How does Dickens create sympathy for Pip in the Opening chapters of Great Expectations?

The novel is full of so many important scenes for practical reasons and not just the desire for a great story. Great Expectations jumps straight into the story line because it was originally published in a series and therefore had to keep readers hooked by putting in as many important scenes and exciting moments as possible. This shows when throughout the novel there is never a chapter without something important to the story happening and is often responsible for the sometimes hurried appearance of Dickens story telling.

All this adds to the gravity of what Charles Dickens book tries to, and succeeds, in portraying. From the opening scene Charles Dickens writes of Pips life in a childish charming way. Even when narrating the terrifying convict virtually assaulting pip it is still told using pips childish amusing innocence as a narrative. It's written in a very emotive style playing upon the natural sympathetic instinct towards small children.

The first chapter of Great Expectations set the plot in motion, showing signs of Dickens writing complications with the novel originally being a serial whilst introducing 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 perceptions are transferred to you through Dickens amusing almost childish narrative. As a result, Dickens's most important task as a writer in Great Expectations is the creation of Pip's character. Because Pip's is the voice with which he tells his story, Dickens must make his voice believably pips whilst ensuring that it conveys all the information necessary to the plot. In this first section, Pip is a young child, and Dickens masterfully uses Pip's narration to evoke the feelings and problems of childhood. At the beginning of the novel Pip is looking at his parents' gravestones, a solemn scene which Dickens renders comical by having Pip give his descriptions of his idea of his deceased parents derived from the simple tombstone engravings. When the convict questions him about his parents' names, Pip recites them exactly as they appear on the tombstones, indicating his youthful innocence while simultaneously allowing Dickens to lessen the dramatic tension of the novel's opening. Pips reaction to this traumatic event in his young life befits his unsophisticated moral reasoning; Pip is horrified by the convict. But despite his horror, he helps them man who even from the child's perspective must be an 'outlaw'. It would have been easy for Pip to run to his loveable stepfather Joe or to the police for help rather than getting hold of the file and food, but Pip like many young children holds true to his promise to the, in his eyes, suffering man. Your sympathy grows when pips complete innocence is shown by his fear for the convict's safety, for a person who scared the life out of this small child! Still, throughout this section, Pip's self-commentary mostly emphasizes his negative qualities: his dishonesty and his guilt. This is characteristic of Pip as a narrator throughout the novel. Despite his many admirable qualities his, compassion, loyalty and conscience pip's view of himself is largely pessimistic and focuses on his failures and shortcomings. To understand him as a character, it is necessary to look beyond his self-descriptions and consider his actions. In fact, it may be his powerful sense of his own moral shortcomings that motivates Pip to act so morally. As you read further into the book, the theme of self development including his financial and 'social' development becomes the main centre point of the story. In that sense, Pip's deep-seated sense of moral obligation, which is first exhibited in this section, works as a kind of psychological counterpart to the novel's theme of social advancement.

Pip's surroundings, the "shrouded" marshes of Kent and the peculiar hierarchy of Mrs. Joe's house are vital to the building of pips character. Throughout Great Expectations, Dickens uses setting to create dramatic atmosphere: the setting of the book always sets the tone for the action and reinforces Pip's perception of his situation. When the weather is cloudy and angry, trouble often seems a page away, and when Pip goes alone into the marsh or graveyard, danger is around the corner. But as great expectations is a dual person narrative this relation between setting and events may purely be pips perception and completely in the wrong. Once again this makes pips 'plight' that much easier to sympathise with assuring us that is just a child living in torrid times. In this chapter, Pip's story shifts rapidly between humorous yet terrifying scenes with the convict on the marshes and comical scenes under the affectionate tyranny of Mrs. Joe at home. Despite Mrs. Joe's rough treatment of Pip, which she calls bringing him up "by hand," the comedy that pervades her household in Chapter 2 shows that it is a safe haven for Pip, steeped in Joe's quiet goodness despite Mrs. Joe's peculiar style of love. When Pip ventures out alone onto the marshes, he leaves Joe he is only friend, and everything which can be expected in this situation. This idea of Pips ignorance is a continuous theme behind the novel as whenever something new is introduced, for example the prison ships, pips naivety shines through and he learns as we do. Pip becomes our link to the world of great expectations and dickens absorbs us in it. He makes sure that when we are puzzled by something than pip is confused by the same thing. The unknown will become a recurrent theme throughout the novel, as Pip grows up and leaves his childhood home behind.

Joe Gargery the blacksmith is not a vital character to the great expectation plot but is clearly a massive influence on pip. Not just Pips seemingly unfounded morals but his actions around Mrs Joe his makeshift mother seems derived from the good hearted blacksmith. Joe is clearly made as an amicable character and we see a lot of pip in him in the way he acts timidly yet politely to Mrs Joe. He's Pips brother-in-law and the village blacksmith, in the 18th century this a well respected position so you get the impression he does have the choice of leaving his over bearing wife and seeking solitude but instead he stays with pip, someone who he holds no allegiance to, purely out of love. The fact someone so clearly cares for pip in a case where they don't necessarily have to increases your admiration and respect for him. It constructs his character into a much more empathetic person and once again increases the sympathy for the boy who finds good in what appears to be a dark and dangerous time. Joe's quiet goodness makes him one of the few completely sympathetic characters in Great Expectations. Although he is uneducated and unrefined, he consistently acts for the benefit of those he loves and suffers in silence when Pip treats him coldly.

When, in chapter eight, the novel introduces the characters of Estella and miss Havisham the idea of social class and advancement leap to the forefront of pips mind. Pip's hopes that Miss Havisham intends to raise him into wealth and high social class are given special urgency by the passionate attraction he feels for Estella. His feelings for the "very pretty and very proud" young lady, combined with the deep impression made on him by Satis House, with its ornate grandeur, haunted atmosphere, and tragic sense of mystery, raise in Pip a new consciousness of his own low birth and common bearing. When he returns from Satis House in Chapter nine, he even lies about his experience there, unwilling to dirty his thoughts of it with the contrasting plainness of his everyday world: Estella and Miss Havisham must remain "far above the level of such common doings."

Miss Havisham's first impressions are mysterious and at the same time terrifying, she seems almost overbearingly polite

Pip's romantic sensibility, first visible in his tendency to linger around his parents' gravestones, is powerfully attracted to the enigmatic world of Satis House. His desire for self-improvement compels him to idealize Estella. Her condescension and spite match Pip's feelings about himself in the world of Satis House. He accepts her cruelty-"Why, he is a common labouring-boy!"-without defending himself because he sorrowfully believes her to be right. In fact, he only cries when he is forced to leave her. The differences between their social classes manifest themselves even in small things; while playing cards in Chapter 8, Estella remarks disdainfully, "He calls the knaves, jacks, this boy!"