This Chapter links in with Chapter 39 because Pip feels very isolated. In Chapter 39, Herbert had taken a trip to Marseille and Pip was left alone again much like he is in this chapter. It shows he is feeling isolated from the following phrase; ‘I was alone, and had a dull sense of being alone.’
In the first chapter, Pip describes the afternoon as a ‘raw afternoon towards evening’. In this scene, Pip has gone to visit his mother’s grave at the churchyard which he describes a ‘bleak place overgrown with nettles’. The thoughts of darkness and gloom link these two phrases together; ‘raw’ suggests things are hard and tough, so the weather must have been miserable and gloomy. Dickens has created a pathetic fallacy in this scene because the weather reflects the mood; he has described the weather as ‘raw’ which means the weather must be dark and gloomy. When the weather is like this, it automatically makes people feel sad and depressed. The churchyard doesn’t help Pip feel anymore happier, as he describes it as a ‘bleak place overgrown with nettles’. The thoughts of death, bad weather and overgrown nettles in a churchyard all make pip feel very unhappy.
Also in the first chapter, Dickens uses red and black imagery to describe the setting. The colour red is usually associated with anger and hatred. The colour red is linked in the first chapter to Magwitch, to show that he is and angry man and that pip shows hatred towards him. The colour black however links in more with Pip, as black is a very dull, boring colour.
In this paragraph, I am going to explore the characters that Dickens uses in his novel ‘Great Expectations’. Dickens has used a lot of various different characters in his novel, which makes the story more interesting; because it’s the characters that make a story and the different types of characters that make a story interesting. In his novel, Dickens choice of characters worked very well and the personality of the characters was a great success.
The novel focuses on three main characters; Pip, Magwitch, and Miss Havisham.
Dickens portrays Pip as a very gentle, sensitive character who seems to be rather depressed. It shows us this in the phrase ‘and that the small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry, was Pip. The words ‘afraid’ and ‘cry’ show us that pip is weak. Pip comes across as weak because all his emotions seem to over power him and he feels he can’t control his emotions. This is where the word ‘small’ comes in because Pip feels small compared to his depressing emotions which seem to over-shadow him and make him fell small and powerless. He is constantly reminded of his mother’s death and death in general from the atmosphere that he lives in which makes him feel more depressed, and when people fell depressed they feel like crying.
In chapter 39, we see a complete transformation in Pip as a character. He turns from a powerless young boy into a gentleman.
We see this when Magwitch comes to visit him for the first time, and Pip is unaware of what has been going on and who he is.
In this chapter pip comes across as very confident man who acts a bit of a snob. When Magwitch knocks on his door, Pip replies ‘Pray what is your business?’ This shows that Pip isn’t afraid of anyone anymore, and will speak to a stranger without becoming afraid, whereas in chapter 1 he was very afraid of Magwitch and became worried.
This chapter also shows a personality change in Magwitch, he goes from a very scary powerful man who frightens people to a man who becomes less powerful and becomes more respectful.
When Magwitch replies to Pip, he answers ‘My business?’ he repeated, pausing. ‘Ah! Yes. I will explain my business, by your leave.’ The phrase ‘by your leave’ is a very respectful thing to say and he therefore respects Pip by saying this. ‘By your leave’, also shows that Magwitch is showing respect to Pip compared to chapter 1, where Magwitch shows no respect to Pip. But it all turns around, and Pip ends up being the more powerful character and Magwitch shows respect to him.
To sum up the two main characters, I would say they have both changed in terms of class. We see Pip as young poor boy that is very weak and depressed and is very afraid of Magwitch when he first meets him, and then we see him turn into posh gentlemen who has a lot more power.
On the other hand, we see Magwitch, who starts off a very scary powerful man who people are afraid of, into a kind, caring man who puts others first instead of himself. Again we see this in the phrase ‘by your leave’; in this phrase, he puts Pip before himself and puts himself second.
Overall, I thought the novel ‘Great Expectations had a lot of good morals in it and I think that Dickens was trying to make a point that you shouldn’t treat people differently because they are in a so called ‘different class’ to you; everyone should be treated equally and everyone should show respect to each other.