Ever since their first acquaintance, pip has thought Estella to be the most beautiful girl alive. He changes when he gets round her. When Mrs Havisham asks pip about Estella, he answers with words like ‘proud’, ‘pretty’ and ‘insulting’. Miss Havisham wants pip to like Estella and she tells Estella to break his heart. Estella knows how pip feels and wants to make Pip suffer.
The first chapter opens with pip sitting in the graveyard with his parents and brothers. He can’t remember what his mother or father look like but he tries to guess by the way that’s their names are written on the gravestones. He had five brothers but they all died. While pip is in the graveyard he meets a convict and is scared but answers his questions. The convict blackmails pip and he is scared. The convict tells pip that if he didn’t bring him a file and whittles then he would ‘have your heart and liver out’ this frightens pip and he agrees to do that he also promises not to tell anyone that he has met the convict.
In the book dickens creates irony by creating suspense and conflict in plot events related to Estella, Miss Havisham, Magwitch Joe and Mrs Joe.
The relationship between pip and Estella is very complex and ironic. It keeps the reader entertained, with the humour of sophisticated children. A major irony, of situation occurs when Estella kisses pip after insulting and degrading him. The reader becomes confused with Estella actions and feels sympathy for pip. The confusion causes conflict, which keeps the reader on the edge of their seat.
When Estella says, “come here! You may kiss me if you like” this is something unexpected, which lives up the story. Dickens portrays Miss Havisham in a very unique way. There is a dramatic irony between Miss Havisham and pip. It is ironic how she wanted to watch him becomes miserable, just because he is of the male gender, and ironically she grew to like him. She even paid part of pip expenses for the partnership. Yet what is more ironic is that Miss Havisham does not praise herself for the good deed. In the beginning of the novel, Miss Havisham displayed a harsh, cold stated towards pip. This is displayed in her deceptive act where she says, “well you can break his heart” as the novel ends Miss Havisham’s attitude completely changes she realises the pain she had caused pip and apologises to him. Because of her positive change, she becomes more likeable to the audience.
A third person to have an odd affect on pip is the convict. One of the greatest examples of irony is brought out, in the sudden confrontation between pip and the convict. When the convict asks pip to “get me a file” pips listens to the convict and brings him food and a file. It is ironic how a simple task such as this, changed pip’s life forever. Pip obeyed the man, and later in the life the man repaid him. It is ironic how the convict takes from pip, and then later gives back. The convict, whom pip feared later, became his benefactor, and also was the real father of Pip’s first love Estella. The convict, Able Magwitch, is not as bad as the audience felt. He was portrayed as a villain, but he surprises the reader in the end by paying Pip back for the generosity.
Joe is a little twist in the novel. It is ironic in that he is Pip’s father figure, yet pip and Joe act more like friends or brothers. When pip says, “I suppose Joe Gargery and I were brought up ‘by hand’.” It seems pip is talking about a child and not a grown adult. This is a humorous irony the keeps the audience entertained, because it is unusual.
Finally, there is the relationship between Mrs. Joe and pip that consists of verbal irony. Pip says, “My sister, more Joe Gargery, was more than twenty years older than I, had established a great reputation with herself and the neighbours because she brought me up hand.” This is ironic because pip interprets it as if brought up by hand ment that he was punished and disciplined with beatings. More Joe however, ment that she alone had to bring him up with no help. They both have totally opposite ideas of what the same thing means.
The many different ironies dickens used to create suspense and conflict between pip and the others gave the novel flavour. It keeps it interesting and keeps the reader awake. There are many lessons learned through dickens’s use of irony. An example is the irony between able Magwitch and pip, which teaches those good things, may come bad, or that you cannot judge a book by looking at it.
