Is chapter one of Great Expectations an effective beginning to the novel?

Dickens manages to create a great amount of sympathy for the central character of this chapter. We know from the setting how vulnerable Pip is feeling and we gain sympathy for his childhood character and characteristics. Pip is an orphan who has no images of his mother or father as their days "were long before the days of photographs". We commiserate with Pip, as he has to come to childish conclusions about the appearances of his mother and father. According to Pip, his father was a "square, stout, dark man" who had "curly hair". Pip has to come to this interpretation by looking only at his father's "tombstone". He has no other way of knowing what his parents look like and even what their names are. The inscription on the gravestone reads "Also Georgiana, wife of the above" and Pip believes from this that his mother's name is actually "Also Georgiana". We find this out later on when Pip is asked by the convict his mothers name and Pip replies "Also Georgiana. That is my mothers name". We gain sympathy for Pip through this, as we are able to establish that his older "sister", who he lives with, never mentions or talks about their own mother as Pip does not even know her name and he has to guess she was "freckled and sickly." The very beginning makes us sympathise with Pip and we already begin to understand how pathetic his childhood would have been. The concept that he "could make of both names...Philip Pirrip...nothing longer or more explicit than Pip" begins to unravel the sorrow this young boy has encountered in his childhood. We also sympathise with Pip's insecurity in the "graveyard" as he is "a small bundle of shivers....growing afraid" of everything as he begins to "cry". We are not surprised by Pip's vulnerability as later on in the novel it is established that Pip is only around seven years and he feels very isolated not only in this situation but in his life. Dickens has succeeded in gaining the readers sympathy for Pip in this first chapter by showing the imagination and desolation of this young child.

Dickens uses many concepts of language to help make this chapter an effective beginning to the novel. Pip's description of the convict when he first appears sounds a great deal longer than it actually is. Dickens repeats the word "and" when describing the convicts wounds and the convict to express the appearance of this criminal. Pip describes the convict as a man "who limped, and shivered, and glared, and growled". This list of the appearance of the convict is made to sound considerably longer by adding the word "and" before each verb. Not only does Dickens use "and" in his description of the convict but the iambic, poetic rhythm makes the list sound of a great length. The words used to describe the convict such as "limped...shivered...glared...growled" are all stressed to sound more convincing as well as making the convict sound like an animal. Pip is afraid of this "fearful man" because of his animal like features and wounds. The description of the convict is not easily forgotten and our imagination of him becomes almost reality.

The convict, Magwitch, uses language we would not expect of such a lower class criminal. Although Magwitch does not pronounce these "peccooliar" words correctly it is unusual for a man of his criteria to use them in his language. The juxtaposition within Magwitch's words shows he has obviously learnt to speak in this way from someone else in an educated society. He uses "partickler" and peccooliar" in his speech and we can make the assumption Magwitch has learnt this language in court. Magwitch has been in court so many times he has attempted the legal terminology a judge would speak. To add to this he tries to impersonate a judge and speaks to Pip as though he is being tried in court. One example of this is when the convict says "a boy may lock his door...may tuck himself up...may think himself comfortable...". This is very patronising talk as if a judge were talking to a criminal similar to what Magwitch has suffered on many occasions in court in the past.

The narrative style, which Dickens uses in chapter one contributes to making this an impressive beginning to the novel. An educated adult is telling this story in chapter one of a young boy who happens to be this man as a child. We know this is an educated man as he uses language such as "my infant tongue" and "unreasonably derived" to help us reach this conclusion. The older Pip has certainly not forgotten his childhood and at points in the chapter Pip seems to return to his childhood and we hear the story through a child's eyes. Dickens shows these childish thoughts when Pip believes "the church came to itself" and "jumped over its own weathercock." These are only sayings that would come from the mouth of young child whose imagination is at its peak. We are also given the impression that split narration is being used by the repeated use of the word "and." This childish repetition of language is describing a man "smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles..." until he could be no more vividly described. This split narration provides humour to the chapter, as the older Pip seems to be laughing at his younger self and his ridiculous imagination. This more intelligent Pip invites us to ridicule the younger Pip and as we lampoon him we realise how gullible Pip used to be. Pip believes the convict when he says his "heart....shall be tore out roasted and ate" by a "young man" the convict has "hid" with him if he does not obey his wishes. The convict has no man with him but Pip believes every word the convict has to say and we laugh at his naivety.

Although chapter one of Great Expectations is not consecutively the beginning of the novel, it is certainly a very important part of the story as a whole. Magwitch disappears from the story in Chapter five and does not re-appear until chapter thirty-nine, but we do not forget about him. As the story goes on and Miss Havisham tricks Pip into falling in love with Estella we begin to question the connection Magwitch has with the rest of the story. After his re-appearance in chapter thirty-nine it all becomes clear of the essential role Magwitch plays in the story and chapter one becomes an all too important fragment of the novel. Leaving us questioning Magwitchs relevance in the novel makes it an effective beginning as it gets the reader involved in the novel. We continue to question the convict's appearance on the moors until chapter thirty-nine when he returns to Britain and reveals he is the source of Pip's fortune, not Miss Havisham as Pip first thought.