How does Dickens create sympathy for Pip in the first part of Great Expectations?

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How does Dickens create sympathy for Pip in the first part of Great Expectations?

Charles Dickens, author of Great Expectations, was born on the 7th February 1812. The novel is set in the early part of 19th century England and begins in a semi-rural setting. The text immediately focuses on the principal character and narrator, Phillip Pirrip, a name later abbreviated to “Pip”.

It is clear to see that Charles Dickens wanted Pip to be a sympathetic character in Great Expectations, which I believe is due to his own social beliefs and upbringing as a child. As with Pip, Dickens was brought up facing poverty and depression, which surrounded him in his everyday early life. This upbringing gave him a clear understanding of the conditions in which the lower class society were like in this period, a knowledge which he often uses to induce sympathy for the characters in his novels.

This sympathy is keenly reflected in Great Expectations, and particularly emphasised in Chapter One, where Pip goes alone to visit the gravestones of his dead parents and siblings. The graveyard is situated on the misty marshes near the cottage where Pip lives with his sister Mrs Gargery and her husband, Joe.

Dickens’ description of this ‘bleak place’ shows from the outset how he’s aiming to induce sympathy in the reader, as well as first encountering the graveyard, here we are also treated to a cold, desolate description of the

“…dark flat wilderness… the low leaden line beyond … [and] the distant savage lair from which the wind was rushing.”

This forlorn setting acts in building anticipation and increasing the sympathy felt by the reader towards the situation. When “the small bundle of shivers” reaches the graveyard and the sea, the wind and the rustling of leaves force a wave of fear over him and he begins to cry. His fear is proved to be justified when a “terrible voice” instructs Pip to “hold [his] noise.” This voice belongs to Magwitch, an escaped “convict” and “fearful man, all in coarse grey.”

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Magwitch then seizes the defenceless Pip and threatens to cut his throat. He orders ‘wittles’ and a file “Or I’ll have your heart and liver out”. Pip is overwhelmed and has no choice but to concede to this man demanding his ‘wittles’, also handing over the file that he later uses to disembody himself from the chains that signify his imprisonment. Magwitch is an escaped prisoner who is now hiding from the guards who are out searching for him.

        As I’ve previously stated, I think Dickens intended for Pip to come across as a sympathetic character, immediately we ...

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