great expectations

Authors Avatar

Sayed Hashimi

10b2

28.02.06

What is the importance of chapter one and two to our understanding of the novel? “Great Expectations.”

In this essay I am going to discuss the importance of chapters one and two to our understanding of Dickens’ famous novel, Great Expectations. First of all, I will consider how the first two chapters help us to understand the characters more fully. Then I will consider how the two chapters help the reader understand the writer’s skill. Finally, I will explain how they help the reader gain an understanding of nineteenth century life.

Dickens was a 19th century writer who tried to influence social attitudes. He wrote the book called “Great Expectation” to show people how prisoners were being treated and the children were being exploited – having to work when they should have been at school. Dickens uses a lot of techniques. One of them is that he makes the reader see the situation through a young orphan boy’s eyes.

“The shapes of the letters on my father’s grave give me an odd idea that he was a square stout, dark man.” This shows that Pip was a lonely child and did not have a happy childhood despite his parent’s death. The story is told through a young orphan’s boy’s eyes because this will have more affect on the reader. This is because a child will express his fears and will have more fear than an adult. In chapter one when pip was frightened by the convict. “I will have your heart and liver tore out.” If pip was an adult he wouldn’t have taken this seriously. “The small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry was pip.” By using these words dickens shows us how terrified pip was when he was at the cemetery. Dickens makes the reader feels sorry for Pip when he is alone in the graveyard by seven dead members of his family. Dickens emphasises the tragedy of sadness further by describing Pip’s brothers as “five little stone lozenges.” Dicken’s method here is to set the scene of Pip’s loneliness and unhappy childhood.

Join now!

Pip steals food from his sister because he was scared of the convict and he was also threatened by the convict to get food and a file for him. “I said that I would get him the file, and I would get him what broken bits of food I could.” Dicken’s method here is to show the reader that pip is really scared of the convict because he is being threatened by the convict to get him a file and some bits of food.  That night when Pip was threatened by the convict, Pip was lying in a dark ...

This is a preview of the whole essay