Explore Dickens use of language focusing on the settings in great expectations consider how he uses settings to develop our understanding of The Characters, The life and times of Victorian England.

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Explore Dickens use of language focusing on the settings in great expectations consider how he uses settings to develop our understanding of The Characters, The life and times of Victorian England.

Background to Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens the author of 'Great Expectations' was born in 1812 in Portsmouth; he was the second child of six. His father was a clerk in the Navy pay office; he was often in debt and ended up in Marshabea prison. Charles was lucky enough in such difficult circumstances to have a few years of schooling before he was sent to work in a friend of the family. Charles worked in this Factory for seven shillings a week. It seems that it was from this background that Dickens drew from for most of his writings. It is evident that real people he had met during his life inspired the plots and characters in his novels. As Charles family wealth increased he again went back to school after finishing school he started work as a solicitors clerk, he then progressed as a court reporter it was at this stage in his life that he started supplementing his income by writing.

Introduction

This essay will focus on the settings in which this novel takes place and how they are described and depicted, it will also look at how these settings relate to the characters in the plot and their personality traits. The settings will also be examined in terms of the life and times of Victorian England. Dickens is famous for his use of language to describe people, places and features of the landscapes in which his novels take place. In this essay I will examine two major points about Dickens use of language to create characters, firstly through characternym and secondly through using descriptive language and imagery to convey the mood of particular scenes.
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Section 1:

The opening scene of Great Expectations is set in a graveyard on the Kent marshes; the main character Pip is visiting his mother's grave. Pip, is an orphan and is being raised by his abusive sister and her husband, Joe Gargery the kindly village Blacksmith. Suddenly in the fist scene Pip is grabbed by an escaped convict, Magwitch who is hiding in the graveyard, who cried out "Keep still, you little devil, or I'll cut your throat!", the convict is trying to force Pip to aid him he pesters Pip about where he lives, demanding ...

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