The execution and transportation of criminals were common forms of punishment. Dickens thought the punishments were in humane and should be stopped. “He was so good as to take me into the yard and show me where the gallows was kept and also where people were publicly whipped heightening the interest of that dreadful portal” he sounds as though he’s disgusted at how people can see or do the executions. The executions are like being at a theatre an act of enjoyment to please all. A person in the book was hung. Dickens objected and complained about public executions and transportation. We thought it shouldn’t be entertainment for the people but a quiet affair.
Dickens family was placed in debtor’s jail for being poor (they couldn’t pay taxes). This makes dickens feel sympathetic towards criminals who are poor because he knows what it feels like to be poor. He also knows that poor people have to steal to get food and the basic necessities, as this is what he and his family had to make do when he was young.
Magwitch first comes into the picture when pip goes to the graveyard, at the beginning of the book, to put flowers on his mum and dad’s grave. It was a dark and gloomy scene. It was raining. This makes him seem as though he is a horrible, creepy and bad man. He is described as being a fearful man “a fearful man, all in course 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” his look is shabby as though he’s very poor and has no money. He behaves as though he’s cold and scared “who limped, and shivered, and glared, and growled; whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me by the chin.” Dickens demonstrates a degree of sympathy towards Magwitch as though he cares deeply what happens to him. Magwitch sounds as though he’s hurt and looks like he’s travelled a fair distance. He speaks very bluntly and aggressively towards Pip as though he doesn’t want to be there very long and has to dash off somewhere. When Dickens describes Magwitch he starts off as saying how fearful and scary he looks. “ A fearful man, all in course grey, with a great iron on his leg.” Then he goes on and starts being sympathetic about him. “A man who had been soaked in mud and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by briars, who limped and shivered.” It’s like as if Pip looks at him as being a poor and fearful man who has been badly treated and needs looking after. Then dickens puts him back as being a mean man who was in a hurry. “Glared and growled; whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me by the chin.” He sounds as though he wants to scare pip so pip will do as he says and wont betray him.
Dickens immediately followed Magwitchs description with Mrs Joes. I think this is good because you can compare Mrs Joe a blacksmith’s wife to Magwitch who is an escaped convict. It makes you see that even though they both shout at Pip and are mean to him, they are really very different, because Magwitch wants to spread fear into Pip, so Pip will do as he says. Mrs Joe doesn’t like Pip and feels as though he’s a burden that she wishes she didn’t have to look after him.
Magwitchs behaviour when being captured is calm. He tried to cooperate with the guards. He confessed that he ran away from the prison ship. “Single-handed I got clear off the prison ship; I made a dash and I done it.” He then goes on to what he could have done and what could have happened. “I couldha’ got clear of these death cold flats likewise” I think the death refers to the moors and prison because he though that he was going to die in prison and he was going to die on the moors. “If I hadn’t made the discovery that he was here. Let him go free? No, no, no.” Magwitch lacks respect for the other convict because he doesn’t use the convict’s name. Magwitch emphasises No, No, No because he wants them to know what he’s done to help. The importance of Magwitch to the plot as being a crucial character is important because it makes Dickens show that not all criminals are bad, and if you do something to help a person in need they might not ever forget it, and someday they might do something in return. Later on in the story when Magwitch comes back. Pip’s character is softened and he has formed a strong relationship with Magwitch.
Dickens was a court reporter. It was one of the many jobs he had. He got to know the legal and criminal affairs of London. This confirmed his thoughts that life was unjust and that sometimes the law was no better. While he worked as a reporter he saw that if people had wealth then they got off with minor charges, but poverty made the punishments hard and more miserable. He knew the horrible side of London.
“Mr Jaggers room was lighted by a skylight only, and was a most dismal place.” Dickens described the room as being dismal just like he described London as being sad and pitiful. When Dickens says that the room is only lighted by a skylight. I think this means that there’s little to brighten up Pips life at the moment. Pip thought that the room was gloomy and not what had expected a lawyer’s room to look like. “There were not so many papers about as I should have expected to see and there were some odd objects about that I should not have expected to see- such as an old rusty pistol, a sword in a scabbard, several strange looking boxes and packages.” Mr Jaggers seems like the person who would keep his pistol and scabbard out to put fear into his clients. “Mr Jaggers own high chair was of deadly black horsehair with rows of brass nails round it, like a coffin; and I fancied I could see how he leaned back in it and bit his forefinger at the clients.” Mr Jaggers chair looks very expensive and sounds very ornate. Mr Jaggers chair sounds like a throne fit for a king. The horse hair gives the impression that Mr Jaggers is the horse rider which makes him look important because his clients are like a horse he rides, he’s in charge of what happens to it.
The people who are clients of Jaggers feel safe with him handling their case. Even though some people are safe with him the majority are uncomfortable. Many people are frightened of Jaggers; even the magistrates are cared of him. He keeps himself to himself and only gets people to tell him what he wants to hear, and nothing more or less. The clients seem poor because of the way the clothes are described and tired because of they’re emotions. “There was a knot of 3 men and 2 women standing at a corner, and one of the women was crying on her dirty shawl. Mr Jaggers always asks his clients whether they have paid. If they have paid they would get help if not he would fail them “Now, I have nothing to say to you.” This sounds as though he’s very highly of himself and looks down on those who have very little wealth. When Mr Jaggers finds out that Magwitch has returned he acts surprised and astonished that pip found out whom Estella’s father was.
I think that we’re meant to get the impression that Jaggers is a man that thinks very highly of himself and cares only for money but he also does care about things that are close and important to him. The way he behaves is aggressive but he’s only doing this because he’s a lawyer and needs to earn a living. Innocent people are not treated justly because then Jaggers wouldn’t get paid as much as he would otherwise.
Dickens was a great believer in what was fair so people in Great Expectations get what they deserve. Mrs Joe wasn’t a very thoughtful person. She mainly shouted at pip although when he came back late from the graveyard she went out to look for him. She died by someone being hit round the head with a shovel. Compeyson died by being crushed by a paddle steamer. I think that Dickens made Compeyson die in such a horrible way because it is like Magwitchs revenge and dream that he died in such a gruesome way.
Pip started his apprenticeship as a Blacksmiths helper. Then a mysterious man came and took him to London to work for Mr Jaggers as a lawyer. This job earned him £500 per year or £125 every 3 months after he got in to debt. This is very extensive payment compared to his blacksmiths job. Miss Havisham has been hurt by men because one man left her at the alter. She trains Estella to treat men horribly just because she was treated wrongly. At the end of the novel Miss Havisham died a horrific death and Estella looked like she was going to become Miss Havisham until pip saves her.
