In chapter 1 we see Pip as a young boy visiting his parents graves. He is small and frightened by the convict. He is terrified by what the convict says will happen to him if he doesn’t do what the convict wants.
“`You get me a file.' He tilted me again. `And you get me wittles.' He tilted me again. `You bring 'em both to me.' He tilted me again. `Or I'll have your heart and liver out.' He tilted me again.”
The convict has escaped from prison and is hiding in the graveyard where Pip is. He was dressed in “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.” He was covered in mud and was soaked in water. “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 by the chin.” He was desperate for food and would do anything to get some.
In chapter 39 we see Pip when he is 23 years old, living in London thanks to a secret friend. He has all the money he needs to live a life of luxury. He resents seeing the stranger who has turned up on his doorstep, but he thinks he has seen the man before. When he finally realises that it is the convict who this stranger is, he wants him gone. Pip doesn’t want the convict touching him and keeps backing away from him when the convict goes to touch him. “At a change in his manner as if he were even going to embrace me, I laid a hand upon his breast and put him away.”
The convict has risked his life to come back from Australia to see Pip and tell him the answer Pip wanted to know. He is a changed man he now lives in New South Wales Australia where he is a very good sheep farmer. He has made a lot of money and has given every last bit of it to Pip so he could become a gentleman it was his way of thanking Pip for his kindness when he was a young boy.” Yes, Pip, dear boy, I've made a gentleman on you!” The convict sees Pip as a son he never had. “`Look'ee here, Pip. I'm your second father. You're my son -- more to me nor any son.”
Now I will compare the different settings of the two chapters:
In chapter 1 we are taken to a graveyard it is overgrown with weeds, and is the resting place of Pips father, mother, and his bothers. “At such a time I found out for certain, that this bleak place overgrown with nettles was the churchyard; and that Philip Pirrip, late of this parish, and also Georgiana wife of the above, were dead and buried; and that Alexander, Bartholomew, Abraham, Tobias, and Roger, infant children of the aforesaid, were also dead and buried;” It is very dark and there is flat land beyond the graveyard which is cut with dykes, mounds, and gates with cattle feeding on the land, the land is referred to as the mashes with a river by it. “Dark flat wilderness beyond the churchyard, intersected with dykes and mounds and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it, was the marshes.”
Whereas in chapter 39 we are taken to Pips new house ”near the river” in London, it is a very horrible night it is raining very hard and a storm is picking up. The streets are covered in mud. The wind was stripping roofs of their lead and tiles; it had been like it for a few days. “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”. Also trees had been torn up and windmills had their sails stripped off. Outside was not a good place to be. Pip is in his living room reading and the smoke from the fire is being blown back into the room because of the wind. “Occasionally, the smoke came rolling down the chimney as though it could not bear to go out into such a night”
I will now compare the presentation of the two chapters:
In chapter 1 we see Pip as a young boy he is in the graveyard at his parents gravestone crying. He comes across a very innocent boy, and very frightened and so we are made to feel sorry for him. “Growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry, was Pip”. We aren’t given much information about Pip in this first chapter but we are given a lot about the convict.
The convict is a fearful man who is dressed in his prison clothes. “A fearful man, 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. 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 by the chin.” He comes across as very dangerous, and evil man who will do anything to get what he needs and wants. “You fail, or you go from my words in any partickler, no matter how small it is, and your heart and your liver shall be tore out, roasted and ate.”
In chapter 39 things change. Pip is now a rich man thanks to his secret friend, and is living a good life. He has everything thing he wants. When the convict turns up we see a different side to Pip. He is very harsh to the convict; he treats him as a mad stranger and has to force himself to be touched by him. “Stayi' 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;” After a while Pip does slowly feel some kindness towards the convict, and apologises for his actions
“`that you will not think I spoke harshly to you just now. I had no intention of doing it, and I am sorry for it if I did. I wish you well, and happy!” It is in this chapter that Pip realises what he has become and what he has become is a snob, and he hates himself for it.
The convict on the other hand is a changed man. He is very glad to see Pip, and doesn’t mind what Pip does to him them they first start talking in the room. “But you're not to blame for that -- neither on us is to blame for that.” He is very happy to see Pip even though he has risked his life, and he is dieing to tell Pip the answer to the question that Pip wanted to know since he was sent to London. Also we get the impression that he is very emotional because one minute he is crying and the next he is telling Pip in a low voice that no one must know he is here. “Saw with amazement that his eyes were full of tears.” “Because, look'ee here, dear boy,' he said, dropping his voice, and laying a long finger on my breast in an impressive manner, `caution is necessary.”
We learn a lot about nineteenth century life from the two chapters. In chapter one we learn that country life is very basic, and people lead very basic and easy lives. Also I think people mostly children have to do what they are told, and are easily frightened into doing something for someone. In the nineteenth century I think this part of the country wasn’t a nice place to be because of the prison ships (hulks) and by the way the land has been described to the reader. “That this bleak place overgrown with nettles was the churchyard;”.
In chapter 39 we see life in London. We learn that the streets aren’t in good conditions because when it rains they get caked in mud. “Mud, mud, mud, deep in all the streets”. There are many high buildings in London, and when it’s very stormy their roof tiles get blown off. “High buildings in town had had the lead stripped off their roofs” In the streets there were streetlights, which had to be lit each night. “Saw that the lamps in the court were blown out”. I get the impression people in London are much richer than the people in the country from these two chapters, the people in London have the money to buy themselves a better lifestyle. I get this impression by the way the buildings are described, and the way the there are streetlights in the streets. People in the country wouldn’t have tall buildings with lead on the roofs and there wouldn’t be any streetlights.
I think that Dickens wanted us to believe that there are two types of gentleman the kind Pip believes he will become before he goes to London and then there’s the kind of gentleman that Pip turns into. Pips first impressions of a gentleman are someone with wealth, "breeding", education, and social status. This idea soon changes when Pip gets to London. He tries to be a gentleman when he reaches London but soon realises that he has a lot to learn and soon he starts to hate his past, the way he was brought up. After time he begins to hate Joe and the way he makes his living, but when Magwitch tells him who gave the order for him to become a gentleman, he starts to think about himself and what he has become. Then he remembers where his roots are, and who his family are. This is when he realises there’s two types of gentleman the good type that he wanted to become and the bad type the one he has become. Only when he helps to save Magwitchs life by putting his own in danger he becomes a true gentleman. Also I think Dickens wanted us to remember where are roots are and who our true family and friends, by the time we had finished reading the book.