Magwitch played a big part in Pips growing up, for many reasons. One of them is because he frightened Pip. “…I’ll cut your throat”, something else that makes him seem so scary is the scenery, he is in a churchyard when Pip meets Magwitch, and Pip feels threatened. Magwitch later pays for Pip to become a perfect gentleman. Miss Havisham makes Pip feel embarrassed because she says, “I sometimes have sick fancies”, and Miss Havisham said this to Pip and carries on saying, “I want to see some play”. This makes pip feel embarrassed as it is unnatural for an old lady to tell you to play while she sits down and watches you. Estella first make Pip look down on himself, “…what coarse hands he has, and what thick boots”. When Estella said this to Pip he felt ashamed and from then on he looked down on himself. Mr Jaggers made Pip very scared of him; pip was also scared of his office. “Jaggers’s own high back chair was of deadly black horse-hair, with rows of brass nails around it, like a coffin”, this makes pip scared as he is shocked that a man like Jaggers would have a chair like a coffin in his office.
Magwitch has no great expectations at the beginning as he begs for food, “…you get me wittles”. Towards the end Magwitch has better expectations, he becomes a successful sheep farmer in Australia, and he also gave Pip great expectations by giving him the chance to become a gentleman. Miss Havisham had great expectations; she thought that she would be fine until she got jilted at the altar. After her fiancé left her, her expectations had vanished. She never got over the fact that her fiancé left her. “What do I touch” says Miss Havisham Pip then replies “your heart.” “BROKEN!” She now blames men for what her fiancé did to her Estella has great expectations in terms of wealth as she will inherit Miss Havishams possessions. However she did not expect what Drummell did to her, he beat her and when they separated she gained something much better friendship with Pip. Mr Jaggers has no great expectations of the future, he only has one care “Have you paid Wemmick yet?” he says this as his only care is money.
Dickens tries to make Magwitch look like a scary criminal at the beginning of the story. “…glared and growled; and whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me by the chin.” towards the end Dickens made Magwitch into a kind man who wanted Pip to do well- he did this to show that everyone should get a second chance. Miss Havisham was described so much in this story as it was let out in series. Miss Havisham was described as a mad woman, “…her watch had stopped and so had he clock”. Dickens did this so when he serialised it people would buy the next one because they would want to know why she acted in such a bizarre way. Estella, a posh, rich, upper-class girl looked down on Pip for being common, poor and lower-class. “With this boy! Why, he is a common labouring boy” Dickens says this in the story as he thinks that it is wrong to judge people on how rich they are. Jaggers is only concerned with making money he never even said anything to the drunk minister of justice for selling tickets to the public for a court hearing. “…drunk minister of justice if I would like to step in on a trial or do;” Dickens is saying this because he thinks the law should be truth not how much money you got. He is critizing the legal system.
Estella and Magwitch both had a bad up bringing as children this is why I think they both grew up to be nice people. The final ending makes more sense than the beginning of the novel as Estella finally realises she can love, also everyone is more settled. My opinion is that I do and don’t like it, the reason why I don’t like some of it is because it doesn’t make sense. But I like the way Estella was set out to hurt men but during the book she got hurt, for a change.
By Emma Kelleher