Discuss the way that Pips treatment by adults during his childhood affects his adult life

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Discuss the way that Pips treatment by adults during his childhood affects his adult life

“Great Expectations” is set in early Victorian England and was written by Charles Dickens in 1860. It is written as a first-person narrative with Pip as an older man telling his life’s story. I will be looking at how his extremely strict upbringing affected how he behaved in later life. The title “Great Expectations” shows an indication of the change in Pips fortunes throughout the story; from a poor family living in the country with a trade of being a blacksmith, to living a luxurious life as a Gentleman in London. The period of the novel was a time of change as England was expanding worldwide and becoming a wealthy world power. The economy was changing from mainly agricultural to industrial. It was a time when there was a very wide gap between the rich and the poor as the rich enjoyed great privileges and the poor led a life near to slavery. The novel provides an insight into both country life and city life where the only advantages that the poor have in the countryside is a clean environment.

The book begins with Pip meeting a runaway convict in the graveyard where his mother, father and younger brothers are buried on the marshes. The convict threatens Pip and terrifies him in order to get help from him. At first he says, “Keep still, you little devil, or I’ll cut your throat!” and this frightens Pip as he describes him as “fearful”. Pip then pleads with the convict and says “Oh! Don’t cut my throat, sir.” “Pray don’t do it, sir.” which conveys to the reader that Pip is very afraid of him. The convict treats Pip in this violent manner because in the Victorian era prisoners were kept in rotten hulks in Nepoleonic wars and treated worse than animals. This explains why he is violent, as he is desperate and starving and frightened of being caught. Despite his horror, Pip still treats the convict with compassion and kindness.

Dickins uses language to be amusing to the reader in this chapter when Pip says;

“He gave me a most tremendous dip and roll, so that the church jumped over its own weather-cock.”

This conveys Pip’s image of when the convict turns him upside-down by describing how he sees the church turning around before his own eyes when in fact it is actually himself turning upside-down. However, at the same time the humour shows the terrifying effect the convict is having on Pip because he is attempting to frighten him and by holding him upside down will scare Pip so that he does what he is told.

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Pip arrives home after his horrifying meeting with the convict to his extremely strict guardian; Mrs Joe Gargery. Mrs Joe, Pip’s sister, has a reputation with the neighbours to have brought Pip up “by hand” which meant that she would beat him with “Tickler”, which Pip describes as a “wax-ended piece of cane, worn smooth by collision with my tickled frame”. This however, was not uncommon in these times because the Victorians attitude towards children was that they were to be seen and not heard. For example, in wealthy families children would rarely see their parents as they were ...

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