Write a comparison of chapters one and eight of dickens great expectations , focus particularly on dickens descriptions of character and settings indication how this text fits in with its social and historical context.

Write a comparison of chapters one and eight of dickens great expectations , focus particularly on dickens descriptions of character and settings indication how this text fits in with its social and historical context

Research can be used to help to write a comparison of characters and settings in chapters one and eight, the research that can be collected would be historical and social context that involve the book. It would be good to start by talking about Pip and the difference we see in him in chapters one and eight. The reader can imagine from his name “Pip” that he is quite a short person because Pip is sometimes the abbreviation for pipsqueak, this may not necessarily be true but I think this is the impression dickens aimed to achieve. We can see from the first chapter that Pip does not get much information from his sister; this is due to the fact that kids were treated unfairly during this period. Its quite sad that the only information pip can get about his family is from there tombstones, although it is sad for him that he has lost 5 brothers and his mother and father it was very common for children to die during childbirth or shortly afterwards. There is evidence in the book and through my research that children were not respected, we can see this because when we come across the convict, Pip is just tossed upside down as if he is a object rather than a human being, Pip is very polite as were most children of this era, he is even polite in the face of danger for example when Magwitch was threatening him, he still acted polite and called him “Sir”. Children treated adults with a lot more respect than children of our generation do. Pip is a rather gullible and believes that the convict has a man in hiding that once to rip out his heart and lungs, I think dickens is trying to create the affect of pip being rather naïve because for a 12 year old to fully believe in this story is quite naïve. In chapter eight the reader would be aware that Pip is rather critical of Mr Pumblechook for being posh and well spoken, I think that this is Dickens speaking through pip to convey his feelings about the way children were treated and the mannerism’s of the upper class because he was bought up in this period of time. The reader might get the effect that Pip does not realize he is lower status until he goes and visits Miss Harvisham, as Estella then constantly disregards him because he is of a lower status, this upsets him deeply and he finds himself blaming Mr Joe for his poor up bringing. “To look at my coarse hands and my common boots” these words trouble pip deeply; the reader would notice this because he mentions it a lot after Estella has said to him, it’s as if he has only just noticed it himself, he doesn’t like what he now sees and wishes he had been bought up in a higher class family.

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You see a lot of irony in this book regarding status especially regarding Mr and Mrs Joe. Mrs Joe has taken Joe’s name as her own, this would normally portray that Mr Joe is higher status and in control but we learn throughout chapter one that this is not the case. Mrs Joe treats Joe as a child, and a lower status person. She does not have much respect for him like wise with Pip. Mr Joe is a very shy character, but the reader will notice throughout chapter one that it is him that pip looks up to and respects rather than the higher status Mrs Joe. During the Dickensian period men were usually treated with more respect as they were the people that earned the money, and the women relied on the male and would be nothing with out him however we can see in this household that is not necessarily the case as Mrs Joe is treated better than Joe.

You could say the Magwitch and Miss Harvisham were complete opposites, we see in chapter one how Magwitch is nasty towards pip , but we can see that in reality he does not want to hurt him this is why he has created the imaginary character. Where as Miss Harvisham acts nice and friendly towards pip but she really wants to break his heart, or rather she wants Estella to “break his heart”. The reader will notice that the convict has a different dialect to most of the people throughout this book, this would suggest him being poorer status, as it was more common to use the “Queens English” in that period, and if you did not then it was a sign of poorness. Miss Harvisham is a very rich old lady, this is obvious because she has enough money to sit and mourn the fact that she was jilted.

The settings in chapters One and Eight could not be more different, in chapter One we are set in a graveyard with Pip and his family, I think this gives the affect of it being rather eerie, you also get a general idea of how sad pips life is, in chapter eight we are inside Miss Harvisham house. This is also quite eerie as pip gets plunged into darkness when Estella leaves him but I think there is a better feel to the setting of chapter eight this could be because we are now situated in a house where as before it was in the middle of a graveyard.

Dickens use of language and the technique of his writing in chapters one and eight is very effective, he uses a long and complex sentences, this is good because we know pip is talking in third person and when dickens write likes this, it gives the effect that pip is actually talking its not just being narrated. Dickens is well known for his use of repetition whilst writing his books; we can see many evidence of this. This is good because it creates a strong impact on the reader, and example of his use of repetition in his book, could be when he is describing the convict he says “ a man who has been soaked in water and smothers in mud and lamed by stones and cut by flints…” and it goes on this would make the reader feel as if the list will go on for a long time. Dickens is quite clever in the way he writes, we can see in chapter eight that Estella says to pip “go pip” this would make the reader feel as if pip is being treated like a dog, pip then later refers to himself as being treated like a dog , I think that Dickens has done this so that the readers feel as if they have made a connection with the book , they will think that they have understood it a lot better , it will also keep them more interested if they feel they understand what’s going on.

We can compare the book Withering Heights to Charles Dickens, Great expectations. They use very similar methods in the way they describe the settings in the books. Both authors use the setting to give the feeling of isolation, fear and loneliness, for instance “ on the bleak hill top the earth was hard with black frost and the air made me shiver through every limb” this is a quote from withering heights and the reader would be able to notice the link between this and the setting in chapter one when pip is in the graveyard, you can also see the link between chapter one and the following quote “ A sorrowful sight I saw dark night coming down prematurely and sky and hills mingled in one bitter whirl of wing and suffocating snow”.

The characters are very strong and sometimes evil characters’, he writes his books in a way, where he does not tell you everything straight but leaves clues so you can let your imagination decide. It could be said that Great expectation is quite a gothic novel, in the sense that a lot of it is set in bleak surroundings for instance we start the book on the moors, and the setting inside the house is not that welcoming either due to the fact that Estella runs of with the candle. The settings could portray pips life, as the settings are all very bleak and pips life is quite a bleak life. Dickens writing does have a certain quality that you would recognise as his own.

Word Count – 1,139

Excluding title