Dickens Background –
Dickens was born in Portsmouth, and his father was a naval clerk. Dickens had a rough upbringing, which tormented him and gave him bitterness towards life.
At the age of 12 his father was arrested for being in debt and sentenced to imprisonment. This influenced him into writing novels, because he didn’t want the same life as his father.
Dickens learns about the poor side of London, by visiting it and meeting poor children, this inspired him to write articles about the labour laws and conditions of poor children
Later on in life, Dickens wrote many novels expressing his feelings, about the publics ignorance about the corruption within society, especially unnecessary suffering and greed. He was extremely successful and wrote many novels.
Great expectations was Charles Dickens's self-portrait, it expresses himself and shows how he has been mistreated in his own life. The character ‘Pip’ reflects in some ways based on Dickens.
Dickens has made several endings to his novel. This shows that he is writing his book only to please the audience.
The only difference is that Pip at the end of the novel, becomes self fulfilled, realising that there is more to life than being a gentleman, and finally becoming happy and looses his “Great Expectations.”
Background on PIP
Pip grew up in two places, the forge and satis house. In the forge Pip is reared by his sister and her gentle husband Joe Gargery, the village blacksmith. His sister beats him daily, trying to teach him morals, but mostly because she despises him. Pips mother and father are dead and so his sister is forced to look after him. Pip is a common poor boy who spends his days helping Joe.
One day while visiting the graveyard, where his mother and father are buried, Pip meets an escaped convict who demands food and a file, to break his chains. Fearing for his life, Pip complies. Little does he know that this terrifying act of kindness will affect the entire course of his life. From an early age pip wants to be able to read and write.
After this Pip is called upon by Miss Havisham, who has been deserted by her future husband on their wedding day. Miss Havisham feels destroyed by this and is planning to have her revenge on the male sex. She has adopted a daughter, who she is rearing to wreak her revenge, unfortunately Pip is the prime target.
After meeting and being demeaned, because of his clothes and wealth, by Miss Havisham and Estella, he begins to envy the rich and longs to become a gentle man. Then Pip falls in love with Estella, but at the same time Miss Havisham is psychologically torturing him. He becomes ashamed of his house and upbringing. Pip expected Satis House to be great and help him on his quest to become a gentleman, but unfortunately this wasn’t the case, his poor home upbringing did him more good, which later Pip realises.
Background on Estella
Estella was adopted from a very young age, because her mother was too poor to look after her, she was adopted by Miss Havisham.
Estella has been brought up to wreak havoc and revenge on the male sex, because Miss Havisham, who is teaching her to manipulate boys to fight over her, which happens twice to pip.
She has been taught to look down on the poor, which causes pip to envy the rich. The reason Miss Havisham wants to wreak havoc on males is because she has a fixation on her wedding day when her husband left her.
Contrast Pip with Estella
Pip's childhood was typical for an orphan because he was beaten by his sister and then apprenticed to a useful trade, which was working with Joe and helping him run his small business as a blacksmith.
Estella did not have a normal childhood because she was raised by a half-mad woman in a crumbling mansion and taught to ruin men! She is taught to ruin men by turning them against each other, making them fight over her and making them love her, while this would be happening she would demean them and make them feel worthless.
How Dickens used language purposefully
Dickens used language to distinguish between classes, by this I mean the upper and lower class members of society. He accomplished this in several ways, very successfully.
Her used names to such as Joe and Miss’s Joe, as Joe was a common name, a rich family would never dream of naming their child Joe, would notice this and know that he was a common labourer. Miss Havisham and Estella are unusual and fancy names of the time, and would be associated with the rich. This was Dickens’s aim, the audience would associate themselves with either class, the storyline would therefore have a deeper impact on the audience.
Dickens also used language to reflect characters, for instance Miss Havisham, speaks in a posh tone, with proper English, not using slang “And you reared the boy with the intention of taking him for apprentice, is that so Mr.Gargery?”, when saying this Miss Havisham used prefect dialect, and a good vocabulary of words. Compared Joe “You know, pip, as you and me were friends, and it were look’d for’ard to betwixt us, as being calc’lated to lead larks.”
And Miss’s Joe “Youll’e go tomorrow”. There is a very clear and noticeable difference, between their language. That audience would see this and would help for the poor and rich to link themselves with the characters.
Conclusion
I think that Charles Dickens’s, ‘Great Expectations’, was a self-portrait himself, some of the events which had happened in his life, and in general everything wrong with society through his perspective of it. Dickens had visited the homeless on many occasions and I believe that his passion to help the poor was the inspiration for his writing.
Everything happening in the book, uses Pip and Estella, because he was trying to demonstrate, childhood in Victorian England. He uses Pips schooling, to demonstrate the failure of the educational system. He uses Pip and Estella’s relationship to show how girls were being brought up. He uses the criminal justice system to show that a prisoner has escaped from prison, who is serving life for a crime which was insignificant and he didn’t commit. To conclude I think that ‘Great Expectations’ was a very entertaining book, which was enjoyable to read and write about, but also at the same time had a meaning to the audience at the time, and also helps us to understand how society worked in Victorian times and mainly what was wrong with it!