Chapter 1 of this novel is set in a graveyard. This is where Pip meets the Convict and the convict demands pip brings a file and some whittles. The way that dickens 1st refers to the graveyard is by saying “The bleak place, overgrown with nettles”. This is a very negative language and would have had a different effect if Dickens had of chosen Weeds instead of “Nettles”. This shows the way that Dickens picks his words so that he can make the biggest impact in the readers head. The negative language used gives the reader a picture of a derelict, abandoned, scary place that a young child shouldn’t be around. This also can give the image that pip has no family left as he is going to visit them. The next section of chapter one describes the marshes and the 1st term used to describe them is “The dark wilderness beyond the churchyard intersected with dykes and mounds and gates, with scattered cattle reeding on it was the marshes; and that the low laden line beyond was the river, and that the distant savage lair from which the wind was rushing was the sea”. In the last few lines there are a few techniques used, Alliteration was used to get a effective feel to the marshes when Dickens wrote “Low Laden Line”. This shows that there is nothing in the marshes except a line on the horizon. The wording is extremely negative and makes everything seem dark and evil inside the readers head.
The next section in chapter 1 describes Magwitch otherwise known as the “Convict”. He is a fairly poor man as in chapter 1 the text says “A man with no hat and with broken shoes”, this shows the social status of Magwitch and that it’s not that good. Also in this section about Magwitch there is a lot of repetition of the word ‘and’, this is building up a negative image of Magwitch, there are lots of verbs and adjectives in this section too that describe Magwitch, one example is; “A man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints”. These adjectives create a vivid picture of Magwitch and shows quiet a negative image.
In the next section of chapter 1 Magwitch has demanded that Pip goes to fetch a File and Whittles. Magwitch ends up turning pip upside down and scampering for any food he can, Pip only has a piece of bread and Magwitch shoves it in his mouth as if he had never eaten. This shows that Magwitch has no way of eating but through others and that if Pip doesn’t get him any food then he will probably die. Dickens wrote a few sentences about the way Magwitch treated pip and this shows how helpless pip is; “When the church came to itself – for he was so sudden and strong that he made it go head over heels before me and I saw the steeple under my feet – when the church came to itself, I say, I was seated on a high tombstone”. Magwitch has eaten the bread that he stole from Pip and Dickens shows that he is rather desperate and scary by making Magwitch say to Pip “What fat cheeks you’ve got”, Although Pip is scared of Magwitch Dickens adds humour to this section when he says “I believe they were fat, though at the time I was undersized for my age, and not strong”.