In chapter 8, Dickens describes how Pip goes to satis house to meet Miss Havasham for the first time. The house is described as a fortress, “which was of old brick, and dismal, and had a great many iron bars to it some of the windows had been walled up; of those that remained, all the lower were rustily barred. There was a court-yard in front, and that was barred; so, we had to wait after ringing the bell, until someone should come to open it”. The garden is not looked after and is neglected, Dickens describes this by saying, “ it was paved and clean, but grass was growing in every crevice”. The inside of the house is described as dark, “ and the first thing I noticed was, that the passages were all dark, and that she had left a candle burning there”. Dickens describes how Pip was afraid to enter Miss Havisham’s room and how he felt uncomfortable, and I was half afraid. However, the only thing to be done being to knock at the door”. When he enters, he finds himself in a large, well-lighted room. It then goes on to say “prominent in it was a draped table with a glided looking glass, and that I made out at first sight to be a fine lady’s dressing table”. However the most effective description is one of Miss Havisham “ her head leaning on that hand, sat the strangest lady I have ever seen, or shall ever see”. Her strangeness is further emphasised by what she is wearing “ she was dressed in rich materials. Satins and lace and silks, all white”, however Dickens adds, “everything within my view which ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its lusture and was faded and yellow”. When describing Estella, Dickens emphasises her beauty and her pride “she was of about my own age. She seemed much older than I, of course, being a girl, and beautiful and self possessed; and she was as scornful as me if she had been one and-twenty, a queen”. Dickens makes it clear that Estella is being used by Miss Havisham to get revenge on all men “let me see you play cards with this boy, with this boy! Why, he is a common labouring boy! I thought I had overheard Miss Havisham answer-only it seemed so unlikely, well? You can break his heart”. Estella is shown doing just this when “ and what coarse he has! And what thick boots”, Pip is so affected by this, “ I got rid of y injured feelings for the tie, by kicking them into the brewery-wall, brushing them out of my hair, and then I smoothed my face with my sleeve and came from behind the gate”. At the end of this chapter, Dickens explores the effect that the visit has had on Pip’s self esteem “pondering as I went along on what I had seen, and deeply revolving that I was a common labouring boy; that my hands were coarse; that my boots were thick; that I had fallen into a despicable habit of calling knaves Jacks;”
In chapter 11 Dickens describes the inside and outside of Satis house where Miss Havisham lives. Dickens uses the name Satis house to show the irony because Miss Havisham is not satisfied with her life.
Pip feels lost in the big house, the house has long dark passageways; the house is described to be like a maze, “ the passage was a long one, and seemed to pervade the whole square basement of the Manor house,”
In this chapter, Dickens concentrates his description on the Dining room “ the daylight was completely excluded and an airless smell that was oppressive”, Dickens goes on to describe the general state of the room “ it was spacious, and I dressy had once been handstone but, every discemible thing in it was covered with dust and mould, and dropping to pieces”. He then looks at particular details “ the most prominent object was a long table with table cloth spread on it as if a feast had been in preparation when the house and the clock all stopped together”. Articles on the table seem to grow “ a black fungus”, to add to this feeling of decay he describes, “speckle legged spiders with blochy bodies” and mice “rattling behind the panels.
Dickens describes Miss Havisham as ”the witch of the place”, who tells him that “this is where I will be laid when I’m dead”, In this chapter the description of the room concentrates on death and decay, in contrast, at the end of the chapter he describes a fight between Pip and a strange boy, “ I saw him lying on his back, looking up at e with a bloody nose”. Also Estella allows Pip to kiss her, which makes him feel uncomfortable, “but I felt that the kiss was given to the coarse common boy as a piece of money might have been, and that it was worth nothing.
In contrast to the other chapters that I have studied in this essay, chapter 25 deals with comic characters and situations. Pip visits Mr Wemmick’s house and garden. Mr Wemick is the clerk who works in Mr Jagger’s office and lives in Wallworth.
Dickens describes Pip’s first impression of Wallworth as “ it appeared to be a collection of back lanes, ditches and little gardens, and to be present the aspect of a rather dull retirement”, however Mr Wemmick’s house turns out to be completely different it was a little wooden cottage in the midst of plots of garden, and the top of it was cut out and printed like a battery mounted with guns”. Dickens makes it sound like an unusual house because it has a gun building constructed of lattice-work”. Dickens then continues to describe this house “ it was protected from the weather by an ingenious little tarpaulin convenience in the nature of an umbrella”. Dickens describes the back garden as well as the house “there are fowls and rabbits then I knock together my own little frame, you see and grow cucumbers, and you’ll judge at supper what sort of a salad I can raise”, he adds to this by describing a bower “ our punch was cooling in an ornamental lake, on whose margin the bower was raised”.
Dickens continues to describe the other person who lives in the house and that is Mr Wemmick’s aged parent, “ a very old man in a flannel coat clean, cheerful and comfortable, and well cared for, but intensely deaf”.
In contrast to Miss Havisham being lonely, Dickens makes it clear that Mr Wemmick is a happy man, and he believes in keeping home and work separate “ when I go into the office, I leave the, I leave the castle behind me, and when I come into the castle, I leave the office behind me”. A comic episode is the firing of the gun and the effect it has on the aged parent. “Getting near gun-fire, said Wemmick the, as he laid down his pipe; it’s the Aged’s treat”, it is described as “the stinger went off with a bang that shook off the crazy little box of a cottage as if it must fall to pieces, and made every glass and teacup in it ring”, Dickens makes the effect of the firing of the gun particularly funny “ upon this, the Aged-who I believe would have been blown out of his arm-chair but for holding on by the elbows-cried out exultingly fired! I heard him”
At the end of this chapter Dickens makes it clear that Mr Wemmick is not happy at work, although he is happy at home “By Degrees, Wemmick got dryer and harder as we went along, and his mouth tightened into a post office again”. The final words in this chapter highlight this idea, “ he looked as unconscious of his Walworth property as if the castle and the lake and the fountain and the Aged, had all been blown into space, together by the last discharge throughout the stinger”.
Throughout this novel Dickens uses effective imagery to help highlight characters and situations.