Dickens illustrates Pips early childhood by comparing to the misty marsh with its dark, bleak surroundings and uncertainties. Only at the end of the novel when he is finally at peace at himself can Pip revisit the marsh with Estella.
At the start of the novel, Pip is a vulnerable, emotional young boy and in a sense he does not become emotionally strong until very much later in the book. Dickens introduces Pip at the start of the novel as a “small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all”. This trait can lead to him being easily influenced: he is prepared to steal from his own family. Later in the novel when he goes to London he spends his time committing crimes and making life difficult for people. When he is in London, he ignores Joe, whereas earlier on in the book he speaks about him in a respectful way, ‘he was a mild, good natured ……dear fellow.’ Dickens shows that these different traits that Pip shows prevent him from finding the right path.
Pip has over active imagination and is obsessed because he is in love with Estella. This makes him lose sight of what is real. He ignores Estella’s warning about not to love her, ‘I don’t care for what you say at all. I have tried to warn you of this…it is in the nature formed within me. In this chapter Dickens shows through dialogue how obsessive Pip is, ‘Estella dearest dearest Estella, do not let Miss Havisham lead you into this fatal step. Put me aside forever- you have done so, I well no……… there may be one who loves you even as dearly, though he has not loved you as long, as I.’ Instead of turning away from his feelings for her. Later on in he helps friends and family by going to their houses every week to help with chores. He also helps Magwitch by taking him food and helps him to escape when he is on the run.
A reader’s initial impression of Magwitch is almost contradictory. On Magwitch’s first meeting with Pip he barks out questions and commands and doesn’t treat him very well. At one point Dickens gives the impression that Magwitch is a desperate man who would go to any lengths to survive. ‘You young dog’ said the man licking his lips, ‘what fat cheeks you ha’ got.’ This gives the impression that Magwitch would even eat pip to survive. The description ‘a fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg,’ makes Magwitch’s and pips first meeting sound awful for a young boy like Pip. However by the end of the first chapter the reader might detect a softening in Magwitch’s attitude towards Pip. In fact he seems to care that Pip gets home safely.
After reading the first few chapters we learn that Magwitch fell into bad company at a young age and broke the law. It was a man named Compeyson whose company he fell into who was a jilted chief criminal. Magwitch was lead astray by him from an early age as he looked like a real gentleman. After getting caught for the crime they committed Compeyson put most of the blame on Magwitch, witch he is now standing a trial for, who inherits some property and prospers in sheep breeding, he also rewards pip by giving him the opportunity to have a better life.
In the beginning of the book pip saw the image of Magwitch as a hanged corpse, this prepared us when he softened his manner and reconciled his fate. After Magwitch has killed Compeyson, he went on trial and was sentenced to death. Discovering that Estella, Magwitch’s long lost daughter, is deeply loved by Pip, has given him peace before he died.
The dominance of Magwitch is established in the first meeting. The first words spoken by Magwitch are: ‘keep still, you little devil, or I’ll cut your throat’ Pip responded by pleading for his life: ‘O! Don’t cut my throat, sir.’ The reader can tell Magwitch intimidates Pip and that Pip believes that Magwitch will carry out this threat if he refuses to help. Magwitch fires questions and forceful commands at Pip. Towards the end of the meeting Magwitch’s tone and manner change when he says the line: ‘Now, you remember what you’ve undertook, and you remember that young man and you get home!’ This change in tone shows that Magwitch has begun to care about what happens to Pip.
Magwitch uses a combination of dialect and Standard English, this shows that Magwitch has had a mixed life history- from moving from a life of crime to receiving some education from the corrupt ‘gentleman’ Compeyson. Magwitch starts using Standard English but lapses into dialect at times: ‘you fail, or you go from my words in any partickler … your liver shall be tore out, roasted and ate.’ Magwitch’s use of language distances him from pip who speaks Standard English throughout the novel.
Dickens creates a dismal and depressing scene of Pips tormented childhood and the trauma he has suffered from an early age: ‘dark flat wilderness beyond the churchyard, intersected with dykes and moulds and gates ………and that small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry, was Pip.’ This creates a picture of poverty and premature deaths that were always a threat for Pip from an early age and which reflects aspects of the society at the time. Pip’s reaction to Magwitch suggests the presence of an authority figure, possibly one who rules through fear.
Pip and Estella have both had bad early life experiences: Estella’s mother murdered her rival in a jealous scene and as she had threatened to kill their child too, Magwitch believes that Estella needs to be taken away. She is then adopted by Miss Havisham and brought up to seek revenge on men. Estella doesn’t ever know of her background.
Chapter one does suggest that there is little love in the novel. However, Magwitch is one of two characters who show very deep feelings. Joe is the other. In the opening chapter there is a very subtle hint of Magwitch softening towards Pip. ‘Now, you remember what you’ve undertook, and you remember that young man, and you get home.’
Charles Dickens chooses to make his story one in which his hero does not make his fortune while using the format of a traditional fairy tale as a way to tell his story. The lives of Pip and Magwitch are linked throughout the story. Pip rejects his fortune from Magwitch and learns to live by his own values. It is only then that he can return to the forge a very different person from the boy who left years ago.
