Charles Dickens started writing novels at the age of twenty. By the time he died in 1870, at the age of only fifty-eight, he had written thirteen novels, the most admired being Great Expectations.
Great Expectations opens unforgettably in a twilit and over-grown churchyard on the eerie kent marshes.
The novel outlines the journey of a young boy, named Pip. Among the many interesting characters that Pip meets along the way, is a convict named Magwitch. Pips first encounter with Magwitch is a terrifying one. But despite this negative impression, Magwitch would have an effect on Pip that would change his life forever.
This leads me on to my first point, Pips meeting with Magwitch.
After being introduced to Pip we are quickly taken into the story, and introduced to Magwitch, a stranger in the graveyard. Magwitch was described as a ‘fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg’. Magwitch threatened to kill Pip if he didn’t give him something to eat. Pip went to his sister’s house to steal food for the convict. Soon after Pip helped Magwitch, the convict was recaptured and sent to a penal colony in Australia. Pip hoped he would never have to see the convict again. This meeting, whilst being a frightening one, for Pip, obviously forms an important part of the early story, but by the end of the chapter we don’t know the result of the meeting and will only find out by reading on to the next chapter. This makes Great Expectations a successful opening chapter.
This draws on to a second point, Pip’s fear. I have been made to understand how scared Pip is, when it is described how he is ‘not safe even in his own bed’. I can imagine how that must have frightened him because ‘that is my safest place, where I feel nobody or nothing can harm me’. So this draws you further into the novel.
Another feature of the first chapter, which encourages you to read on is the style of writing. He describes events in an easy way to follow and helps build pictures in your mind of places by being very descriptive about how somewhere looked and felt. ‘and that the dark flat wilderness beyond the churchyard, inserted with dykes and mounds and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it, was the marshes; and that the low leaden line beyond was the river; and that the distant savage lair from which the wind was rushing, was the sea’. This draws you to the book and keeps your attention because it makes you want to discover other places and events.
My final point is, by the end of the opening chapter all sorts of questions have been raised, with no answers given.
What happened to Pips Parents and Brothers? Who is this strange man? Would Pip return the next morning? If so would the stranger hurt him? Would Pip get found out about stealing the food?
I will only find the answers by reading on. Therefore I think this chapter is very successful as an opening.
