Chapter 39 is a Pivotal One, Why? How does Dickens communicate the importance of the drama of the chapter to the reader?
Chapter 39 is a Pivotal One, Why? How does Dickens communicate the importance of the drama of the chapter to the reader? In chapter 39, Pip’s benefactor is revealed. It is around this person that the mystery of Pip’s expectations is built. It is a pivotal chapter in the way the plot develops. In this chapter Pip finally accepts that the way he acted in London was wrong and that chasing Estella was very pointless. The importance and drama of this chapter can be seen from the beginning. Dickens shows this to the reader in many ways, such as the build-up of atmosphere between certain people, the drama and the mystery behind Magwitch’s behaviour and the way he acts, and Pip’s often fluttering state of emotion. The first couple of lines from the chapter read: "I was three and twenty years of age. Not another word had I heard to enlighten me on the subject of my expectations, and my twenty-third birthday was a week gone." It also makes the reader think about where Pip’s wealth is coming from. This makes the reader very curious, and also possibly provides a clue that something relating to the mystery about the wealth may soon be answered. Pip describes the absence of Herbert as leaving him "dispirited and anxious, and long
disappointed", and "the day just closed as I sat down to read had been the worst of all." Nothing has happened, but there is the feeling that everything is not as it seems, which is then made clearer by Dickens’ description of the atmosphere of London: "It was wretched weather; 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 from the East, and it drove still, as if in the East there were an eternity of cloud and wind." This is a ...
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disappointed", and "the day just closed as I sat down to read had been the worst of all." Nothing has happened, but there is the feeling that everything is not as it seems, which is then made clearer by Dickens’ description of the atmosphere of London: "It was wretched weather; 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 from the East, and it drove still, as if in the East there were an eternity of cloud and wind." This is a very bleak and sad description and it is almost as if nature herself knows of the happening that is soon to take over Pip’s entire happiness and again, is possibly a clue that a shocking announcement is soon to be made to Pip, again bringing the reader’s curiosity into play. The following two paragraphs are full of surprise and images, metaphors and similes - "the wind rushing up the river shook the house that night, like discharges of cannon, or breakings of a sea"; "I might have fancied myself in a storm-beaten lighthouse" - as well as very long and specific meaningful sentences. Dickens’ dramatic images and his attention to detail keep's the drama flowing and the atmosphere dead, but the mood of the chapter is now also more deep and violent. However, it is then, quite suddenly, that amongst all of the noise and darkness that Pip says: "I heard a footstep on the stair". This statement lets the reader know that Pip is not alone therefore making the reader more intrigued, intrigued to know who it is that is there with Pip. Dickens’s now has the readers’ attention therefore still creating drama. The drama is created because as the reader we immediately want to find out who is on the stairs. The books says, ‘tenderness’ of a man "looking up at me with an incomprehensible air of being touched and pleased by the sight of me" is a contrast to the past mood and atmosphere, and has a calming effect upon the novel’s mood, in the way that the person on the steps is not likely to ham Pip. With the ‘storm’ now gone, the plot begins to take shape. After having reluctantly invited the stranger into his home, Pip recognizes him as the convict who he had met on the marshes as a child - a shock to both him and the reader, which increases the drama of the chapter. The convict (Magwitch) then toys with Pip, asking harmless ‘innocent’ questions and making ‘random’ guesses about Pip’s "great expectations". However, Magwitch’s ‘guesses’ become more and more correct, and as they do, Pip’s emotions become more and more frantic as "All the truth of my position came flashing on me; and its disappointments, dangers, disgraces, consequences of all kinds, rushed in such a multitude that I was borne down by them and had to struggle for every breath I drew." Magwitch is Pip’s benefactor, and Pip’s emotions begin to show, his "heart beating like a heavy hammer of disordered action" and his "suffocating", leads to Pip collapsing as "the room began to surge and turn". This discovery is important to the development of the plot and is made in a ‘torrent’ of emotion and drama, with the reader just as shocked as Pip. Pip’s reaction to Magwitch is not one of thanks, but one of disgust and unbearable disappointment - in his circumstances and in himself. Pip is disgusted by Magwitch’s appearance and thinks that Magwitch has disrupted his life. He is also ‘crushed’ by the fact that "Miss Havisham’s intentions towards me, all a mere dream; Estella not designed for me." The main reason Pip wanted to become a ‘gentleman’ was so he could ‘ascend’ to Estella’s and Mrs. Havisham’s social status, and therefore finally marry Estella, and when his wishes are suddenly granted as a boy, both Pip and the reader become convinced that Mrs. Havisham is his benefactor, because everything points in this direction. But now, Pip has learned that the belief on which he has based his whole life’s happiness is indeed not true, and this pain is secondary to nothing, except his shame when he finally admits his escape of, and "worthless conduct" to, Joe and Biddy. Pip has finally made the important but painful understanding that he has been, until now, misguided by his own assumptions and fantasies of Estella, and has shamefully abandoned the "simplicity and fidelity" and uncondentional love of those who were always there for him. It is no longer Pip the narrator, telling his story. It is the young London Pip who makes the shameful acceptance that "I could never, never, never, undo what I had done", and the reader is now aware of the two voices starting to come together into one, forming the voice of a now more conscious, regretful and likable Pip. The chapter ends with Pip imagining that there had been signs, warning him that Magwitch is coming, but had gone unnoticed by him. Before falling asleep, he locks Magwitch in Herbert’s room, fearing for his own safety and when he wakes up the next day he is in "thick black darkness". The chapter’s ending is a cliffhanger, where Dickens’ creates intense drama leaving the reader in suspense, not knowing what to expect next. Chapter 39 is a pivotal one - highly-charged with drama and emotion. After being forced to face the dark and humble reality of his "great expectations" and his behaviour, Pip is never the same. From this point onwards, Pip finds freedom in trying to help Magwitch escape and also, begins to grow quite fond of him. The separate voices of the narrator and the leading character in the novel soon become almost unnoticeable and Pip eventually realises that truly "great expectations" involve not wealth, London or even Estella, but living simply, honestly and sincerely.