How does Charles Dickens create tension and danger in the opening chapter of Great Expectations?

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Owain Tudor                                                                                            English Mrs. Bennet

How does Charles Dickens create tension and danger in the opening chapter of Great Expectations?

The firs chapter of ‘Great Expectations’ establishes the plot outline for the story whilst sill introducing, its main characters, Pip and his world. As both narrator and protagonist, Pip is naturally the most important character in ‘Great Expectations’: the novel is his story, told in his words, and his insights define the events and characters of the book. As a result, Dickens most important task as a writer in ‘Great Expectations’ is the creation of Pip’s character. Pip’s voice tells his story thus dickens must make his voice believably human while also ensuring that it conveys all the necessary information relevant to the plot.

In this first section Pip is a young child, and Dickens masterfully uses Pips narration to evoke the feelings and problems of childhood. From the beginning, Pip appears to be childlike. He is still calling himself "Pip" which is all that his "infant tongue could make of" his two names Phillip Pirrip. This makes Pip appear naïve or simple because he hasn't yet grown up to be called his proper name of Phillip. The naivety of Pip seems to be a running theme through this extract. At the beginning of the novel, for instance Pip at His Parents’ gravestones, a solemn scene which Dickens salvages to make humorous by having Pip consider the exact inscriptions on the tombstones, "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’’. The convict, known as Magwitch, is an interesting character on many counts. For most of the novel, he is unnamed, referred to simply as "the convict" or "Pip's convict." Coincidentally, it is during these parts of the novel that he appears menacing and evil. He is a dangerous and desperate convict who keeps popping up in Pip's life.

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When he finally reveals himself to Pip, however, he expresses love and gratitude, admiration and affection. At the same time, he is given a name: Abel Magwitch. It is as if these human emotions have transformed him, making him worthy of human distinction. It is when Magwitch questions pip about his parents’ names, Pip recites them exactly as they appear on the tombstones, indicating his youthful innocence while simultaneously allowing Dickens to lower the dramatic tension of the novels opening scene.  When the convict confronted Pip he horrified him however despite his horror, Pip treats the convict with compassion ...

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