The opening chapter shows the depth of struggles within Victorian times. We are introduced to a young orphan boy named Pip, who resides with his sister and her husband. Pip, who is not an angel but has a heart of gold, is treated with much disrespect by his sister in the novel. He is continuously berated and bullied by his sister, and can not do anything about it due to the fact that he has much respect and resides with her and her husband; he is vulnerable.
Charles Dickens effectively uses a range of techniques to show us Pip’s perspective of events. He uses a conversational tone, using the first person voice, to show that Pip is narrating. ‘So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.’ This is effective in making us readers see things from Pip’s viewpoint, and helps us understand his emotions and how he is feeling. Within speech, Pip uses highly developed vocabulary which we would usually associate with an adult, such as ‘explicit’ and ‘my infant tongue’. This shows that Pip is at an older age and is looking back on past events, or that the writer is looking back on his childhood years. Complex sentences are also used which advocate that an adult is narrating. A sense of sympathy is felt for Pip when he is seen in the graveyard, in the presence of his late parents. This is how Dickens creates sympathy for Pip, and the reader shows empathy for Pip.
Pip continues by speaking of his parents. He tells us that he doesn’t have any pictorial knowledge of his parents yet is able to describe them to the best of his ability. ‘The shape of the letters on my father’s, gave me an odd idea that he was a square, stout, dark man, with curly black hair’. This shows that Pip has a vivid imagination. He continues to describe a ‘Memorable raw afternoon’; this was said when Pip was describing a day, when he discovered the identity of things. Dickens used lexical choice in order to capture the reader’s attention. In speaking of his afternoon with such expressions, the reader is
able to question what happened to Pip on that afternoon. These examples of methods, makes the reader become more engaged in the novel, wanting them to read more. As the main character is described as someone who is deserving of love, comfort and a sense of belonging, in the sight of a reader, he is portrayed as someone who requires compassion.
However, the convict, Magwitch, is first depicted as the total opposite. He is shown as rough, coarse and brusque. The reader would make a judgement on the type of man that Magwitch is, by his actions and attitude towards Pip and Pip’s compassion. The convict is first introduced when Pip was in the graveyard, which he describes as ‘this bleak place overgrown with nettles’. This gives us a photographic idea of the churchyard and shows that it was not looked after; it was abandoned and neglected.
Magwitch appears from the marshland and jumps out at Pip and instantly threatens him. “Keep still, you little devil, or I’ll cut your throat!” When he attacks Pip, he is portrayed as aggressive and fearful. As Pip continues to tell his life story, he informs us of the convicts clothing. ‘A fearful man, all in coarse gray, with a great iron on his leg’. ‘Gray’ is said to be the most dull and depressing colour, so it is evident that the man was not a respectable or well presented person, more or less untidy and poor. The graphic writing used to describe the convict, would inflict awful images in one’s mind. While being threatened, Pip is forced to get a file for Magwitch’s leg, from his brother-in-law. He is commanded by the convict that if he does not get it, “his heart and liver shall be removed”. This aggressive tone would frighten any soul.
While being intimidated, Magwitch also notifies Pip that he is not alone: ‘There’s a young man hid with me, in comparison with which young man I am an Angel.’ This makes Pip feel unsafe and petrified. Although this forceful statement shows Magwitch as being very controlling and horrible, it could be stated as ambiguous; simply because, in a sense, Magwitch is also protecting young Pip from this other man, even though the outcome depends on if Pip decides to obey Magwitch or not.
Dickens uses a wide range of literary devices within this outstanding piece, to express the main themes of love and loyalty, guilt and fear, poverty, power, abuse, ambition, crime and the law, money and social class. Poverty, fear, abuse and crime and the law, are the main themes for the first chapter. This is evident, even in the short glimpse that we get from within this chapter, with the understanding of Pip’s life. Being without his parents, and having to live with his sister and brother-in-law, and having been harassed by the convict, Magwitch, who seems to have escaped from jail, are just two examples that show those themes.
In conclusion, I believe that the opening chapter of Great Expectations is very effective. Not only is this one of the most exhilarating novels that a person could read, but it is one to recommend too. Due to the narration of Pip, the opening chapter would make readers very intrigued, wanting to know more about ‘what’s going to happen next’ as well as Pip’s life and what his outcome in life is. The choice of language as well as the literary
terms used such as metaphors, similes and dramatic tension, would draw one’s attention and keep them fascinated throughout the entire book.
