Explore the use of symbolism, pathetic fallacy and metaphors in Great Expectations.

The repetition of 'dead' and 'buried' also creates a grim, dark and deathly mood. Dickens describes Pip as a 'small bundle of shivers' and emphasises the whole setting as appearing 'threatening' to Pip by stressing the imagery of the aggressive sea. The comparison of the wind 'rushing' to a predator and the personification of the red sky being 'angry' again suggests violence and death, again proposing an ominous atmosphere.

Dickens also uses symbolism, pathetic fallacy and imagery to comment on the rigid class structure and social injustices of Victorian England; specifically, the desire for social advancement and the moral decay of the upper class. He is highly critical of the class ideology of his time and effectively conveys it through imagery to address the injustices built into the class system.

Through his novel, Dickens establishes that changes for social mobility exist, through Pip’s social advancement. After visiting Miss Havisham, Pip feels shame towards his life at the forge and forms an idealised view of the wealthy upper class. He contemplates ‘the very stars to which I then raised my eyes; I am afraid I took to be but poor and humble stars for glittering on the rustic objects among which I had passed my life’. The stars that he sees from the marshes are metaphorical for his desire to rise in social status. They are symbols of his aspirations and also the desire of social advancement. Thus, when Pip receives a large fortune from a secret benefactor, he takes advantage of his rise in wealth and capital, and more importantly what it offers him regarding power and prestige.

His feelings of discontent and social entrapment are moreover reflected in the novel, through the weather. The weather foreshadowing Magwitch’s return is described as ‘stormy and wet, stormy and wet; and mud, mud, mud, deep in all the streets. Day after day, a vast heavy veil had been driving over London’.

Dickens also employs pathetic fallacy to reflect Pip’s psychological state in different stages of his journey. In the ending of the novel, Pip is stripped of his wealth and high social status and returns home after his modest employment as a clerk overseas. ‘The evening mists were rising now[…]the broad expanse of tranquil light’. Again, Pip’s mood is conveyed through his environment. The clearing weather of home suggests he is now content and comfortable with his working class roots.

Dickens romanticises the country and the working class ideals, associating it with morality and happiness. He often juxtaposes the images of the countryside with the city and the upper class to emphasise that it is the seat of corruption and despair.