great expectations

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David Fairclough

Great expectations

 Chapter one opens with the introduction of pip the main character and narrator. It also opens by explaining to the reader how he got the name pip.

  Dickens speaks to us in the first person because it adds to the effect of that its pips personal view on his life. The effect of this is you feel pity for him, and you feel as if you get to know the character well.

  In the first chapter we learn that pip never knew his family and that they are dead, we know this because “as I never saw my father or my mother”. Pip gives the reader an insight into his childish mind. We know this because he talks about his mum and dad from the tombstones “also Georgiana. That’s my mother” he is saying his mums name as it was written on the tombstone.

  It makes us feel sorry for pip because he had lost 5 brothers it tells us this “five little brothers of mine-who gave up trying to get a living”. This shows the reader how difficult it was to live; pip has lost his brothers and talks about his family being dead as if he isn’t bothered. Pip is a lonely orphan child; he is really respectful as he is always saying sir to the convict.  

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   Chapter 1 is set in a church yard which is described as a “bleak place overgrown with nettles” This is describing the setting in which he is in. Close to marshy country, near a river, it tells us this “ours was marshy country down by the river” this is describing the background.

  The surrounding landscape is described as being dark, neglected and bleak “bleak place overgrown” this is describing the unused grave yard. “Park flat wilderness” these phrases really tell us how bleak and dark it is.

  This heightens the mood of it being dark and ...

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