On the morning of Pip’s visit to see Miss Havisham, Pip is already feeling anxious. Dickens makes the reader sympathise with Pip because as Pip is eating breakfast, he is already incredibly worried about the visit to Satis House. Pumblechook makes Pip’s situation worse by attacking him with sharp mental arithmetic questions he is unable to answer. The reader sympathises with Pip as they see his situation being made less and less pleasant “For such reasons, I was very glad when ten o’clock came and we started for Miss Havisham’s; though I was not at all at my ease” When he gets to Satis House it is described as an unpleasant, run-down house with a creepy sounding atmosphere “old brick and dismal and had a great many iron bars to it.” Dickens gives Satis House an almost nightmarish image to make readers feel sympathetic towards Pip, who is only a small boy being made to venture into it on his own with no idea what is going to happen to him.
Readers sympathise with Pip because he gets a very unfriendly welcome to Satis House. Estelle, a young girl around Pip’s age meets him at the gate and dismisses his guardian Pumblechook as if she is a fully grown queen leaving Pip completely alone. Estelle patronises Pip making him feel small and stupid by referring to him as boy even through they are both roughly the same age “One of its names, boy.” The readers see everything through Pip’s eyes. Dickens uses this to make them sympathise with the character as they can only see the harsh bullying through his eyes. It is blatant the Pip is intimidated by the strange surroundings and proud Estella as he calls her Miss and talks very quietly “It looks like it, miss” Pips body language of a timid, scared boy makes the reader sympathise towards him. Even before Pip has entered Satis House itself, Pip refers to Estella as being “beautiful and self-possessed” This makes the reader pity him for developing feelings for such a cruel, proud girl. Estella leads Pip to the room in which he is to visit Miss Havisham through dark passages which continues the nightmarish image of Satis House. The readers emphasise with Pip, seeing the scene through his eyes. Estella walks away with the only light source, a candle, leaving Pip to knock on the door by himself in the dark “This was very uncomfortable, and I was half afraid”. This develops a feeling of dread of what is to come. Dickens leaves the readers in as much suspense as Pip as they only are only told what Pip knows, causing them to empathise with his situation.
As Pip enters the room it is almost as if he enters a place where nothing is complete and time has stopped. To Pip, Miss Havisham seems like “the strangest lady I have ever seen, or shall ever see” Dickens uses lots of negative imagery like “ghastly waxwork” and “withered” to describe Miss Havisham, making it obvious Pip had been thrust into a frightful place where he had no control. Pip is scared of Miss Havisham “Now waxwork and skeleton seemed to have dark eyes that moved and looked at me. I should have cried out, if I could. The obvious fear Pip feels as he narrates the story and the description of both the room and Miss Havisham allow the reader to see how unlucky Pip is and makes the sympathise with him. Miss Havisham is very impatient with Pip “with an impatient movement of the fingers of her right hand “play, play, play!” and accuses Pip of being “sullen and obstinate” when he doesn’t do as she commands. The reader has previously seen Pip’s strict guardian and understands the severe punishments that will come if he fails to impress Miss Havisham. Pip is under a lot of pressure and the readers are made aware that he is scared of disappointing his sister “with the fear of my sister’s working me before my eyes” The readers sympathise with Pip as they see through his eyes the pressure he is under in such terrifying circumstances.
When Pip is unable to play, Estella is summoned to the room which only makes the situation worse. Pip is brought into the harsh reality of the world of social classes by Estella protesting bluntly about playing cards with him “With this boy! Why, he is a common labouring-boy!” The readers see this scene of humiliation through Pip’s own eyes and pity him as Estella squashes all his self-esteem “And what coarse hands he has. And what thick boots!” As Pip begins to understand what the world is really like, he begins to feel like nothing he does is good enough “He calls the knaves, Jacks, this boy!” Dickens uses the constant victimisation of Pip to make the reader sympathise with him as Miss Havisham watches the situation, encouraging Estella to play with his feeling in revenge for being jilted at the altar “Well? You can break his heart.” The reader can see the Pip is clearly besotted with Estella even through she treats him cruelly and calls him a “stupid, clumsy labouring boy”
Miss Havisham plays with his feelings more by making him admit what he thinks of Estella “I think she is very pretty” As the readers see this situation through Pip’s eyes they cringe at his humiliation and constant bullying, empathising with his situation.
Pip is left alone in a court-yard waiting for Estella to return with his dinner. This is the moment when Pip finally releases the emotions his meeting with Estella and Miss Havisham has created. Pip is the narrator so readers will be conscious of how ashamed and hurt the visit has made him feel “I looked about me for a place to hide my face in” Readers will be able to identify with Pip’s pain as most will have felt feeling of humiliation themselves in the past so will understand what he is going through and sympathise with him. The readers pity him as lets go of his feelings in private “as I cried, I kicked the wall, and took a hard twist at my hair”
In Chapter 8, Pip sees a terrifying hallucination of Miss Havisham hanging by her neck from a building in the garden. The fact that Dickens includes this in the story is so that the reader can see how much this visit to Satis House has affected Pip. Readers sympathise with Pip because he is only a young boy and at the beginning of the chapter he was naïve to the harsh reality of the real world “My sister’s bringing up had made me sensitive” and the shock of his first visit to Miss Havisham had left him feeling scared and humiliated. Pip is obviously very shook-up and not thinking clearly and the horror of the hallucination only makes him feel more scared. Readers emphasise with him as they are made to remember how young and vulnerable Pip is by his childlike waking nightmare.
Pip is fed by Estella like a dog “gave me the bread and meat without looking at me, as insolently as if I were a dog in disgrace” This lowers his self-confidence even more than it already was. The readers are made to feel indignant and angry at how Pip is being victimised merely because he is a common labouring boy. They see the situation all through his eyes so sympathise with him. Pip is humiliated further as Estella takes joy in the fact she can tell he has been crying “You have been crying till you are half blind, and you are near to crying again” Estella then cruelly laughs and pushes him out of the gate. Readers pity him because he is infatuated with Estella and is left alone to think about the cruel remarks made about him with no-one to comfort him.
Dickens uses Pip as the narrator of ‘Great Expectations’ so the readers see things through his eyes causing them to sympathise with his saddening situation. Pip is only a young boy and he has already gone through a lot of grief in his life being an orphan being raised by hand by his strict sister. The pressure to impress Miss Havisham, cruel remarks and humiliation make the reader sympathise even more with Pip’s visit to such a scary house.
