How does Dickens create Humour, Compassion and Irony?

How does Dickens create Humour, Compassion and Irony? We have read the book 'Great Expectations.' We know who all the main characters are. We know that each of the characters all have their own personality. The book is told in first person. Pip tells the story from his point of view. Pip is a young boy at the start and has lost all his family. He lives with his sister and her husband Joe Gargery. He thinks that because his sister brought him up by hand that she made Joe marry he by hand also. His sister beats him and always wants to know were pip and Joe is at all times. Joe treats pip as an equal to him. Like he is his own son or brother. At the start pip knows that he had other brothers and sisters but he doesn't know what they were like. Can you imagine being totally in love with someone who is completely turned off by you? This is what happens to pip. Throughout the book Estella disregards his feelings. Pip starts out as a sympathetic character because he is poor, his parents are dead and he has to live under more Joe's strict rules. As the story moves on, the sympathy for pip decreases in every way except one. His relationship with Estella. Ever since their first acquaintance, pip has thought Estella to be the most beautiful girl alive. He changes when he gets round her. When Mrs Havisham asks pip about Estella, he answers with words like

  • Word count: 1039
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Essay: How does Dickens' use of the setting suit the characters Magwitch and Miss Havisham? Focus particularly on chapters 1, 8 and 11 in your response.

"How does Dickens' use of the setting suit the characters Magwitch and Miss Havisham? Focus particularly on chapters 1, 8 and 11 in your response." As a bildungsroman, Great Expectations presents the growth and development of a single character, Philip Pirrip, better known to himself and to the world as Pip. Pip is by far the most important character in Great Expectations; he is both the protagonist, whose actions make up the main plot of the novel, and the narrator, whose thoughts and attitudes shape the reader's perception of the story. Charles Dickens uses an advanced language that plants a clear insight of the setting, the character profiles, and the novels' historic aspects. In this novel, there are two characters that play an important role in Pips life; Miss Havisham, a rich heart-broken old women, and the convict Pip met during a visit to the graveyard, Magwitch. These characters are unusual in the novel, both motivated things that occurred in the past. They both are connected towards the settings, in the way they are presented to the audience. Magwitch is introduced in chapter one when he meets Pip in an old churchyard (in which most of Pip's family is buried, including his mother and father). From Pip's description of him, the reader gains a first impression of Magwitch as being a fearsome and formidable character. His murderous threats terrify Pip and the dark,

  • Word count: 995
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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The Great Expectations of Four Characters in Dickens' novel.

The Great Expectations of Four Characters in Dickens' novel. Great Expectations is a novel on the uselessness of great hopes in a world of conflict. It is also the story of the orphan boy, Pip, of his relatives, of Estella, of Miss Havisham, and of Magwitch. Many characters in the books have great expectations of their own which contrast with those of other characters. Pip, the protagonist of the novel wants to become rich and noble, while his adoptive father, Joe Gargery, wants him to be a blacksmith. Pip also wants the money he receives to come from a noble source, Magwitch, his source of money, is instead a convict. Finally, Pip would like to marry Estella, but Miss Havisham wants to use Estella as her weapon to take revenge upon all men. In Great Expectations, Dickens discusses the uselessness of great expectations in a world where hope is so easily destroyed by showing how the expectations of the characters come into conflict. When Pip learns from Jaggers, the lawyer, of the great expectations held for him he comes into conflict with his adoptive father, Joe Gargery. Joe is a blacksmith, and a simple man. He rejects all snobbery while Pip desires it. He wants Pip to become his apprentice. He doesn't see why Pip would want anything other than what is set for him. On the other hand, Pip is fascinated by the luxury of Miss Havisham's world, and is finally attracted

  • Word count: 558
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Social and Historical Background to 'Great Expectations'.

Social and Historical Background - When the book 'Great expectations', was written a 'real' education was unachievable. Miss Woples School, which dickens uses in his book is a prime example of parents sending their children to 'school', to a teacher who knows little more than the child, Dickens is trying to indicate how negative the educational system was, maybe because it failed him. Any crime had severe sentencing, which indicates that the legal system was still evolving. The character Magwitch, who played a role in Pips life, was sentenced to Australia, returned to England to help his savoir Pip, but is then executed for returning. In Victorian times, family life for the middle and upper class was extremely important, as the families were large and living together in big houses, life was very comfortable for them and enjoyable. Poor and working class families, such as Dickens's were forced to work in factories doing dangerous jobs. Children were being exploited, into doing harsh dangerous work, for little pay and no gratitude. Families were forced to eat scraps of food and to drink water from drains. The mother of the family was in charge of the organisation of household and social events, such as dinner parties. She was in charge of the upbringing of the children, by using any means necessary, this included whipping and canning of the child, to teach the child the

  • Word count: 1433
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Whom does Dickens present as the perfect gentleman in "Great Expectations"?

Whom does Dickens present as the perfect gentleman in "Great Expectations"? One of the most important themes in "Great Expectations" is the idea of what makes the perfect gentleman. Dickens presents this idea through the adventures of Pip and how he develops his idea of what a true gentleman is. His first image of a gentleman is purely based on what their appearance is, such as Cousin Raymond and Jaggers on Miss Havisham's birthday, and then he calls Herbert "the pale young gentleman". These presumptions are not based on personality, yet towards the end of the book, he does not respect Herbert or Magwitch due to their appearance, but because he has realised that a true gentleman has many more qualities than just a good outward appearance. However, Pip's initial impressions of a gentleman are of a person who is wealthy and affluent. When Pip first meets a gentleman, Cousin Raymond at Satis House on Miss Havisham's birthday, he describes him and three other ladies as "toadies and humbugs". Here, Dickens presents them as very unpleasant characters and makes the reader hate them from the start. This effect is created by how he first presents them as boring ("the ladies had to speak quite rigidly to repress a yawn"), and then they look down at Pip ("they all looked at me with the utmost contempt"). Here Dickens seemed to be sending out the message that not all so-called

  • Word count: 1004
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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In this essay I will talk about whether one reader can feel sympathy for Estella and Miss Havisham in the story of great expectations.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS In this essay I will talk about whether one reader can feel sympathy for Estella and Miss Havisham in the story of great expectations. I am going to first talk about Miss Havisham. Miss Havisham is an old lady who looks after Estella, but she seems so strange and this was said so by Pip when he described Miss Havisham as, "the strongest lady I have ever ever seen or shall ever see". This destined miss Havisham looked strange to Pip although she was dressed in rich materials. Pip also never wanted to tell his sister the way Miss Havisham looked like because she appeared weird in a way that is sister wouldn't believe him. I don't feel sympathy for Miss Havisham miss Havisham requested for Pip to play at her house together with Estella and this shows that she was in need of Pips assistance at her house but Miss Havisham didn't take good care of Pip although he had volunteered to play with Estella. She never showed care for example when she let Estella being rude to Pip and also for her plan to make Pips heart broken like what happened to herself when her fiancé never turned up on the wedding. She also treats Pip as someone who is stupid and this is ungrateful and disrespectful because if you ask for assistance you should respect any one who volunteers to help. I also don't feel sympathy for Miss Havisham she lives with Estella and as my point of view Miss

  • Word count: 1247
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Setting in great expectations.

Setting in great expectations One of Dickens' shorter novels and also one of his most influential is Great Expectations. It appeared initially in serial form in All The Year Round between 1860 and 1861 and is now considered to be one of his finest novels. It concerns the young boy Philip Pirrip (known as 'Pip') and his development through life after an early meeting with the escaped convict Abel Magwitch, who he treats kindly despite his fear. Pips unpleasant sister and her humorous and friendly blacksmith husband, Joe, bring him up. Crucial to his development as an individual is his introduction to Miss Havisham (one of Dickens' most brilliant portraits), a now aging woman who has given up on life after being jilted at the altar. Cruelly, Havisham has brought up her daughter Estella to revenge her own pain and so as Pip falls in love with her she is made to torture him in romance. Aspiring to be a gentleman despite his humble beginnings, Pip seems to achieve the impossible by receiving a fund of wealth from an unknown source and being sent to London with the lawyer Jaggers. He is employed but eventually loses everything and Estella marries another. Pip's pride is shattered when he learns that he loses Estella forever, the source of his "great expectation. His benefactor turns out to have been Magwitch and his future existence is based upon outgrowing the great expectations

  • Word count: 1290
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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When we are first introduced to Pip he is in a churchyard looking at his mothers and farther gravestone

Great expectations Charles Dickens 'Great expectations' was written in the 1800, and at that time there was a great divide in the social structure and this was between the lower and middle classes, because of Charles was born in the lower class of society he was forced into leaving school at the age of twelve and to go to work to help bring in food. Ni this assignment I am going to analyse three characters which are Pip a young orphan that I think that he is very lonely, Miss Havisham a middle class eccentric who appears to be lost in time and Magwitch a convict that is on the run and is very self conscious. When we are first introduced to Pip he is in a churchyard looking at his mothers and farther gravestone scripts, this first tells us they are both dead and he is trying to imagine there appearances, his farther a square, stoot, dark man, with curly black hair, the mood of the graveyard is cold gloomy and foggy, which further more depresses Pip and also ha s the effect on the reader to feel sorry for him and also I think makes the reader feel closer to Pip because every one has felt some sadness and depression. Extract one is written in Pips point of view this encourages the reader without knowing to think they understand pip and have a bond, without ever meeting him or knowing if he's real or not. When first encountering Magwitch, Pip is shocked and scared for his life

  • Word count: 1024
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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How does Charles Dickens create sympathy for his characters in 'Great Expectations?'

How does Charles Dickens create sympathy for his characters in 'Great Expectations?' Charles Dickens, an author in Victorian England, suffered a harrowing and hard life. He was born in 1812 and having to work at a boot-blacking factory from the age of 12, had a lasting effect on him. The hurt and pain he went through as a young boy, influenced the characters, settings and overall plots of many of his books. He showed resentment towards his father because Dickens was sent to work to pay of his fathers debts. His experiences in the factory are displayed, in one of his more famous novels. 'David Copperfield', as he described it to be 'the secret agony of my soul'. He worked in the blacking factory until 185, when he showed his hurt and disgust to his parents by saying, 'how I could have been so easily cast away at such an age'. In 1827, Dickens went to work for a firm of solicitors, but he quickly found he didn't like the law, possible because of his father's earlier problems with it, and he found himself being drawn into the literacy world. He got to write instalments of his later classic novels in local magazines and published every fortnight. This resulted in his novels being so long. Dickens' style of writing is rather long winded but very literate. Even though Charles Dickens wasn't educated at a young age his writing skills were extraordinary. His use of language obviously

  • Word count: 1054
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Analysis of Chapter 14 Great Expectations.

Essay on the analysis of Chapter 14 Great Expectations Chapter fourteen is about Pip and how his views of his home have changed, due to the fact of his meeting with Miss Havisham and Estella. The first paragraph of the chapter shows the reader of Pip's shame. He is deeply unhappy that he is no longer content with his background. "It is a most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home." Pip feels guilty about being ashamed. The second paragraph explains the good points of Pip's home life; namely Joe sanctifying the house, and the bad points; they being his sister's temper. Even, though his sister was violent, Pip believed in his home. The phrase, "I had believed..." occurs frequently throughout the second paragraph. The phrase may have been used by Dickens to emphasise to the reader that all that had once taken place in Pip's life has now ceased to be. "I had believed in the best parlour as a most elegant saloon." Now Pip is ashamed of his home, he is also ashamed of his and Joe's profession. This is compared to what he one thought that "I had believed in the forge as the glowing road to manhood." Dickens then shows with one sentence, how Pip's childhood dreams and beliefs could change so quickly, with the quote, "within a single year, all this was changed." Dickens then subtly shows that the change has taken place because of Estella, when Pip describes the forge

  • Word count: 740
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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