Charles Dickens uses ‘Great Expectations’ to shows how poor people were treated in the 1800’s. During the Victorian times the poor had very little: they had very little medical care; they had to work very hard and had very little luxeries. Dickens wrote this novel ‘Great Expectations’ to show more awareness that poor young people are treated in this way. He didn’t agree how children were being treated, he wanted to change the way it worked and he saw his book to be the turning point in which the divide of the rich and poor would be nonexistent. Dickens wanted people of the 1800’s to be more aware of the divide in society and wanting to change this aswell. Todays audience will feel sympathetic towards the main character but would be aware they wouldn’t want to repeat the same mistakes.
The opening chapters to any novel needs to be effective in its job so people want to carry on reading the book. ‘Frankenstein’starts off with a dramatic description of the monster waking. “I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs.” This tells introduces the monster to us by showing us a picture in our imagination of the key features when the monster opens its eyes for the first time. The quote has a negative feeling from the words “dull yellow” this is because the adjective “dull” transforms the joyful, happiness meaning of “yellow”. This tells us that the monster has animalistic features, which also tells us that the monster doesn’t operate as we do. I would argue that this is an effective way to start off the opening chapter as it builds up a lot of tension, making the ready feel ‘edgy’. The audience will now, after reading the quotation, will want to find out about this mysterious monster, which leaves the reader curious of what is coming up next in the novel.
On the other hand, ‘Great Expectations’ opening paragraph is different to ‘Frankenstein’ as the atmosphere created is more welcoming. “My Father’s family name being Pirrip and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing more explicit than Pip”. Pip comes to a decision on what he wants people to call him; this tells us that he is an orphan. Straight away, in the first sentence, we know whose story we are following as the grand author Charles Dickens introduces the main character to the audience. The first sentence of the novel seems welcoming for us as readers, who want to know more about this boy named ‘Pip’. This opening sentence creates a very sorrow atmosphere as we know how difficult it would be to be in ‘Pip’s” situation.
Charles Dickens uses writing techniques to create an atmosphere in ‘Great expectations’ novel. ‘The sky was a row of black lines.’ A writing technique used in the quote is pathetic fallacy; using the weather to create emotion. The words used, ‘row of black lines’ creates an image of a prison cell cage, telling me that there is no way out; this could explain the evilness from the convict (that ‘Pip’ will discover later on into the chapter), and how the boy of thirteen cannot escape from it. The connotations of the word ‘black’ bring fear and the question of the unknown as the word associates with death. The colour ‘black’ is often used in texts when describing something to be negative. We can tell from this quote that the setting would be very dark and gloomy creating a scary atmosphere because the word ‘black’ used in the quotation related to a sensation of a scare.
In addition, Mary Shelley also used effective writing techniques to create atmosphere in ‘Frankenstein’ novel. “The rain which poured from a black and comfortless sky”. The writing technique used here is called; pathetic fallacy, which is used when you want to express a character’s emotion compared to a physical change, in this case it was used in the quote to create an adequate amount of tension and misery. The word ‘comfortless’ in the quotation shows how the situation was discouraging for ‘Frankenstein’ because of how his creation turned rebellious. The effect on the audience will be a build up of tension and discomfort; they can see that this is a phrase used to make a negative atmosphere.
The main character in the ‘Frankenstein’ novel is the monster created by the mad scientist Frankenstein. “the miserable monster whom I had created” This quotation describes how regreating Frankenstien feels was when he saw the outcome of the monster, Marry Shelly uses the word ‘miserable’ to show Frankenstien’s disappiontment. The audience knows now what Frankenstien thinks about his creation,
‘Pip’, as he calls himself, is the main character in the novel ‘Great Expectations’ he is a small young boy who is an orphan that Marry Shelley has used such a specific character to create a negative atmosphere. “As I never saw my father or my mother,” this tells the reader straight away that Pip is an orphan; the main character ‘Pip’ doesn’t have a mother or a father. The quotation brings sympathy towards the lonely teenager as it must be difficult to be in his situation that he had to face. This creates an atmosphere of upset and guiltiness towards young Pip as he was unfortunate to not have an older feature to look up to and honour.
‘Great Expectations’ setting is situated in an isolated churchyard. ‘Among the graves at the side of the church porch’, in chapter one the main plot is set in the churchyard where Pip often visits to get some kind of memory of what his mother and father look like and he makes suggestions from the handwriting that is used on the gravestone; as we see later on in the chapter he keeps visiting the graveyard, this is so Pip can feel as if he is close to them. The word ‘graves’ is a noun that brings a ghoulish atmosphere, as we relate the word ‘graves’ with death, heartache and soreness. This quotation makes the reader feel sympathetic towards Pip, as he constantly keeps on visiting the graveyard, as a sign as loneliness – this is unusual for any teenager his age to be visiting a graveyard.
Besides, in ‘Frankenstein’ the monster goes aggressive and seems to attack the mad scientist, Frankenstein, this is a great example of how the plot can be used to create such an effective atmosphere. ‘One hand stretched out; seemingly to detain me ‘, the quote represents one of the key events that happened in chapter 5 of ‘Frankenstein’; this is where the monster turns against his creator and reaches out to grab him. The verb ‘detain’ suggests that the monster wanted to do something further to hurt vulnerable scientist Frankenstein. The audience would feel shocked that this event took place after Frankenstein was so excited to see his outcome becoming very different to what he thought was going to be his ‘beautiful’ master piece, this creates a scary/tense atmosphere.
In conclusion I believe that both extracts, there was atmosphere created effectively and efficiently using a variety of different techniques for example pathetic fallacy and the use of metaphors. The most effective technique I think that is used from the two novels is “The sky was a row of black lines.” from “Great Expectations”. These two sections after being read would encourage the audience to look back on the time of 1800 and reflect their lifestyles to somebody’s life in the 1800’s.
