Great Expectations

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Great Expectations Coursework

Great Expectations was published between 1860 and 1861. It was serialised in Dickens’ own magazine called ‘All the Year Round’. The nature of the narrative in the novel reflects that it was intended to be read in instalments.

The story is about a boy called ‘Pip’ who lives with his sister and her husband in the marshes of Kent. One day, in the evening he sits in the nearby cemetery looking at his parents’ tombstones when suddenly, an escaped convict jumps out and grabs him and forces Pip to do errands for him like stealing food throughout the opening chapters of the novel. Pip is both the hero and the narrator of the story, looking back reflectively on the lessons life has taught him. He is critical of the mistakes he made when he was younger. Pip is a good person but ends up doing things he wouldn’t normally do and ends up feeling guilty which makes us sympathise with his dilemma. He also makes things up because Dickens also makes us feel sorry for pip in a lot of ways.

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The churchyard scene is described in a lot of detail to make people really have an idea of what the place is like. He describes it as being a dark flat wilderness intersected with dykes, mounds and gates, with cattle feeding on it’ which really paints a mental picture in the readers head to make it seem real. He also describes the river as being a grey/black colour to make the place seem very deserted and cut off from society. He mentions the ‘distant savage lair’ which makes the reader think that something could be living in there and also ...

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