How does Dickens create an effective opening to Great Expectations?
How does Dickens create an effective opening to Great Expectations? The first nineteen chapters of Dickens’ Great Expectations creates an effective opening in many ways. The very first chapter sets the scene with a mixture of anxiety and a build up of pressure. This is a good way to open a novel as it immediately grabs the readers interest.Throughout the opening of Great Expectations the setting changes several times. At the graveyard in chapter one, the atmosphere is very eerie and bleak. The graveyard is described as “dark flat wilderness” which gives the reader an image of a grim setting. There is no major difference between the graveyard setting and the setting in the next four chapters, collectively they have the atmosphere of depression and apprehension . This is when Pip steals the ‘wittles’ for the convict and is edgy about getting caught. The first big change happens in chapter eight when Pip visits Miss Havisham’s house. Dickens describes the setting here as ‘dismal, and had a great many iron bars to it,‘ it is still dark and gloomy all over the house, especially in Miss Havisham’s room. Although this gives the impression that it is similar to the first seven chapters, Pip’s feelings are different, this is the first time he feels vulnerable and resentful toward his upbringing and his background rather than afraid.The rest of
the opening is very similar to the first seven chapters. Pip takes onboard what he discovered at Miss Havisham’s and strives to be ‘uncommon‘ after Estella mocks him about his background and appearance, “He calls knaves Jacks, this boy’’. He often revisits Miss Havisham’s house until he prepares to leave home for London towards the end of the opening.Dickens is very detailed about all his characters, this makes the reader feel as though they know them and helps them to understand Pip’s life. Pip has a completely different relationship with every character. His family life is very dysfunctional, as his ...
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the opening is very similar to the first seven chapters. Pip takes onboard what he discovered at Miss Havisham’s and strives to be ‘uncommon‘ after Estella mocks him about his background and appearance, “He calls knaves Jacks, this boy’’. He often revisits Miss Havisham’s house until he prepares to leave home for London towards the end of the opening.Dickens is very detailed about all his characters, this makes the reader feel as though they know them and helps them to understand Pip’s life. Pip has a completely different relationship with every character. His family life is very dysfunctional, as his parents are dead, Pip lives with his older sister and her husband, Mr and Mrs Joe. While Mrs Joe is very bossy and quite mean to Pip, Mr Joe is more like his friend. Both Mr Joe and Pip have to live under Mrs Joe’s orders. When Pip is at Miss Havisham’s house, again there are different relationships. Pip does not quite know how to take Miss Havisham, she is very strange and in return does not know how to take Pip. In the very beginning we get the impression she does not think much of him but as Pip keeps revisiting she gets rather fond of having him around. Estella looks down her nose at Pip’s boots and accent and teases him by asking him to kiss her and even slaps him. He tells Miss Havisham, “I think she is very pretty” and from then on Miss Havisham uses Estella to attempt to break his heart.Biddy lives near Pip and is also an orphan, she becomes his friend and he confides a lot to her. She becomes his teacher and he often asks her for advice about Estella and the reader gets the impression that Biddy is possibly in love with Pip and jealous of Estella. Pip and Magwitch, except f course in the first chapter, do not have much of a relationship until later in the novel when Pip believes Magwitch is his benefactor.Mr Jaggers is often in and out of Pip’s house and is the one who offers Pip a new life in London where Pip gets to know him better. The Pocket family have a strange connection to Pip. He often sees them at Miss Havisham’s house on his visits. Towards the end of the opening Mr Pocket offers to tutor Pip in London and organise him with new clothes after his move to London. Especially throughout the opening of Great Expectations Pip is offered several opportunities, all of which he takes. The first opportunity is stealing the file and wittles for the convict, Magwitch. Pip feels he has no choice and he will be killed if he does not bring them so he obliges even though there are consequences at home. Pip is offered regular visits to Miss Havisham’s house by Mr Pumblechook. Pip goes to Miss Havisham’s and meets Estella, she is probably the reason Pip returns again and again as is rather scared of Miss Havisham at first. Pip desperately wants to become a gentleman to impress Estella and thinks that she would be the best person to teach him how to become one. When Pip is offered the apprenticeship as a blacksmith with his sisters husband, Mr Joe he is not enthusiastic. He begins to look down on Joe and his chosen career and decides that he wants to do something worth while and become one. Pip believes that the apprenticeship is beneath him and that Joe is the reason that Pip is ‘common‘. However, until Pip is offered a new life in London he does not have much choice. He has no other opportunities to take so becomes Mr Joe’s apprentice against his will. Tutoring is offered to Pip by two different characters in the first nineteen chapters. First by Biddy who is trying to be a good friend and help him to become brighter and more gentleman like. In these teaching sessions Pip usually ends up telling Biddy about his new expectations of himself and of Estella. The second offer of tutoring is from Mr Pocket, who decides to tutor Pip once he arrives in London. The final opportunity Pip has in the opening is moving to London, the offer given to him by Mr Jaggers. Although Pip will miss Joe, Biddy and Estella, he jumps at the chance. Pip cannot wait to live in London and become a gentleman and prove Estella wrong. The language in Great Expectations is always in first person, Pip is telling the story as a grown man looking back on his youth. It is very detailed about a lot of things, especially Pip’s feelings and the things he can see. Although the language is slightly archaic, dated and the grammar is not exactly the same as it is today, it is very understandable. Sometimes in the novel, when a certain is talking the language is slightly different eg. When the uneducated Mr Joe is talking, it is not very fluent and often spelt wrong. Mr Joe quote here.Great Expectations is an autobiography, its structure is very repetitive and is in chronological order. Dickens has his own very effective style which makes Great Expectations and other Dickens books so unique. The opening ends as Pip is leaving his small village for London, he pays Miss Havisham and Estella a final visit and celebrates with Mr Pumblechook. He leaves Biddy on bad terms as they have an argument. This could be one of the reasons that he has tears in his eyes as he leaves. Overall I think that Dickens creates an effective opening o Great Expectations by using his own style. Especially in more recent novels, no other author has the same very detailed narrative structure which make his novels unique to him, rarely is ever have readers been offered such detail. Dickens uses pressure and anxiety exactly where it is needed in a way that keeps the reader interested right through to the end, he allows the reader to really get to know and grow to love the characters. The end of the opening is a kind of cliff hanger, the reader will want to read on and find out what happens to Pip in London, if he ever does become a gentleman and if he will ever win Estella’s love.