In chapter 39 the circumstances have barely changed for the convict whereas for Pip has a mysterious benefactor (soon to be revealed as the convict) and has become a rich well spoken gentleman in the 1800’s and is an example of upper class snobbery. He lives with Mr Pocket who is away and the fact that Pip is now alone and sad but well educated because he is reading all the time “I had a
taste for reading, and read regularly so many hours a day”. This shows that he has been educated.
In chapter 39 the convict is shown in the same way as before but rich, but he is still on the run from the law as he is wanted for returning after being transported from Australia. This was classed as a crime and if caught was punished by hanging.
The settings in both chapter 1 and chapter 39 are very similar as the weather is virtually the same in both chapters in chapter 1 it is misty and cold so has a wet feel and in chapter 39 it is stormy and wet the wind ripping tiles off roofs “It was wretched weather; stormy and wet, stormy and wet; and mud,
mud, mud, deep in all the streets. Day after day, a vast heavy veil
had been driving over London from the East, and it drove still, as
if in the East there were an Eternity of cloud and wind. So furious
had been the gusts, that high buildings in town had had the lead
stripped off their roofs; and in the country, trees had been torn
up, and sails of windmills carried away; and gloomy accounts had
come in from the coast, of shipwreck and death.” and is worse but still represents the weather in chapter 1. The scenery is quite different in chapter 1 it is a bleak land covered in marshes and is dirty and cold near the sea described as “a fearsome lair” this shows how nasty the land sounds and the hulks unknown to pip are nearby these make it a dangerous and almost evil place of bleakness. However the house still has a homely feel to it for pip.
In chapter 39 the place is a rich part of London near the Thames it has a grand state and is very upper class but for pip it has not got a homely feel to it and was fairly miserable without Mr Pocket “I was alone,
and had a dull sense of being alone.”
The weather makes it seem all the lonelier. The fact that he is only there for his false love of Estella.
The presentation of pip and the convict are completely different in chapter 1 pip is dressed in a working class persons attire and the convict is dressed: “all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg. A man with no hat, and with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied round his head”. The way they act changes as well in chapter 1 the convict is acting like a barbarian throwing pip about threatening him. Pip is acting mainly out of kindness as he doesn’t understand what a convict is or what Magwitch has done wrong; dickens makes this part of the book portray the convict as an evil man and pip as an innocent young boy in the wrong place at the wrong time.
In chapter 39 the tables have turned completely for both of them pip acts as a gentleman of that era, and the convict treats pip as a son rather than just an animal. Yet Pip treats the convict his benefactor was just a peasant this makes the tables turn as the convict is trying to escape the law and survive and pip wants to turn his benefactor into dirt. This makes pip seem evil and the convict the nice one this changes the theme in chapter 1 completely. The mere fact that the convict risks his life just to congratulate pip and is blinded by the supposed gentle man who is actually refusing to help. In the end pip gives in but is completely untrusting of the convict and locks him in his room in his flat this shows his complete distrust of the love of the convict who has lost his family.
Life in the nineteenth century was clearly bad as is shown when the convict had served his deportation sentence he had been forced to stay in Australia and his return leaves him only death by hanging. This is very unfair for the convict who only wants to help Pip and inform him of his helping for him. The criminal system is clearly unfair it in the deportation sense is trying to inhabit a country with convicts and their families or the rich who gave orders to the soldiers there who acted as guards.
Dickens seems to put a point across about how if the simple but mostly kind commoners whereas the rich are mostly snobbish and in a really bad light. The convict, who in chapter 1 is seen as desperate and evil then in 39 as lonely sad and being hunted, makes the criminal system seem incredibly unfair as he has served his time and although not allowed back to England he came to try to help pip. Pip who in chapter 1 is the kind lower class boy who is kind and forgiving even towards a convict who throws him about, but in 39 when he has become a supposed gentleman he has become so much of a snob with his money that he is prepared to put down Joe Gargery and the convict because they are of the wrong class ""Stay!" said I. "Keep off! If you are grateful to me for what I did
when I was a little child, I hope you have shown your gratitude by
mending your way of life. If you have come here to thank me, it was
not necessary. Still, however you have found me out, there must be
something good in the feeling that has brought you here, and I will
not repulse you; but surely you must understand that – I”. Dickens centres on this as he seems to think that the void in society is unacceptable, he also believes that pip when he changes to help the convict that it is acceptable for change in the upper classes.
