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 rest of the book “this bleak place overgrown with nettles”, “the dark flat wilderness beyond.” The description of the churchyard is very vivid and creates dramatic imagery, as it is through the eyes of a child the description is a lot more visual and significant. As the opening passage starts off with a child visiting the graves of his parents it creates a lot of sympathy for Pip and automatically makes the reader attached to him.
The effect of the older and younger Pip gives another dimension to Dickens’s work as it portrays the naïve mind of a scared child and the solid mind of an adult who is looking back and evaluating his memories. This style of writing differs to normal writing and it grabs your attention. The slight change between older Pip and the younger one is a good contrast, this gives a reminiscing effect.
Dickens uses his personal experiences from his own childhood as he visited his father when he was in debtor’s prison. I think these memories heavily influenced the intimidation scene when the convict appears and threatens Pip. The escaped convict is introduced in a startling way, as he appears very dramatically and threatens Pip. He appears very sinister and Pip describes him in great detail it allows you to picture him, “a fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg. A man with no hat, and with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied round his head.” I feel the vivid image of Magwitch in chapter one is highlighting the helplessness of what Dickens felt when his own dad went to prison and the intimidation scene when the convict approaches Pip in the graveyard is displaying Dickens own haunting memories of criminals’ behaviour and how scared he was as a child. Therefore he describes with accuracy the fearful, atmosphere of the threatening man’s behaviour in the churchyard. The dialogue used on the entrance of the criminal is “hold your noise”, “keep still, you little devil, or I’ll cut your throat”. This instantly tells the reader that Pip is younger and has been grabbed and is held against his will by the criminal. Pip’s descriptive words when he describes the man as a “fearful” with a great iron his leg”, is projecting the image of the cast irons on the criminal ankles, these words are showing Pip’s young age. Pip also pleads with him as he is terrified that the criminal may hurt him.
The description of the house sounds very dark and dreary “which of old brick, and dismal, and had a great many iron bars to it.” This creates a creepy atmosphere full of apprehension. The house seems almost derelict and in much need of attention “Some of the windows had been walled up; of those that remained all the lower were rustiy barred.” The further in Pip goes the more the house appears to be uncared for, “and all was empty and disused”. When Pip enters Miss Havisham’s room Pip goes on to describe Miss Havisham as he first sees her, in fancy clothes at first glance she looks very posh and dressed in rich materials, gradually as Pip takes in the scene before him he realises that she isn’t completely dressed and only has one shoe on, the fabrics that she wore once white but now faded “But, I saw that everything within my view which ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its lustre, and was faded and yellow.” Dickens goes on to describe Miss Havisham and her appearance he describes her as a skeleton, “and that figure upon which it now hung loose, had shrunk to skin and bone.” “she sat corpse-like”. This dramatic passage allows you to visualise a skeletal corpse bride. Miss Havisham is portrayed as a very surprising figure and seems to have made an impression on Pip “this standing still of all the pale decayed objects, not even the withered bridal dress on the collapsed form could have looked so like grave clothes, or the long veil so like a shroud.” This description shows Miss Havisham as rather an imposing character even in her withered state. From this chapter you can tell that Miss Havisham hasn’t moved on in life, as she still wears the same wedding dress from the day she was jilted at the altar.
Both the convict and Miss Havisham seem to play an important part in this novel even though they don’t appear for very long in either of the chapters, they create lasting impressions and are such unique characters that you are expecting them to come into the story and be more developed sometime later. The detail in which Miss Havisham is described leads you to think that it plays quite an important place in the story especially after Pip’s meeting with Miss Havisham he imagines he sees her hanging in the courtyard “I saw a figure hanging there by the neck. A figure all in yellow white, with but one shoe to the feet; and it hung so, that I could see that the face was Miss Havisham’s”. Certain things that appear later in the story or seem to be important are normally described in great detail and referred to regularly such as Magwitch – the convict – and Miss Havisham.
These two chapter from Dickens’s novel contribute to the main theme of the book very well as they are both very dramatic and full of apprehension, bordering on suspense. Chapter One introduces a character in a very startling way – Magwitch. Muss Havisham is introduced in a much calmer manner but the description of her completely sets the scene as very intimidating for a young child. Both of these events contributed considerably to the ending of the book, if these characters hadn’t been present then the story would have ended up very differently. Miss Havisham is a prime example of what happens to a person who obsesses over one event, she is certain that only one thing could bring her happiness and that, event has come and gone completely ruining her life, she has refused to move on from that point in time and even went as far as to stop the clocks. Miss Havisham seems determined to live out her life through Estella which is possible the only reason she adopted her. Miss Havisham appears to want to take revenge on the male species so she tells Estella “Well? You can break his heart.” This demonstrates that she wants people to feel the same pain that she has felt all these years. Dickens conveys his message very well through Miss Havisham and how you could move on from something and get a new dream even if your previous one didn’t occur, if Miss Havisham had then she would have been a lot happier and wouldn’t have tried to control other people’s lives such as Estella’s and Pip’s. I think Dickens message in this book relates greatly to the loss of his sister in law Mary who died and he is trying to convince himself that even though that dreadful event happened it is important for him to move on from it.
Overall the use of Dickens’ language adds greatly to the effect of the book and wouldn’t be as intriguing if it used more common language. The settings play a special part in the book as the plot wouldn’t seem quite right if it were situated anywhere else, the period in which it is set is of major importance as the story wouldn’t have the same meaning if it had been set in the present. All together I think Dickens’s work is very well thought out and the characters very realistic.