Whilst in the graveyard Pip [he is on his own] is grabbed by an escaped convict. The convict says to Pip that he wants him to fetch ‘wittles’ [which is an abbreviation for scraps of food] and a file, because the convict still has a chain around his legs. The convict says to Pip,” You fail or go from my words in particular, no matter how small it is, and your heart and liver shall be tore out and ate.” The convict then says, “ Now I ain’t alone, as you may think I am. There’s a young man hid with me, in comparison with which young man I am an angel. That young man hears the words I speak. That young man has a secret way peculiar to himself of getting at a boy, and at his heart and liver.” This quote has a terrible effect on Pip, because he now thinks that he is going to be followed home by this horrible young man and killed if he doesn’t get the things the convict asked for. The convict has told Pip that he must bring the ‘wittles’ and file to him at the graveyard the next day. That night Pip has nightmares about the young man. He doesn’t want to sleep because he thinks that the young man will creep up on him and tear out his heart and liver.
Joe sees himself as being an important member of the local community because he’s the blacksmith. He gets bossed around by Mrs Joe but seems to be used to it. Pip explains how he feels almost sorry for Joe Gargery stating, “that she must have made Joe Gargery marry her by hand.” He is suggesting that she is just as much of ‘a force of nature’ against Joe Gargery as she is to Pip. Joe Gargery’s house is on the marsh, which is a damp, dreary, lonely place.
The next point I would like to turn to is the effect Miss. Havisham had on Pip’s life as a boy and a man. When Pip first goes to Miss. Havishams Mansion, Pip is dressed well and taken on a horse and cart by Mr. Pumblechook. He arrives at the mansion, but isn’t sure what he is going to do or what he has to say. At the gate he is greeted by Estella, who lives with Miss.Havisham but is not her daughter [When Miss.Havisham dies she will inherit all of her money and property]. She tells Pip to come in and he follows her to the door of the Miss.Havishams bedroom. Estella is a horrible character and the first time she snaps at Pip is when he says,” After you Miss,” Estella replies,” Don’t be stupid, Boy! I am not going in.” Now Pip feels even more insecure because he is about to be with somebody he doesn’t know.
Pip describes her as being probably the strangest woman he has ever seen or will see. Everything that she was wearing was white, or had been white, it was now faded and yellow with age. Miss Havishams mansion is old, crumbling and is set in time, just like her. There is a contrast between Pip and Estella, he has great expectations for the future, but she has had great expectations that have been forgotten, like her personality and emotion.
Estella significantly influences Pip. This happens whilst pip is at Miss. Havishams mansion, Estella has bee told that she must play cards with pip, but she says, “With this boy! Why he is a common, labouring boy!” Moments later she exclaims, “And what coarse hands he has! And what thick boots!” Later on Pip is outside in the courtyard, Pip realises that he doesn’t like his coarse hands and thick boots, he also says that they had never troubled him before, but they troubled him now, ‘as vulgar appendages.’ This obviously means that Estella has had a big impact on him. Pip has started to look at himself as being ‘not good enough,’ he thinks to himself that he wished Joe had been rather more ‘genteelly’ brought up, and that I should have be so too.
This is the start of the downfall of Pip’s want for money and the high life. In a way Pip and Estella are great contrasts, because of Pips great expectations for the future and Estella’s great expectations that have been forgotten, like her personality and emotion. Dickens brings us to beware of great expectations, but Pip doesn’t learn this.
I hope that I have shown that the first, eight chapters show Pip’s terror of everything but also his potential to succeed. The rest of the novel is the story of how his potential is realised, not always happily for Pip- so in this sense the first eight chapters start the novel off.