Dickens has chosen to set the opening chapter in a graveyard because it gives us an insight into Pip’s background. Without this background information, we would not feel as sorry for Pip, as we wouldn’t know that both his parents were dead we know they are dead because Pip says “as I never saw my mother or father” from this quote alone we can see that Pips life hasn’t been a very happy one.
Great Expectations can be used to assume that Dickens’s life wasn’t a very happy one either. Charles Dickens was sent to debtor’s prison with his father when he was a young boy. Whenever he describes it, he described it as horrible and disgusting. Its almost like Dickens is using his own experience in jail to help the book seem depressing. We can tell this because he says; “growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry…was Pip” this shows us what kind of life that Dickens had.
Dickens has established the character Pip Very well by repeating his name over again, he has done this to make it seem very childlike, as this book was written as a child’s perspective, “Pip so I called myself Pip” This point has come across well ass it makes us realise that Pip is a little boy, as not many adults would constantly repeat their name.
In the opening chapter, we feel sorry for Pip as we find out that his parents are no longer alive. We know this because Pip says, “unreasonably derived for their tombstones” We feel sorry for him as now we realise that he has no parents and that he is alone in the world.
It is very possible for the reader to feel both revulsion and sympathy towards Magwitch, because he has clearly been through a great deal, yet he still attacked Pip. We can tell he has been through a lot because it says “Stung by nettles and torn by briars.” We feel sorry for him because he has escaped from prison, and has been through a lot on his escape. We could hate him though because he threatened to kill Pip.
Magwitch is described physically as quite a weak and feeble man we think this because he is described as a man “who limped and shivered” this makes him seem very weak and powerless against everything, this view changes as the chapter develops. When we first meet Magwitch he comes across as a threatening character, when in fact he is a weak man, who has been through a great deal and is unable to recover from it in his later life
The writer use of language shows that the novel was meant to be read aloud because not many people could read when the novel was released in the magazines, so when it was read it was read aloud. Also you can tell it was read aloud because you would remember a name if it was repeated, “pip so I called myself pip”. It is very repetitive.
Pip is portrayed as Dickens as a young boy; it shows how he was discriminated against as a young boy because of his encounters in debtor’s prison. This novel is based on the recurring thought that this prison was the worst possible place for a young boy to live.
Dickens has established character, setting and atmosphere very well. It prepares the reader well for the rest of the story, because you expect the novel to end happily like some kind of fairy tale, when infact it ends in great sadness as Magwitch turns out to be Pips benefactor, Estella says that she refuses to be loved by anybody, and Pip ends as a gentleman, but without much happiness.
Olivia Harriman Prose study coursework Great expectations
