs a little bit of a joke or normal conversation – this perhaps would make some of us warm to him and be reminded that he is an actual human being with feelings. Dickens then tells us of how he ‘hugged his shuddering body in both his arms – clasping himself, as if to hold himself together’ this makes us feel sorry for the criminal now too, as he is vulnerable and needs some love and care also, in fact, the way he hugs himself could be him not only warming himself up, but comforting himself and deriving whatever imitation of love he can, to make himself feel better. In saying ‘clasping himself, as if to hold himself together’ we can recognise that this man is falling apart. He is cold and hungry and has nowhere to go; this makes us feel sympathy for him. When Dickens says ‘in my young eyes’ it reminds us that it is Pip that is witnessing the man suffering, and perhaps indicates that Pip wouldn’t be so afraid of the man, and that if he were to do as he wished, it would be out of the good of his heart, as a man in such a state could never come looking for Pip. Dickens then says he was ‘picking his way among the nettles’, ‘as if he were eluding the hands of dead people, stretching up cautiously out of their graves, to get a twist upon his ankle and pull him in’. This gives us the impression that this desperate man with nothing to loose is constantly trying to avoid death. Dickens goes on to describe the man ‘like a man whose legs were numbed and stiff’ – this simile tells us that the criminal is walking badly and is suffering physically – even though he is stronger than Pip, he is still only half the man he could be in terms of strength. Dickens tells us that the man is ‘still hugging himself with both arms’ and ‘picking his way with sore feet’ which indicates that the man is in dire need of some form of comfort.
As Pip looks over his shoulder, and stopped to look after the criminal, it shows that he cares for his welfare and because of this we as readers do also. The writer uses the phrase ‘the sky was just a row of long angry red lines and dense black lines intermixed’ to make us aware that night is approaching. As Pip looks over his shoulder, he spots a ‘beacon’ in the distance which is a symbol of life in the way that it emits light, and guides sailors on the rough seas to safety. He also spots a ‘gibbet’, in a way a symbol of death, it also had chains hanging off It and used to be the home to a body of a pirate to ward off other pirates – a threat of what would happened to them should they come on land. This is another reference to the historical context – as there are very few pirates nowadays. The fact that the convict was ‘limping towards this latter’ indicates that he is being associated with death – he is on the edge of it and almost has no hope. Dickens makes this connection explicit when he says ‘as If he were a pirate come to life, and come down, and going back to hook himself up again’ – a clear image and a simile directly associating the criminal with death. When Dickens says the thought gave Pip ‘a terrible turn’ we are made aware definitely that Pip pities the convict, and because he does, we do too.
Finally we are told that Pip ‘looked all round for the horrible young man’ which even after his mature display of sympathy for the criminal, reminds us of his childish naivety- as the horrible young man clearly doesn’t exist. Although Pip probably isn’t as afraid of the criminal anymore, he is still scared of the ‘horrible young man’ – ‘I was frightened again, and ran home without stopping’. The fear of this young man indicates that Pip will almost certainly return food to the criminal the next day.
I think Dickens chose to start his novel in this way as it would give the readers an idea of the type of boy Pip – the main character was. It would make the reader warm to him and also make them question what would happen next. The starting chapter pinpoints an event from Pip’s life, and the audience is left wondering where the story will go next, if not for their own interest – for Pips. As the opening is so effective the audience will be concerned about what might happen next to pip and therefore they will feel obliged to purchase the next issue of the magazine (at that time) in order to see where the story goes.
Overall I think that the opening to this novel is extremely effective. Charles Dickens’ writing style is superb. His constant use of sharp contrast in his work creates an astounding effect, as well as his use of alliteration, and repetition to build up tension. I would certainly want to know what happens next in the story and I think many others would too. Dickens really did achieve his goal of pulling people into the story and making them ask questions about what would happen next - a superbly written opening to his novel in my opinion.