P2: The environment that Pip grew up and still lives in is very harsh to a small boy. The intimidating environment is incorporated and described several times in the passage. Firstly, we discover that Pip lives near a damp marsh near the sea. As you would think, living near the sea would be exciting and colourful, however, Dickens describes the land as a ‘bleak place overgrown with nettles’ and a ‘dark flat wilderness’ that is ‘intersected with dikes and mounds and gates’. This is a perfect description of a terrible and desolate place. One can almost see the grey and murky plains with a thin fog gently creeping around the churchyard. The imagery that Dickens creates here is powerful and would affect Pip’s mood considerably. It would make him feel alone, and working with the ironic truth that he has hardly any family, would harness the loneliness he must feel. In the end of the third paragraph, all of this finally reaches pip, as Dickens wrote that the ‘savage lair from which the wind was rushing was the sea; and that the small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry, was Pip’. Later on in the chapter, after Pip’s run in with the convict Magwich, Dickens describes the land once more. Firstly he writes that the marshes are now ‘a long black horizontal line’ and the river is ‘just another horizontal line’. The repetition of the word line; creates an image that is dull and grey and flat in which nothing would possibly want to live in. The sky is described as a ‘row of long angry red lines and dense black lines intermixed’. Again the word line is used, however, this time an ‘angry red’ is mentioned. This adds a colour to the passage but I feel that Dickens has mentioned it to try and take whatever little colour there already is, away. In my opinion, ‘angry red’ written in this context, creates more gloom and misery in the ever gloomy and miserable surroundings. In this paragraph however, I feel that Dickens wanted to focus in on the objects and structures in view. Pip can faintly see two ‘black things’ that seem ‘to be standing upright’. One of these structures is a beacon which sailors use to steer ships; Pip depicts this as ‘an ugly thing’. The second, is a gibbet which was where they hanged pirates. These two structures, one representing ugliness and the other death, aides Dickens in creating the most desolate and intimidating landscape in the entire novel.
P3: Dickens uses the character Magwich to inspire pity for Pip in this first chapter. The first way he does this is by having Magwich terrify Pip. Using phrases like ‘Keep still you little devil, or I’ll cut your throat’; Dickens attempts to place us in the small boy’s shoes, in a successful attempt for you to feel pity towards him. Also, Pip is already in such a harsh environment and the presence of a person who Dickens describes as ‘A fearful man’ must make Pip feel terrified. This sudden sight of a man who was ‘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 around his head’ makes you acknowledge the helplessness of Pip. If that isn’t enough, Pip is at his family’s grave, mourning their deaths. Pip was already crying as the last line of the third paragraph states, and the appearance of Magwich would be an unsightly horror to this small, whimpering child. Later in the passage, Magwich also makes some other frightening comments towards Pip. The lines ‘what fat cheeks you ha’ got’, ‘Darn me if I couldn’t eat em’ and ‘I’ll have your heart and liver out’ are horrible things to say to anyone, let alone an innocent child. Also, he says ‘Who d’ye live with, supposin’ you’re kindly let to live, which I han’t made up my mind about?’ This is another nasty thing to say to Pip as Magwich has basically just said that he might kill still him. This makes the reader feel pity for Pip once more. He then burdens Pip with a task, he tells Pip to steal food and a file from the blacksmith, Joe Garcery, Pip’s uncle. To make sure that Pip carries out his task, Magwich tells Pip a story of another man who is with him, and that the man will come to get Pip if he doesn’t do as he’s told. Pip believes the story, and you again feel pity for him. The final place where you feel pity for Pip is when he watches Magwich hobble off towards the gibbet. Pip exclaims that he thinks Magwich is ‘a pirate come to life, and come down, and going to hang himself back up again’. You feel pity for Pip here because of his own imagination. However, even though Magwich appears to be a monster, Dickens surprisingly shows compassion for him. He writes that Magwich has been ‘soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars’. Although Magwich terrifies Pip, you can’t help feeling sorry for him as he has been battered and beaten by the surroundings, it is like the entire planet has turned against him. Dickens also shows compassion for Magwich when Pip gives him the bread, Dickens wrote that ‘he ate the bread ravenously’. This tells us that he is starving as well as beaten. Also, Dickens shows that Magwich is just as scared as Pip. When Magwich asks where Pip’s mother is and Pip points to the gravestone, Magwich thinks that Pip‘s mother is with him and he begins to flee. This shows us that Magwich is afraid of a woman, even though he appears to be in control. Dickens also writes that when Magwich was leaving, he ‘hugged his shuddering body in both arms, clasping himself, as if to hold himself together’. This shows that Magwich is weak and just as helpless as Pip, this inspires us to feel sorry for him as he is probably freezing cold and in constant pain. I feel that the main way Dickens shows compassion for Magwich is through Pip. Having to threaten a small child to help him survive personifies the helplessness of Magwich’s situation. This shows us that Magwich is so weak, that he can’t even find food for himself, and this ultimately, shows that he is just as weak as Pip.
I: In Victorian Britain there were many differences between the rich and poor. Firstly, the rich looked down on the poor as if they were the scum of the earth, even though the poor usually worked for them by cooking, cleaning and generally held their households together. Another difference is the quality of houses. The houses owned by the poor were cheap, most had between 2-4 rooms - one or two rooms downstairs, and one or two rooms upstairs. But Victorian families were big with perhaps 4-5 children. There was no water, and no toilet. A whole street (sometimes more) would have to share a couple of toilets and a pump. The water from the pump was frequently polluted. It was no surprise that few children made it to adulthood. On the other hand, the rich owned houses that were much better. They were better built, larger and had most of the new gadgets installed, such as flushing toilets, gas lighting, and inside bathrooms. Also, the rich had water pumps in their kitchens or sculleries and their waste was taken away down into underground sewers. These houses were also decorated in the latest styles. There would be heavy curtains, flowery wallpaper, carpets and rugs, ornaments, well made furniture, paintings and plants. Pip would be anxious about visiting Miss Havisham as he had never been inside the house of anyone wealthy, he would be keen to see the differences between Miss Havisham’s quality of living to his own. Also, he would want to make a good impression as the middle and upper classes often looked down upon the working class.
P1: The first time we get to see Miss Havisham is when Pip enters her room after being told to from within. As Pip enters he is startled by what he sees. He finds himself in ‘a pretty large room, well lighted with wax candles’ in which ‘No glimpse of sunlight was to be seen in it’. This would surprise him, as it is still daylight outside. He then glances across the room and sees ‘the strangest lady’ he had ever seen, Miss Havisham. She is described as a lady ‘dressed in rich materials’ that are ‘all of white’. Everything she has is white, ‘Her shoes were white’, ‘a long white veil’, ‘her hair was white’. This repetition of the word ‘white’ creates a powerful image of pureness and brightness; however, this contrasts dramatically with the surrounding room. Everything around her is unfinished, she had ‘not quite finished dressing’, she had ‘but one shoe on’, and her veil was ‘half arranged’. Also, her handkerchief, and gloves, and some flowers, and a prayer book were ‘all confusedly heaped’ near a looking glass. This confusion and disarray would suit the cobwebs and darkness room, although the fine materials and sparkling jewels would not. However, as Pip’s eyes adjust to the low lighted room, he notices that the white silks and gowns had been white, but were now ‘faded and yellow’, and that Miss Havisham had ‘withered like the dress’. This makes us feel sympathetic towards Miss Havisham as it shows that she has grown old in this room, and has probably never left it. When Pip approaches Miss Havisham, he notices that all the clocks have stopped at 8:40. It would appear that she has tried to freeze time in the room. This shows that she has had some sort of crisis in earlier life, and that she cannot come to terms with it which is why she has stopped all the clocks, probably at the time of the incident, this also makes us feel sorry for Miss Havisham. The first thing Mrs Havisham says to indicate what the crisis was, are the lines:
‘What do I touch?’
‘Your heart’
‘Broken!’
This tells us that all her troubles lie in love. The wedding dress, the jewellery and the clocks all point to this. It would appear that on her wedding day, the groom did not arrive. This truth conveys much sorrow and sympathy for Miss Havisham. Later, Miss Havisham orders Pip to call Estella, her adopted daughter, to play cards with Pip. When Estella refuses to play with ‘a common labouring boy’, Miss Havisham exclaims ‘Well? You can break his heart’. This remark shows us that Miss Havisham has a vendetta against all men for what had happened to her, and it would appear, that Miss Havisham is training Estella to be her weapon at trying to break other men’s hearts. This makes us feel that Miss Havisham is a cunning and evil woman, and that she wants to hurt other people in the way she was. Although this is her intention, you cannot help feeling sorry for her, as she was cruelly hurt in this way a long, long time ago.
P2: Estella is Miss Havesham’s adopted daughter, and, from the first time Pip meets her, it is obvious that she does not want to like this ‘common labouring boy’. Firstly, Estella shows us that she is not content with what she has and is rather greedy as she speaks ill of the grand mansion she lives in, ‘They must have been easily satisfied in those days’. She also persists in calling Pip ‘boy’ in what he calls ‘a carelessness that was far from complimentary’. This shows Estella’s rudeness towards the lower classes and how much contempt she has for Pip. A little later, when Pip is about to enter the room of Miss Havisham, he tries to be polite and courteous to Estella by letting her enter the room before him, however, she replies ‘Don’t be ridiculous, boy; I am not going in’. This again shows how much she hates Pip. A while later when Estella is asked to play cards with Pip, her reaction is ‘With this boy? Why, he is a common labouring boy!’ again showing her hatred of the lower class and her contempt for Pip. Estella humiliates Pip by laughing at his upbringing, she said things like ‘He calls the knaves Jacks, this boy!’ and ‘What coarse hands he has! And what thick boots!’ This makes Pip feel terrible, as he has never been ashamed of his hands before. Pip’s summary of Estella is the line, ‘Her contempt for me was so strong, that it became infectious, and I caught it.’ This shows us that Pip is now beginning to look back at is own upbringing and curses it for making him the ‘common labouring boy’. Also, Estella shows contempt for things that Pip has touched! The cards that she won off him were thrown across the table ‘as if she despised them for having been won of me’. When Estella is ordered to bring Pip some food, Pip begins to reflect on the nasty things that have been said to him, his ‘coarse hands’ and his ‘common boots’. He now looks upon them as ‘vulgar appendages’. He is disappointed with Joe for teaching him to call Knaves, Jacks. Pip wishes that Joe had been brought up better so that he might have been to. When Estella returned with bread, meat and a little mug of beer, she gave them to Pip as if he was ‘a dog in disgrace’. When Pip began to cry, Estella did the most evil thing she could have done, she smiled. However, at seeing this Pip managed to hold the tears back, which saw off Estella. After she left, Pip ran around to the other side of the wall, where he cried about this feeling that he had, this feeling of utmost hatred, this ‘smart without a name’. In this chapter Dickens shows a lot of sympathy towards Pip, and, after the brutal onslaught of Estella, lets him come out on top, by not letting her see him cry.
P3: Charles Dickens is sympathetic to Pip, as he has had a terrible upbringing without his parents, and has many horrible things happen to him, i.e. The run in with Magwich and Estella’s harsh comments and many more. Dickens also pities Pip when he feels contempt for himself as he is young and does not realise that Estella is trying to make him feel upset. Also, Dickens is sympathetic towards Joe as Pip is blaming him for his poor upbringing, even though Joe has done the best job that he can, and you cant do much better than you’re best. He also shows Sympathy to the old and crooked Miss Haversham as she had been betrayed on her wedding day by the one she loved. She has withered away and virtually lost all of her life through one upsetting incident, and this inspires the pity that you have to feel for her. Having seen what life was like for both classes, I feel that Dickens sides completely with the poor. They have never experienced the luxuries that the rich take for granted, they have to work endlessly hard just to survive, whereas the rich just enjoy themselves. Having read most of Dickens novels, I feel that the thing that Dickens condemns the most is greed. In Oliver Twist, whoever is greedy gets their comeuppance, i.e. Fagin loses everything and when Oliver asks for more he gets thrown into the cellar. Or David Copperfield’s Uriah Heap whom got greedy and ended up with the sack. And the famous A Christmas Carol and the notorious Scrooge who through his greed is visited by the ghosts, however, is made into a better person. And I feel that was Charles Dickens’s main goal, to expose people for what they really are in order for them to change, I feel he accurately writes about what the rich and poor classes think about each other. Dickens is an honest man who shows sympathy for all, even the most fearful and evil characters he can create, and, through the power of his amazing literary skills, make them in to better people.
By Daniel Moores