In the light of your reading of "Great Expectations", what do you feel Dickens has to say regarding the qualities of a true "gentleman"?
In the light of your reading of "Great Expectations", what do you feel Dickens has to say regarding the qualities of a true "gentleman"? Throughout the Victorian era humanity was obsessed with social status and took every opportunity to search for meaningful existence within society. 'Great Expectations' follows Pip's journey from childhood to adulthood, acquainting with both the true and false qualities of a 'gentleman'. All through the novel, social class provides an arbitrary, external standard of value by which the characters judge one another. During Pip's progression of becoming a 'gentleman' he realizes appearance is not the main quality a gentleman should posses. Dickens provides Pip, the protagonist, with extreme challenges involving his genteel qualities to expose the obvious need of being accepted in the social hierarchy, even if this acceptance included dismissing known loved ones. Pip longs to be a "gentleman" in one sense but learns to be a gentleman in the truest sense of the word. This longing to become a gentleman arose when seven year old Pip first encountered with Estella and has followed Pip through every memory and incident which occurred afterwards. As a child, having met Estella, Pip changed his perspectives about his surroundings and his family, but most of all about himself. His longing to marry Estella from young age on influenced his behavior
How does Dickens create characters that are both memorable and striking?
How does Dickens create characters that are both memorable and striking? Have you ever looked at a Charles Dickens novel and thought how uninspiring it would be? It actually surprised me how interesting it was, compared to my perception of a stereotypical Dickens "work of fiction". "Great Expectations", I think, is rightly considered one of the greatest novels of all-time. The depth it goes into is hard to believe, following its central character, the orphan boy, Pip, from his early childhood through his later times, becoming a gentleman. Some people believed that what separated a gentleman from the common people was merely money, and that anybody rich enough, or high-born enough, could be a gentleman. True refinement, is a feature of the heart not money; a gentleman is always considerate and kind to others, always gracious and long-suffering, always lives by precepts of love and honour, which I think is also a feature Charles Dickens tries to make people understand in "Great Expectations" Of the many wealthy people that Pip meets in the story, most are coarse and brutish, like Bentley Drummle or sly and self-serving, like Jaggers, and are no gentleman. The truest man in the novel is Joe Gargery, a humble blacksmith in outwards appearance, but with a gentleman's heart and soul. Pip himself learns that it needs more than money and status to make him a gentleman; his
How does Dickens capture the reader's interest in the first eight chapters of "Great Expectations"?
How does Dickens capture the reader's interest in the first eight chapters of "Great Expectations"? Charles Dickens had a great talent for engaging the reader in his fascinating novels. 'Great Expectations' was one of the last that Dickens wrote and it is one of the most famous in English literature ever. Dickens was the son of John and Elizabeth Dickens and was the second of seven children. John Dickens was a clerk at the navy pay office but he struggled to provide for his growing family. John Dickens was in severe debt and the family had to sell of personal items but this was not enough for his creditors and he was arrested and sent to Marshalsea Prison. For Charles being such a young child it would be very distressing. As his father was in prison this meant that Charles at the age of twelve found work at Warren's Blacking factory where he was paid six shillings a week for wrapping shoe black bottles. Charles had to do this to help provide for his family. This had a great influence on the novel as there are autobiographical elements in the book. At twelve years old this is a lot to go through and he didn't have a very good childhood just the same as Pip in the novel. 'Great Expectations' has a lot of autobiographical elements in it no just about Pip but other elements as well. For example Dickens lived Chatham in Kent and in Great Expectations this is where Pip is living
Great Expectations
English Coursework: Great Expectations I: Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in Portsmouth, England. When he was about two years of age, he moved with his family to London. Dickens' father, John, laboured as a navy clerk. While Charles was still a young boy, his father was sent to debtor's prison. During that time, Charles briefly worked in a London factory pasting labels on shoe polish bottles. Even after his father's release, John's work barely provided enough money to support the family. Charles Dickens attended school sporadically until he was fifteen years old. Charles was an avid reader whose interests included adventure stories, fairy tales, and novels. Earlier English writers such as William Shakespeare and Henry Fielding undoubtedly influenced Dickens; however, much of the knowledge and insights that he later applied as an author came from his keen observations and experiences. He became a newspaper reporter before he was twenty; covering debates in Parliament and writing feature articles. In 1836, Dickens published his first book, Sketches by Boz, a collection of articles that he had written for Monthly Magazine and the London Evening Chronicle. Shortly thereafter, he gained public literary fame with The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Dickens exhibited warmth and humour and great understanding of humanity, especially young people.
Great Expectations analysis of chapter 1 and 5
In the novel "Great Expectations", Charles Dickens explores several themes and uses dramatic language to create suspense, analyse chapter 1 and 39 explore the techniques he uses to build tension "Great Expectations" was published by Charles Dickens on December 1st 1860 in "All the year round", a weekly that published fiction in serial format. The novel "Great Expectations" ran for 36 weeks and concluded on August 3rd 1861. The older Pip is the narrator of the story, which begins when he is aged seven. He is an orphan living with his sister and her husband who is the local blacksmith. Their home is set in the marshes of Kent. One evening while visiting his parents' graves, an escaped convict, who orders him at the peril of his life to obtain food and a file for his leg irons, grabs Pip. Pip obeys and the convict is soon captured, but he protects Pip by claiming to have stolen the items himself. Miss Havisham, who lives in a grand house outside Pip's village, is a wealthy woman, who was abandoned on her wedding day and her home has not changed since that date. The dining room table is still prepared for the wedding feast. Pip is asked to visit the house and play with Miss Havisham's adopted daughter, Estella. She treats him coldly and harshly, and Pip dreams of becoming worthy enough of her, and he is determined to obtain some sort of education. Some years later Pip is
Central motifs of the novel are established vividly in this volume. Imagery and allusions to crime, guilt, class and death exist throughout".
"Central motifs of the novel are established vividly in this volume. Imagery and allusions to crime, guilt, class and death exist throughout". The structure and plot of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations are intricately designed to create a real sense of continuity in the plot and to ensure the purpose of the novel by referring throughout to the various key issues or characters that are constantly helping to shape the main character, Pip, and his journey through the novel. It is evident that Dickens establishes some of the central motifs in the first volume of the book, but he continues to weave them throughout the wider tapestry of the novel. The motifs are recurring images which, as we trace Pip's journey from childhood to adulthood, become increasingly significant, by acting as a unifying device to link together the central themes of the novel. Dickens builds upon these central motifs by using strategic literary devices, such as imagery and figurative language, to allude to the core themes of crime, guilt and class amongst others, which ultimately support the overall purpose of the novel and create a rich and compelling narrative. Perhaps the most central and important motif is that of the ongoing conflict between the gentleman and the criminal. This is conceivably the most significant as combined they have the greatest effect on Pip and the path he takes through the
Great Expectations - Compare Pips first and second meetings with the convict Able Magwitch (chapters 1 & 39)
Great Expectations - Compare Pips first and second meeting Able Magwitch (chapters 1 & 39) Great Expectations is a novel written by Charles Dickens during the Victorian period, around 1860-61.Dickins today is regarded to be one of the greatest novelists of all time. Great Expectations portrays the predominate themes of a Dickin's novel as its central ideas revolve around the division of rich and poor, and how their status is viewed by the society in which they live. The novel Great Expectations is based upon the life of a young orphaned boy named Pip, whom is brought up by his older sister Mrs Joe Gargery and Mr Joe Gargery his brother in law living in Kent. Pip faced with various different incidents, as well as changes that take place in his life, which then structure his future self, as he grows into a man. Such events include him meeting Magwitch, Miss Havisham, and Estella, all of which have diverse effects on him. Pip is the protagonist and narrator of the novel and is reflecting on his past, explaining his story of his younger self. Pip is passionate, romantic, and somewhat unrealistic at heart, as he tends to expect more for himself than is possible, as he has a powerful conscience, and he deeply wants to improve himself, both morally and socially. He grows up to be a rich arrogant gentleman, influenced by Miss Havisham and his love for Estella. Despite his new
Write about how Dickens gives the reader a sense of tension and mystery in the opening of Great Expectations.
Write about how Dickens gives the reader a sense of tension and mystery in the opening of 'Great Expectations'. Charles Dickens, the author of 'Great Expectations', uses many different ways and different methods of building up tension and mystery in the setting. He uses a variety of techniques to give the graveyard, the marshes and miss Havisham's house mysterious feelings and give them a sense of darkness and Gothic horror. Dickens uses a semantic field to bring the effect of one specific subject, which in this case is revolving around death. Many phrases that Dickens uses are to do with death and skeletons. In the graveyard, where Pip meets the convict, Charles describes the convict escaping as dead hands reaching up at him, 'eluding the hands of the dead people, stretching up cautiously out of their graves'. This adds tension because it adds more effect to the fact that he is actually a convict, and it's meaning is that he's escaping death, which is shown through him escaping the hands of the dead people. The phrase also holds horrific imagery because it's like you're seeing dead people's hands which adds to the 'Gothic horror' part of the story. Dickens also builds the semantic field up more using phrases such as the word 'tombstone' and 'five little stone lozenges'. 'Five little stone lozenges' adds tension to the fact that Pip is the only one still alive out of his
Compare the opening of two different film versions of the novel “Great Expectations”.
In this essay I am going to compare the opening of two different film versions of the novel "Great Expectations". Both films are based on the novel by Charles Dickens. The older version of the movie was directed by David Lean in 1946, whereas the new version was directed by Alfonso Cuaron in 1998. There is a major time gap between the two films; therefore there are a lot of differences. In order to show both differences and similarities I will firstly describe the old version, then compare the difference and similarities to the new version. I will also be giving my opinions as well. The first thing you notice about the older version is that it is black and white. There were actually colour films when the film was released, nevertheless the director decided to use black and white for effect. It was done intentionally, in view of the fact that the novel was wrote a long time before the film was made. The director wanted it look like the days the novel is set in. People currently do not like black and white movies, seeing that colour films seem more sophisticated, but black and white creates a scarier atmosphere as most things seem to be dark. An example of this is the graveyard seen. Everything seems to be darker, spooky and dull, which adds to the tension and atmosphere. Another reason why black and white is good, is that it makes you concentrate only on what is important and
Great Expectations
Great Expectations For this piece of essay, I am going to write a comparative analysis of chapters one and thirty nine for the Characters Pip and the Convict of Great Expectations. Great Expectation was written in 1860 by a really famous author named Charles Dickens. Not only being famous for writing great expectations Charles was also famous for such books called Oliver twist, A Christmas Carol, Hard Times and David Copperfield. Oliver Twist is still read by children in the 21st century. But sadly ending Charles Dickens life he died in a terrible rail crash. However Charles Dickens is still one of the most famous authors in English history. England was a really different place in the 19th century. At this time there was no free education for poor children they had to work hard at a young age to keep food on their table. Most children worked as coal miners which wasn't suitable for their age. Where as the rich people in those times were spoilt they had school and were treated as little kings by their parents. If people were really rich they would have had education at home, they had private teachers and the boys were taught to be gentlemen. The girls were taught how to sing play the piano and sew. In the 19th century if a person committed a crime they had to face time in prison and then suffer a terrible death by being hanged or getting executed. But in a new scheme in