Great Expectations

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Great Expectations

Great Expectations was first published in 1861, Dickens’ first publications being ‘Sketches by Boz’ his pseudonym, his first publications under his own being ‘The Pickwick Papers” (1836-7)

In Dickens’s time over 350 crimes were punishable by the death penalty. Many people who stayed in prison died – that is why Magwitch’s death doesn’t come as a surprise later in the book – the death penalty was supposed to deter other criminals. Conditions were terrible and the stench was unavoidable and putrescent, the people in the prison lived in squalor. Life for commoners was hard and everyone had to work exceedingly hard for a living especially if they had a large family, if they got into debt (like Dickens’s own family) they were often thrown into debtor’s prison, often the entire family was put in as well.

        In the first paragraph we learn that almost all of Pip’s family are dead and were buried in the local churchyard, Pip says that he doesn’t remember what they looked like so they must have died soon after he was born, this is quite normal for this era because lots of people died from illnesses cause by poor living conditions.

        The novel opens with ‘Pip’ talking about his family’s name and how he could not pronounce his name ‘Philip’ or his surname ‘Pirrip’ “came to be called Pip” implies that the name stayed with him throughout adult life also. All of this is evidence that Pip was young as this passage also mentions him trying to imagine what his parents looked like from their gravestones it shows Pip’s childish mind “The shape of the letters on my fathers’, gave me an odd idea that he was a square, stout, dark man, with curly black hair”. He also doesn’t seem to understand his siblings death very well and proclaims that they “gave up trying to get a living exceedingly early in that universal struggle” he seems disappointed with his siblings and only mentions their names once in Chapter One and continues on with the story.

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        The opening two paragraphs set the scene fantastically as we know of Pip’s living situation, family and the surrounding area where he grew up. We can also understand that Pip is regarded as being lucky as his sister took him in instead of sending him to an orphanage as was usual in those days.

Pip goes on to describe the scene and refers to himself in the 3rd person, he writes as though he is using his childhood memories and injecting more description into them. His description of the surrounding area seems very gloomy and sets the tone for the ...

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