Dickens is also able to manipulate the reader’s sympathy towards Pip through his description of the setting.
In this chapter Pip says that the afternoon is raw. This gives the impression of harsh and cold weather. He describes the churchyard as ‘bleak place overgrown with nettles’ this gives the impression that the area is isolated and dull. He then describes the churchyard as’ dark flat wilderness’ the word wilderness suggests wild, overgrown, and maybe even secretive. He then describes it as ‘the distant savage lair from which the wind was rushing was the sea’ – He compares the wind to a wild animal. All of these quotes give out a signal saying it’s a scary, dangerous place. This creates sympathy for Pip, as he’s scared and frightened in this setting.
Pip also tells the audience about a ‘gibbet’, which creates sympathy as it reminds the audience of death or danger. The setting is also described in detail at the end of the chapter, which again creates sympathy for Pip in the same way. He refers to the marshes as ‘a long, black horizontal line’ The word black is used three times in this section of writing which shows the audience that the writer is trying to create a sense of danger towards Pip in the setting. The sky is described as ‘a row of long, angry, red lines intermixed. This makes the setting feel scary and a dark place.
The setting is descried at the beginning and at the end of the chapter to show serialization.
The appearance, description and characterization of Magwitch are also used to create sympathy for Pip as he appears frightening and aggressive.
In chapter 1 we first see Magwitch in a graveyard, which is quite a scary place that reminds you of death. Pip described him as ‘a fearful man, all in course grey, with a great iron on his leg’. The iron on his leg showed that he was a convict and so straight away you fear for Pip as the Victorians thought convicts as evil aggressive people. Pip being with Magwitch made us feels sympathy for Pip as we think he is in great danger. We think of death when we see them together, Pip doesn’t seem safe. The first thing Magwitch says to Pip when he see’s him is ‘Hold your noise!!’ the use of exclamation marks here creates sympathy for Pip as he says this in a threatening tone by a ‘terrible voice’. Magwitch says horrible things to Pip such as ‘keep still you little devil or ill cut your throat!’ He often threatens Pip, which shows aggressive behavior. We feel sympathy for Pip when he gets threatened as Magwitch is sort of making up fairy tale story’s to scare him, and we can see that Pip believes his threats. The audience feels sympathy for Pip, as he seems to come off as the ‘victim’ in the novel. Magwitch tips Pip upside down in this chapter to see if Pip has any food on him. He also grabs Pip while telling him that he wants whittles and a file, and at the same time tilting him back as if to give him greater sense of helplessness and danger. I think this is being cruel and aggressive towards him. It makes us feel sympathy for Pip as he comes off as the poor innocent character once again through the novel. We feel this, as we already know that he is an orphan, he and his sister are not very close and that Pip feels alone with nobody to turn to. It also makes us feel sorry for him because Pip believes Magwitch and his threats so he helps him.
The last glimpse Pip see’s of magwitch is him limping on towards the ‘gibbet’ as if he was about to ’hook himself up again’ this would scare Pip as he has already seen his family die, and he doesn’t want to witness any more deaths. Or it could maybe scare him because he may think that magwitch wants to kill him. It is almost like Magwitch is against who has already been killed and is going to ‘hook himself’ back up.
However, surprisingly Dickens also creates some sympathy for Magwicth despite him being a convict.
When we first meet Magwitch he is described as ‘A man with no hat, and broken shoes, and with an old rag tied round his head. A man who had been soaked in water, and smothered by mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints and stung by nettles, and torn by briars: who limped and shivered, and glared and growled; and whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me by the chin.
These descriptions of him are very long sentences, which reflect how much has actually happened to poor Magwitch. When we read this we feel sorry for him as you feel his pain and emotions. He’s a hungry, weak and scared man. When we read this it seems as if nature has attacked him and has made us see him as vulnerable and weak. We also feel sorry for him when he steals the bread from Pip because he’s starving and eats it ‘ravenously’ this makes us feel sympathy for him as the word ‘ravenously’ tells us that Magwitch was really hungry and would basically do anything for food. Dickens may have created sympathy for Magwitch when we should be feeling sympathy for Pip as Dickens father was also a convict so Dickens understood how he was feeling, and knew how he was treated and how wrongly they were actually treated. Maybe Pip saw his father in Magwitch. I think some of the readers may realize this.
Of course, Dickens also uses his description and characterization of Pip to himself to ensure his readers feel sympathy for him.
The character Pip comes across as a poor boy. The audience think this as during the first chapter it says ‘that the small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry, was Pip’ this makes us feel sympathy for Pip as he is described as ‘a small bundle of shivers’ which shows us that he really is terrified, cold and lonely. It makes us think of him as small and innocent. It then says he was beginning to cry, which shows the fear he is feeling. He feels this, as he is all alone in the marshes. But not just in the marshes he feels that throughout his whole life he has been alone. This happened at the beginning of the chapter when Pip is soon about to meet the convict in the graveyard for the first time. When Pip talks to the convict throughout the chapter he refers to him as ‘sir’ he does this to show respect for him. He may do this because he’s polite or maybe even because he’s scared. He also ‘pleads in terror’ towards Magwitch which shows that Pip is terrified of what the convict might do. We know this as Pip says ‘please sir don’t cut my throat’
When he talks to Magwitch he also uses quite quick and short sentences, as if he can’t get his words out. We get the impression that Pip is scared to talk to Magwitch incase he says the wrong thing.
Pip stutters a few times during the chapter. One time is at the end of the chapter where Pip is about to leave he says ‘goo-good-night, sir’ the stutter shows his fear through his speech which makes the audience feel sympathy for him even more.
The last thing Pip does in the chapter is run home. He does this because he is afraid but at the same time he knows what he has to do. I think Dickens has wrote the novel like this as his father was a convict and he wanted to show the Victorian audience how badly convicts were actually treated.
CONCLUSION
I think Dickens has definitely successfully created sympathy for Pip in this chapter.
Pip seems to be the innocent character in this that automatically makes us feels sympathy for him. Dickens has also not totally alienated us from Magwitch as he had other issues he wanted to convey. I think Dickens has really described to us what convicts used to feel like, as his father had the same experience, which made the novel believable.
Elena Agathangelou