Nadine Shinya 10J - Draft
How does dickens create the characters of Magwitch and Miss Havisham? , How does the setting in which he presents them add to these characterizations?
Charles Dickens ‘Great expectations’ written in the 1850’s is a Victorian novel. ‘Great Expectations’ is about a young boy who grows up and moves from a lower class to being a gentleman. Dickens writes the story as an adult looking back at his childhood as a child would not be able to write a complete novel. Dickens was brought up in a middle class family. The character in the story is brought up in a middle class family, so he knows about poverty and abuse as he suffered from both. At the age of 12, Dickens parents were sent to the Marshalsea prison for debt. Dickens went to work in a blacking factory, earning less than a pittance a day. He worked in extreme bad conditions suffered by all children of the poor. Eventually the debt was paid off by other family members, so his family came out and dickens sent to school to fulfil his dreams of becoming a writer. As Dickens was living in poverty as a child it helped him write stories. He used his experience as inspiration. His stories reflect on the extreme conditions and suffering. In ‘Great expectations’ Dickens explores the classes and the justice system.
In the opening scene, Dickens purposely creates a dark, desolate atmosphere that surrounds young Pip. He also uses the idea of a black horizontal landscape. This highlights the danger, as Pip is alone. Dickens uses red, black, angry colours to describe the marshes and skyline. This links the atmosphere with death and blood, and brings Pip into the life of a criminal.
The beacon and the gibbet are the only things that are vertical and standing, as they are very important and have to stand out. This is because the beacons light guides people to safety. The gibbet is the place where criminals will go. We get a sense that if Pip does steal he will go to the gibbet.
Dickens cleverly associates the graveyard with the dark, mist and the howling winds. These provide the right atmosphere that corresponds to the gloomy, grey appearance of Magwitch, a criminal. Magwitch is described as being a “fearful man”, with a “terrible voice” and shuddering body. Pip is visiting his parents’ grave stone. We see Magwitch, hobbling and growling out of the mist, we see Magwitch as a ragged looking man. Dickens makes the night sound bleak and harsh, there is no one there but yet that is where Pips family are buried which may signify they are forgotten and abandoned. Magwitch is shown as an impolite character. We know he is like this because he is a bully and speaks aggressively to Pip. “Hold your noise!" "Keep still, you little devil, or I'll cut your throat!”. Also he is an escaped convict. The reader knows this because in the text he has got an ‘Iron’ on his leg. Magwitch appears to be a very mysterious character because when he is first introduced in the novel Charles Dickens doesn’t give his name or where he comes from. Dickens uses a range of negative words to describe Magwitch. “A fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg. A man with no hat, and with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied round his head. A man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in 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.”
When Magwitch turns Pip upside down, it's like Pip’s life is being turned around, from being a well brought up boy to a criminal. Dickens wrote this to show the idea of the change in Pip's behaviour and manner towards criminality. The appearance of Magwitch, cut and stung by nettles, scares Pip, because he doesn't want to become like him and look like that.
