Another technique Dickens uses in ‘Great Expectations’ to engage the reader in this book is the strong characterisation of each character. E.g. in the start of chapter two, “My sister, Mrs Joe Gargery (…) have a hard and heavy hand, and to be much in the habit of laying it upon her husband as well as upon me (…) She was tall and bony, and always wore a coarse apron” The amount of detail written just to describe one character in the novel gives the reader a good image of what Mrs Joe Gargery would have looked like. Words like ‘hard and heavy hand’ suggest that she is a tough woman who has all of the power in the house. The fact that she beats her husband and Pip further emphasizes the point that she has lots of power. Also with Dickens telling us that she is tall and bony and always wore an apron we get a stronger image of Mrs Joe Gargery.
A further technique that Dickens uses to engage the reader in this story is the structure of how he ends each paragraph. For example at the end of chapter two, “got a file from among Joe’s tools. Then I put the fastenings as I had found them, opened the door at which I had entered when I ran home last night, shut it, and ran for the misty marshes. This is a cliff-hanger because we don’t want Pip to get caught stealing as he takes the things to the convict. Another example of a cliff-hanger is at the end of chapter four the chapter is ended as follows. “I ran head foremost into a party of soldiers with their muskets: one of whom held a pair of handcuffs to me, saying, ‘Here you are, look sharp, come on!” This leaves the reader thinking what will happen next to Pip. We are eager to find out if Pip will be caught after stealing the pie, beer, bread and file to give to the convict. It is important that Dickens used cliff-hangers to engage the reader because ‘Great Expectations’ was serialised and if he wanted the readers to buy it to read the next two chapters, they must be interested in the book.
Another technique that Dickens used to make ‘Great Expectations’ successful is the use of universal themes, i.e. crime and violence. For example in chapter five, “oaths were being sworn, blows were being struck (…) both were bleeding and panting, and execrating and struggling”. The above quote shows that Dickens used universal themes to add excitement to the story and persuade his readers to continue reading the novel.
Humour was another technique used by Dickens in ‘Great Expectations’ to engage the reader in the story. E.g. “Tickler was a wax-ended piece of cane, worn smooth by collision with my tickled frame”. This suggests that Pip was beaten so much with the cane that it smoothened. Victorians would have found this funny but if it was written in a story at the present time the readers would think that it was harsh and child abuse. This quote also has a rhyme to it which makes it more memorable.
Dickens included dialogue of all characters to engage the reader in ‘Great Expectations’. In chapter 7, Mrs Joe says, “if this boy ain’t grateful this night, he never will be!”. Dialogue makes the novel more interesting because it adds variety to it. Dickens included both 1st person and 3rd person throughout the story. If you try to read a book written all in the 3rd person, it would be tedious. Having dialogue also teaches us more about the characters and the way they speak. From the quote we can see that Mrs Joe is speaking informally because she says “aint” which is colloquial speech for “is not”. We learn more about the characters personality when dialogue is included and it also makes the novel more interesting so the reader is likely to continue reading.
