In the first chapter, Magwitch is an aggressive and threatening character.
‘Hold Your Noise’
‘Keep still you little devil or I will cut your throat’
Magwitch has a rough appearance. When Magwitch first appears he is wearing ‘coarse grey’ and he ‘has an old rag tied around his head,’ also he does not wear a hat, and in the time that Great Expectations was written, this showed that your not a true gentleman, it could also be taken as an offense.
Another character is Miss Havisham. We first meet Miss Havisham in a dull and dusty room, where she lives. The room is covered in various old and withered items, also in the room is a stopped clock, the hands stuck on the time her heart was broken, 8:40, this was the time she was supposed to be married, but was jilted by her husband to be.
Miss Havisham is heartbroken, and from the time she was jilted, it appears that time has stopped for her and she has given up on life, it appears as if she can’t let go of the past. Something that suggests this is, Miss Havisham has one shoe on the table, and traditionally this is something you do when some one has died, people also believe it is unlucky to put shoes on the table, in my opinion this shows that she is ready to give up on her sad and lonely life.
Miss Havisham is a rich and wealthy woman; we know this because she is dressed in fine expensive silks, all though over time Miss Havisham’s clothes have changed to a yellowish and dull colour, again I think this shows that she has given up.
Dickens has created two characters, (Miss Havisham and Magwitch.) That is almost completely the opposite of each other.
Magwitch is a poor, rough, and aggressive man where as, Miss Havisham is a timid, shy and rich woman. There is however, one similarity between the two characters. This is in the way they treat Pip, both characters are quite mean and harsh with Pip, but at the same time care about him.
Magwitch is physically unkind to Pip, for example when he steals his food and threatens him, but Miss Havisham asks Estella to break Pips heart, which is more mental rather than physical abuse.
