In chapter 1 we see Pip’s family has mostly died. In the Victorian family life, the father would be head of the household. “Spare the rod and spoil the child”. This saying shows that Victorians firmly believed in strict punishment for children. Homeless families would end up in a workhouse, where they would be split up. We also see the harsh conditions faced by prisoners. Between 1787 and 1857, 162,000 British convicts were transported to Australia. The ships, which they were transported on, were called ‘Hulks’ – disused warships. The long voyage to Australia could take six months. Most “criminals” were only poor, desperate people. In 1834, just 3 years before Victoria became Queen, an Act of Parliament was passed called the Poor Law Amenadate Act. The act set up the idea of workhouses. People who could not support themselves were classed as “paupers”. One example of a punishment, which was handed out at the workhouse, was whipping. Whipping was a very common form of punishment. It was done publicly as a lesson to other inmates. All these themes develop throughout the novel.
After the first chapter we see a number of changes in Pip’s life. Dissatisfaction with his earlier life is started once Pip has visited Miss Havisham’s and met Estella. Estella looks down on Pip. “What coarse hands he has! And what thick boots!” Pip feels embarrassed because Estella is finding fault with him- Pip is ashamed. For the first time in Pip’s life, he has realised that some people live in another way. “A beautiful young lady...said I was common...I wish I was not common”. He thinks he is wrong and wants to change to become a gentleman. Later he learns that he is to inherit a fortune. “My dream was out; my wild fancy was surpassed by sober reality; Miss Havisham was going to make my fortune on a grand scale”. He has to bear the name of Pip and not ask who has given him the money. Looking back, he realises he was heartless: “O dear, good Joe, whom I was ready to leave...I was lost in mazes of my fortune would be.” Later on in the novel Joe travels to London to visit Pip. During Joe’s visit he feels he has to act differently and talk differently to Pip. “Pip, how AIR you, Pip?” he feels he is too common compared to Pip. As soon as Herbert enters the room Pip instantly feels ashamed about Joe. “A ghost-seeing effect in Joe’s own countenance informed me that Herbert had entered the room. So I presented Joe to Herbert, who held out his hand; but Joe backed from it, and held on by the bird’s-nest.”
Chapter 1 established the convict as frightening but with a human side, and this is shown again in chapter 39. Magwitch returns to see Pip in chapter 39. Again Magwitch takes Pip by surprise and frightens him. Eventually Pip recognises him. “If the wind and the rain had driven away the intervening years...I could not have known my convict more distinctly than I knew him now...”. He tells Pip that he has made him a gentleman. “I’m your second father. You’re my son ... I’ve put money away, only for you to spend.” As in chapter 1, the convict is still fleeing from the law. Again Pip will have to help him. “I was sent for life. It’s death to come back.” As in the first chapter there is another person following Magwitch. “The person stopped when he stopped to make inquiry of me and the person took this way when he took this way.” Even though they gave Magwitch new clothes he was still more like a convict. “The influences of his solitary hut-life were upon him besides, and gave him a savage air that no dress could tame.” The word “savage” is often used in chapter 1. Magwitch tells the story of himself and Compeyson. “I noticed first of all what a gentle Compeyson looked...and what a sort of wretch I looked.”
Dickens is careful to establish the sense of danger though landscape in chapter 1 and he does this again towards the end of the book at the beginning of chapter 53. “Beyond their dark line there was a ribbon of clear sky” also in chapter 1 we got an impression of horizontal lines and wide-open spaces. Now again we are told of the flat view and repetition of “dark” gives a miserable feeling. “There was a melancholy wind” the moon makes it seem quite threatening and the weather is generally frightening. “Against my inclination, I went on against it” so although Pip feels that he wants to leave, he thinks he must go on to the Sluice house, as the note had told him to. “A stranger would have found them unsupportable”. Pip is used to the marshes but he understands that anyone else would want to run away.
In chapter 1 the reader saw that the language used by Pip and the convict was old-fashioned and in dialect. At the beginning of the first chapter when Magwitch and Pip first meet, Magwitch is in charge of the situation. “Darn me if I couldn’t eat ‘em ... and if I han’t half a mind to’t!” Although their relationship has changed by the end of the book, some aspects of the language are the same e.g.- Magwitch still talks in an uneducated way: “I knowed you couldn’t be that.” At the end of chapter 56 Pip is in charge of his situation because he is helping Magwitch get out of the country without getting caught by the law, otherwise he would be given the death sentence. “Dear Magwitch, I must tell you, now at last. You understand what I say?” Magwitch still talks in dialect and old-fashioned. “Thank’ee, dear boy, thank’ee. God bless you! You’ve never deserted me, dear boy.” The way Pip talks has changed. “Are you in much pain to-day?” Pip talks in a higher class and like a gentleman.
Chapter 1 was important because it established setting, character and language for the rest of the book. It also began the story and set it in the harsh world of Victorian England. The message of the book is that gentlemen are not created by education or birth but by how they treat other people. For example, Bentley Drummle is born a gentleman but treats his wife cruelly whereas Joe is a workingman but is kind and thoughtful to others.
