Entirely different from ‘Of Mice and Men’, the opening chapter of ‘Great Expectations’ is full of descriptive details, that Dickens has superbly used to describe the lonely, isolated feelings Pip is having, at the incredibly dark setting of his parents and sibling’s graves. Dickens describes the setting as a ‘bleak place over grown with nettles’, a ‘dark flat wilderness ’ and a ‘distant savage lair’. This gives us an incredible vision of the scene, which Steinbeck was unable to do with his style of writing. He gives us a beautiful picture of Pip’s vulnerability when he describes him as a ‘small bundle of shivers, growing afraid....and beginning to cry’. This sentence creates an incredible picture of how lonely Pip is out in the graveyard on that windy day. This description of the scene builds tension amazingly, and let’s the reader really feel how Pip is feeling, cold, lonely and afraid. Then with the appearance of Magwitch Dickens tells us of a ‘terrible voice’, and describes him as ‘a fearful man’ and goes further to use his individual descriptive style to create a picture of the convict in the reader’s mind which would strike fear into the heart of the most courageous person alive, as he writes about ‘A man with no hat, and with broken shoes, and an old rag tied round his head. 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; who limped, and shivered, and glared and growled; and whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me’. Then, not content with the horrifying description of the convict, he goes on to tell us how he ‘pleaded in terror’ for his life and how the convict looked ‘darkly’ at him, and then ‘tilted me back as far as he could hold me’ before looking ‘powerfully down’ into his eyes. All these words emphasise the weakness of Pip in comparison to the terrifying vision of the convict. Then Dickens goes on to make us feel sorry for Pip by saying how ‘dreadfully frightened’ he was and how the convict spoke in ‘fearful terms’ to him. Then the convict’s speech is truly petrifying, as he tells Pip about the fictional young man in his company, who, if Pip disobeyed Magwitch at all, would find him, and get at Pip, ‘and at his heart and at his liver’. Then Dickens makes us feel sympathetic towards the convict, as he describes his body as ‘shuddering’, as he ‘limped’ away from Pip.
Both writers use their own unique style of writing to build up the tension in their books, however, their styles are exceedingly different. Steinbeck uses more gritty action verbs, such as ‘whirls’, and the way Curley is described as ‘hanging close to Slim’s elbow’ as well as the dialogue of the characters to build up the atmosphere, whereas Dickens uses a much more descriptive style of writing to build up the ominousness of the graveyard scene, describing the setting, ‘this bleak place’ and then the convict in an exceptionally effective manner, ‘ a fearsome man’, tending to use adjectives to hook his audience to the story rather than the actions of his characters.
In ‘Of Mice and Men’ Steinbeck uses his unique original style to write about the death of Curley’s wife. Steinbeck deliberately does not name Curley’s wife in the book, to show how women at that time were regarded as unimportant compared to men, so, right the way through the book, she is known as ‘Curley’s wife’. Right the way through the book, Curley’s wife has been making a nuisance of herself, or so the men on the ranch see it, it was a combination of her, combined with Curley’s temper which caused the fight between Curley and Lennie, but it is only in this scene that we really get to know her as a person. Sadly, this scene also happens to be her last. The men on the ranch don’t want to have any sort of relationship with her, they don’t even want to talk to her, because they see her as a ‘jail bait’, or a woman who gets a man into trouble. She is a very lonely person, and tries to find someone to talk to her. She finally succeeds in her mission to find a friend, in Lennie, but sadly, their friendship was tragically short-lived. Lennie’s movements in this scene are reminiscent of an animal, when he moves ‘cautiously’ close to her, as if trying to test her, to see if she would hurt him. This is typical of Steinbeck’s characterisation of Lennie, as he compares him to an animal throughout the book. This movement, together with Lennie’s speech about mice and rabbits, ( ‘I like to pet nice things. Once at a fair I seen some of them long-hair rabbits. An’ they was nice you bet. Sometimes I’ve even pet mice, but not when I could get nothing better.’), makes Curley’s wife nervous, and she moves ‘away’ from Lennie slightly, and Steinbeck shows us what the character is nervous about, when she tells Lennie that she thinks he is ‘nuts’. Lennie explains his obsession with rabbits, and she is ‘reassured’ by his explanation, and now feels that she has some common ground with him, and starts a conversation about their shared of ‘sof’ things’. They talk more about ‘silk an’ velvet’ and Curley’s wife starts to feel fond of Lennie ‘you’re a kinda nice fella. Jus’ like a big baby’, and continuing their discussion about soft things, she talks about how Curley’s hair is ‘coarse....jus’ like wire’, this is a reference to Steinbeck’s earlier use of simile, comparing Curley to a ‘terrier’, as terriers have coarse wiry coats. Then she tells us how her hair is ‘soft and fine’, showing the contrast between her and Curley, not just in hairstyles, but in their personalities too. Curley’s wife takes Lennie’s hand and puts it on her hair for him to see how soft it is, ‘Feel right aroun’ there an’ see how soft it is’, and Lennie’s ‘big fingers’ fell to stroking her hair. Curley’s wife does not realise that Lennie’s big clumsy hands are where the danger is, and soon, Lennie gets carried away again as he strokes her hair ‘harder’. Curley’s wife gets anxious at this point, and stops gently asking him not to ‘muss’ her hair up, as she cries ‘angrily’, and ‘jerks’ her head away from Lennie. It is at this point that Lennie loses control completely, and his dangerous fingers ‘closed’ around Curley’s wife’s hair, and ‘hung on’. This is an example of his lethal hands again, just like earlier in the book with the mouse he killed, the girl’s dress he hung onto at the last ranch, and the dead puppy he killed moments before Curley’s wife came into the barn to talk to him, Lennie can’t control his strength, particularly in his hands. Lennie’s face is described as ‘contorted’, just before Curley’s wife tried to scream and Lennie’s other hand, ‘closed’ over her mouth and nose, slowly suffocating her. Lennie is delineated in a sympathetic light again, as Steinbeck tells us how he ‘begged’ Curley’s wife to stop screaming, but we do not lose sympathy for her as Steinbeck tells us about the way she ‘battered on the hay and writhed to be free’. Lennie begins to cry with ‘fright’, and begs her again not to scream, he is frightened if he does another ‘bad thing’ George will be mad, and will not let him look after the rabbits they intend to keep on the ranch they are saving up to buy, and Steinbeck illustrates that this is his main concern when Lennie says ‘Oh! Please don’t do none of that.....George gonna say I done another bad thing. He ain’t gonna let me tend no rabbits’. Lennie tries to give her a chance, but as he moved his hand, a ‘hoarse’ cry escaped her lips, and now, he ‘grew angry’ with her. He tried to calm her down, but did not succeed, and she grew more petrified with each passing second, as her eyes ‘were wild with terror’. Lennie grew angrier, and ‘shook’ her, Steinbeck repeats the word ‘shook’ twice in this part of the book, to really help us imagine the tension in the barn, as this brief, yet deadly encounter occurred. The he uses the same simile he used to describe Curley after Lennie has crushed his hand in the fight scene to describe the way her body, when dead, lost it’s rigidity, ‘her body flopped like a fish’. Then, his next phrase is simple, and straight to the point, like Lennie’s personality, and Curley’s wife’s death, Steinbeck writes ‘then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck’. After he has killed Curley’s wife, Lennie’s movements are animal-like again, as he ‘carefully’ removes his hand from her mouth, and tries to explain his actions ‘I don’t want ta hurt you...but George’ll be mad if you yell’. When she does not react, Lennie, moves ‘closely’ over her, and lifts her arm to see if she is still alive. When he ‘lets’ her arm drop, which suggests he is being the normal gentle Lennie again, it takes a moment for him to realise what he has done, and for this moment he is described as ‘bewildered’, after which, Lennie is full of terror, as he realises, to some degree, the severity of his actions, as he whispers in ‘fright’. Steinbeck compares Lennie to a bear again, when he describes how Lennie ‘pawed’ up the hay over Curley’s wife, in an attempt to try and hide what he has done. At this point Steinbeck draws attention away from the action in the barn, by focussing in on the world outside the barn, ‘From outside the barn came a cry of men and the double clang of shoes on metal’. Lennie is likened to an animal again, as he ‘crouched’ in the hay and ‘listened’ for danger, just like an animal does, when it senses danger nearby. Lennie remembers what George said earlier and , one again, like an animal, runs away to ‘hide’ in the ‘brush’ (nearby countryside) until George comes to get him. When Steinbeck tells us how ‘the puppy lay close to her’, and how Lennie throws the puppy away so George won’t be as mad, he is showing us a very clear view into Lennie’s mind. Somewhere, in his mind, he has the idea that if he throws away the puppy, killing Curley’s wife won’t be as bad. Then, carrying the pup, Lennie ‘crept’ to the barn wall ‘peered’ around the corner to check for the way the other men were looking, and ‘crept’ away into the brush. After Lennie exits the scene, Steinbeck builds a sense of ‘calm after the storm’, and a peaceful reverent atmosphere surrounding the barm as he talks about, the length of the ‘sun streaks’ on the wall, and the way the light grew ‘soft’. He builds this up further by telling us about the ‘quiet’ in and around the barn, as he tells us that ‘even the voices of the men in the game seemed to grow more quiet’. Yet among this air of serenity, Steinbeck doesn’t let us forget the dead body, as he writes about how the ‘shepherd bitch’, ‘whimpered’ and ‘cringed’, and ran to her puppies. Steinbeck now describes Curley’s wife after death, as being ‘pretty’ ‘sweet’ and ‘young’, he tells us how ‘the meanness and the plannings and the discontent’ were all gone from her face, and she appeared, to be sleeping ’lightly’, not to be dead, this shows how young and innocent she really was, and above all, she was just lonely, and wanted a friend. Steinbeck’s next small chapter describes how time itself was shocked by the actions of Lennie, and froze for a while, to give people time to contemplate the death of one so young, ‘As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped for much, much more than a moment’, I find it creates a wonderful sense of tranquillity, and is particularly effective in constructing an atmosphere of reverence surrounding Curley’s wife. Then, to end this scene, he describes how time moved ‘sluggishly’ on, and the noises of the outside world, started once more, as the men approached the barn. This style of writing contrasts greatly with Dickens’, who creates a sense of reverence, and love between Magwitch and Pip. Dickens uses words like ‘placidly’ to describe the way in which Magwitch prepares for his own death, and ‘brightened’ to describe the way Magwitch’s face, which was absent of ‘light’ lit up when Pip spoke to him. Dickens has the characters refer to each other using terms of endearment, such as ‘Dear boy’, used by Magwitch to speak to Pip. Also, Magwitch tells Pip how has never ‘deserted’ him, and Pip responds with an affectionate gesture, namely, pressing his ‘hand’ silently. Magwitch is happy to die, and Dickens shows us that his death is near by telling us about the way he is ‘breathing with great difficulty’. Dickens shows us this love between the characters again, when he writes about how he ‘smiled’ when Pip lay his hand on his breast, and Magwitch looked ‘most affectionately’ at him. Dickens describes Magwitch’s movements as ‘gentle’, a sharp contrast to the movements in chapter one, which inspired fear into a younger Pip. Magwitch uses the last ‘faint’ bit of strength in his body to ‘raise’ Pip’s hand to his ‘lips’, after Pip informs him he loves his long lost daughter. Then Dickens describes Magwitch’s death, by writing about the way his ‘placid’, at peace look he had earlier came back to his face, and his head ‘dropped quietly’ onto his chest. Pip displays one last piece of affection before the chapter finishes, when he prays to God, and asks him to forgive Magwitch. He does this by finishing the chapter with the memorable words, ‘Lord, be merciful to him, a sinner!’.
In my opinion, Dickens’ descriptive writing, heavily littered with adjectives, is a much more effective style of writing than the gritty verbs used by Steinbeck to write his novel. Dickens’ style builds a picture of the situation in the mind of the reader, with painstaking attention to detail, this is imagery, which Dickens’ certainly uses with great skill and ease. Steinbeck does not use this imagery, and although his style of writing is much more tension building, nail biting material, the more experienced reader appreciates being able to imagine the character’s plight themselves. Dickens’ masterful writing certainly helps them do this.
