Though Magwitch may threaten and scare Pip ‘lord strike you dead’ tells the reader that he isn’t evil and refers to social and historical content. To show that Magwitch was made memorable Dickens writes to show that Pip is left scared and shell shocked ‘Goo-good-night’. At the end of Magwitch’s appearance he wishes that ‘I wish I was a frog. Or a eel!’ this symbolizes that even the lowest of the animal society is better than the human society. It also has religious connotations of the evil represented by a serpent.
However at the top of the Victorian society is Miss Havisham. She is rich but is unhappy. This symbolizes the saying that money can’t buy you happiness. Therefore she chooses segregation, and to be trapped in her house. Dickens makes reference to Magwitch by linking descriptions of him with the description of her house; although Magwitch may have left the story he won’t be forgotten. Dickens also uses pathetic fallacy to set the scene, which mirrors Miss Havisham. The house description of the ‘old bricks and dismal’ tells the reader that on one level it shows the segregation of Miss Havisham. However on a deeper level it shows the barrier between him and Estella and that he will never have her. Estella is created memorable by Dickens because her character shows what the poor can’t have. Dickens names her ‘Estella’ which translates to stars. This shows that in the Victorian society the poor working people can never reach the stars. Although Estella seems superior and proud ‘Quite right’, Pip seems to be lured to her as he refers to her as ‘very pretty’. Although Estella seems to be superior, Dickens hints in the language that she isn’t ‘but you see she don’t’ As Pip is led into Miss Havisham’s house the atmosphere mirrors the mood of the marshes as time has decayed and rotted Satis house. Satis house is the name for Miss Havisham house, irony is used for the house as it translates to enough house and that whoever had this house, could want nothing else. However the irony is that Miss Havisham is still not satisfied as the rich always crave more, she craves what she can’t have. Dickens makes Estella memorable by symbolizing light representing the happiness, life and truth that Pip remembers about her. However this light is being symbolically blocked by the hatred of Miss Havisham as there is no natural light in Enough house ‘No glimpse of daylight was to be seen in it’.
The atmosphere tells the reader the dark and eerie mood, however as Pip sees Miss Havisham he sees the antithesis, a fine lady’s dressing table, and precious clothing all with the colour white, the connotation suggest a pure young woman. However Pip juxtaposes his early statement, as he gets closer he realizes that everything is faded away. The pure connotation of the colour white has turned yellow and the pure soul has been tainted. Pip realizes that her soul has been broken ‘and had no brightness left’, and the only ‘her sunken eyes’ has brightness left, which Dickens later tells us is her desire for revenge. Dickens creates Miss Havisham’s character, to show the consequences of great expectations and that nothing is what it appears. Miss Havisham shows the reader the failure of great expectations and the darkness which will consume the pure soul. Therefore Pip refers to her as ‘some ghastly waxworks’, due to her failure she embraces the lost lustre into Estella. She taints the soul of Estella so that her vengeance may live on in Estella. Dickens therefore uses the phrase ‘skeleton in the ashes’ which on one level shows a reference to Magwitch and the marshes, yet on another it shows that she is a fake, furthermore she has no soul, she is dead.
The description of Mrs Havisham is a very powerful piece of literature. The vocabulary used creates an effect of death. “Without this arrest of everything, this standing still of all the pale decayed objects, not even the withered bridal dress on the collapsed from could have looked so like grave clothes, or the long veil a shroud” It conveys the idea that time has stopped and everything is fallen into ruin. This is a reflection of Miss Havisham and her state of mind, that she has stopped time in her mind and has let her body decay away ‘had stopped at twenty minutes to nine’. Dickens uses words like ‘withered’ and ‘decayed’ and these help add the idea of death and similes to compare the objects and Miss Havisham to a dead body and a grave. Miss Havisham’s actions tell us a great deal about her relationships with people, past and present. She asks Pip to play with Estella. “I want diversion, and I have done with men and women. Play” This comment suggests that she wants Pip to distract her from her hurt. It is these odd requests and strong description of her, likening her to death that makes her a striking person. It also tells the reader that she either has trouble forming relationships with adults or that because of her past she no longer seeks the company of an adult, perhaps she fears that they may point out her bitterness and twisted ways and that she is ruining Estella’s life as she ruined her own.
Miss Havisham’s dialogue is also used to create her character she may not have an accent or dialect but because of her social status we can imagine her having an affected voice. It is what she says to Pip that is the most important. This explains some of her odd behaviour and gives us an insight into her past. We can see an example of this when she addresses Pip. “What do I touch?” “Your heart” “Broken!” As well as giving us insight to the plot we can notice that Miss Havisham is very melodramatic when she speaks of her past and that enhances her character.
Although Dickens makes us believe that Miss Havisham is the villain, certain phrases suggest that she is looking for some affection ‘I want to see some play’. However it seems that this isn’t the case, as Miss Havisham seems only keen on trying to break men’s hearts ‘Well! You can break his heart’. The social content of the game that Pip and Estella start to play, shows that he is worthless ‘beggar my neighbour’. And it pre-empts the outcome of the game, as still yet Pip isn’t able to reach the stars and beat Estella. He is undermined and lured into Miss Havisham trap. Dickens uses words like ‘brooding expression’ to emphasise to the reader that Miss Havisham enjoys this fraudulent scheme.
Miss Havisham tries to manipulate Pip and Estella also suggests her character is very strange. Miss Havisham subjugates and patronises Pip. She makes Pip admit his feelings towards Estella after Estella had made fun of him. Miss Havisham embarrasses him. She does this to make him feel small, stupid and unimportant as a man and to increase Estelle’s pride. Miss Havisham emasculates him- she takes away his masculinity. Before Pip leaves she arranges for him to come back again.
“I know nothing of days of the week; I know nothing of weeks of the year. Come again after six days.” This emphases that time means nothing to Miss Havisham.
When Pip later visits Miss Havisham, Dickens reinforces the decay and melodramatic nature of Miss Havisham particular the spiders and the fungus to symbolise destructive nature of Miss Havisham. Dickens uses pathetic fallacy ‘dropping to pieces’, repetition of ‘ghastly waxwork’ and ominous language ‘damp, old-fashioned grate’ to achieve this. Along with this sentence structure he includes reference of insects, the black fungus symbolises Miss Havisham burning desire to feed off of the treachery that Estella does to Pip and the ‘speckled-legged spiders with blotchy bodies’ illustrates on a symbolic level Pip caught in Miss Havisham web ‘I shrank under her touch’. However on a more general level the invasion of the insects represents the death of human life and that the survivors are nothing more that insects. Other features that are included in the structure is ‘Witch of the place’ which suggest the ominous message that Miss Havisham will burn at the stake like most witches in the Victorian era but it also subtlety refers to Magwitch.
After Dickens creates a memorable atmosphere and striking characters to the reader he subsequently illustrates the true social and historical importance of what a gentleman is thus creating a moral of the story and making the book ever more extravagant. Dickens creates the moral by using metaphors of wood and varnish that symbolizes the person personality and money, the moral is that money doesn’t make you a gentleman it is a facade and that the more money you try to hide with the more you will expose yourself. Dickens uses Herbert father’s comments to change Pip perception of Miss Havisham and to illustrate the irony of her secret exposed by Herbert’s father theory ‘He practised on her affection’. Dickens illustrates another perspective of Miss Havisham to show that no one is what they seem. And that she is making Estella do her scheme to Pip because it was done to her by her fiancée.
Dickens later introduces the return of Magwitch after numerous hints in the passing chapters ‘Witch of the place’. However Dickens masks Magwitch true identity, and instead he uses vivid and symbolic clues to keep the reader guessing ‘voyager by sea’, ‘substantially dressed’ but also illustrates Pip’s personality on whether he is a true gentleman.
As Magwitch enters the room he does the antithesis greeting to what he did in Chapter 1, instead of an aggressive outcast in society he has been tamed, and instead become a gentleman ‘he was holding out both his hands to me’. Dickens also emphasises on a symbolic level that this may also be an act of paternal love to Pip, ‘He looked about him with the strangest air-an air of wondering pleasure, as if he had some part in the things he admired’. This text exemplifies the contrast between Magwitch and Miss Havisham, where Magwitch wants to give good things to Pip and Miss Havisham wants to take.
Even though Magwitch has become civilized he has yet to get rid of his colloquial language which leads to his character being revealed by Pip ‘I relinquished the intention he has detected, for I knew him’. Although Magwitch has been relinquished, Pip is still too arrogant to accept Magwitch ‘If he had come to thank me it was not necessary’ and to embrace Magwitch’s love ‘ his breast and put him away’ this quote also gives a subtle reference to Miss Havisham, the same way various of Miss Havisham references give hints to Magwitch. Dickens emphasise in the structure that although Magwitch wants to give paternal love to Pip, Pip is still too selfish to receive it. Dickens is trying to illustrate symbolically that power corrupts, and that therefore Pip is too clouded to remember his roots. In spite of this Dickens makes the reader feel sympathy for Magwitch using various descriptive words, and then ultimately making Magwitch cry ‘his eyes were full of tears’. Dickens illustrates Magwitch’s emotions to help Pip be associated with his roots and that a true gentleman is one who has heart. Eventually Magwitch’s emotions has changed Pip into finally realizing what a gentleman is and thus has become one by accepting Magwitch ‘Pip you’re him’. However, even though Pip realized it was Magwitch that gave him his Great Expectations he subsequently wishes it to be Miss Havisham, as his intended it was for him to marry Estella ‘Was there no one else’. Subsequently Dickens illustrates the bright eyes of Pip to emphasise the shinnying eyes of Estella and also yet the hatred burning in the eyes of Miss Havisham.
However we see later on in the book that the burning desire for revenge from Miss Havisham is extinguished and that she seeks forgiveness. Dickens use of imagery in this chapter is astonishing, as the use of symbolic imagery is everywhere as the language flows throughout this chapter to enhance the imagery and to make it striking and extravagant. Dickens also illustrates the change in Pip, becoming a gentleman in this chapter, therefore able to forgive Miss Havisham ‘I can do it now’. He learns that a gentleman is of the heart and with this he forgives all the bitterness of her revenge ‘I want forgiveness and direction far too much, to be bitter with you’. Dickens is trying, at this point, to emphasize that although Pip may not have more money than Miss Havisham, he is however higher up in society ‘She was not kneeling now, but was down upon the ground’. Dickens also might be illustrating that she has taken a drastic change and isn’t what she used to be as she is lower in society. We see that Dickens is actually trying to show the change in Miss Havisham as later on negative descriptive words to show how she use to be ‘she had done a grievous thing’, ‘ solitary has grown diseased’. And then later how she has seen the light ‘I saw in you a looking-glass’. Dickens is trying to create the illusion that Miss Havisham is forgiven by everyone but subsequently she isn’t as Estella is still yet to forgive her ‘But Estella is a different case’.
Dickens set a shirking atmosphere by using imagery of fire and ice to set the mood of Miss Havisham’s death. He uses the antithesis that Miss Havisham’s ice must burn ‘put ice in its place’, illustrating that the light must consume her like a phoenix needs to be consumed by fire to be cleansed and reborn. He also uses the irony that water doesn’t cleanse her but fire (regenerate) ‘close to the fire’, ‘great flaming light’, ‘shrieking’. Everything else on the table has to burn to consume the past ‘dragged down the heap of rottenness’. After the death of the past we see light and humanity return into the room ‘disturbed beetles and spiders running away over the floor’. Dickens also uses Miss Havisham death to illustrate the new self-less Pip come to Miss Havisham rescue ‘I held her until it came, as if I unreasonably fancied’. After that extravagant death Dickens is trying to show that Miss Havisham is now pure ‘for they had covered to the throat with white cotton- wool’ and also on a deeper level that ironically her words have come true ‘Heard her say that she would lie one day’
Subsequently unlike Miss Havisham death, Dickens creates a more memorable and sympathetic death to suit Magwitch. Dickens is trying to emphasize sympathetically that if Magwitch (the convicts) had a better upbringing he would have had a better chance in life ‘might have been a better man under better circumstances’. Therefore Dickens wants to create Magwitch a memorable death, to redeem what society has done to him ‘broken two ribs’. However, on a deeper level Dickens is also trying to illustrate the paternal love of Magwitch and Pip ‘first duty of my life’. Dickens uses Magwitch’s death to comment on Victorian society stating that nobody care about anyone else in society ‘Shut up mansions’ and that the paternal love with Pip and Magwitch is so strong that Pip would risk his reputation to save him ‘to the Crown itself’
Unlike Miss Havisham and Pip, Dickens creates a different view of Pip and Magwitch. We see that unlike Miss Havisham, Magwitch isn’t obsessive in touching ‘lift my hand’ and that he isn’t melodramatic ‘I don’t complain of none’ illustrating that the lower you are in society, the less you are afraid of death after the horrors that you have faced in life. Also instead of extravagant metaphors like in Miss Havisham death, Dickens uses simply text and metaphors like ‘white ceiling’. The white ceiling metaphor is symbolic that Magwitch will go to heaven and also implies that Magwitch isn’t grey anymore. Subsequently, Dickens is also illustrating that Magwitch and Miss Havisham are both white symbolizing that there are both in the same society in death. Dickens also relates this phrase to Pip and Magwitch; however he gives the suggesting that Pip respects Magwitch more ‘Dear Magwitch’ unlike at the beginning. And then Dickens beautifully ends Magwitch’s death by Pip saying ‘O Lord, be merciful to him, a sinner’ illustrating Dickens’s message to society that no one shouldn’t be labeled for life.
In conclusion, Dickens makes the characters striking because in Great Expectations he is trying to protest against social injustice. He uses stereotypical characters, like Magwitch, with exaggerated features to help the reader remember them and remember the message that he is trying to convey. Dickens also uses very descriptive language to great effect. It makes the reader feel as if they were actually in Victorian times with the characters. This is demonstrated in Pip’s first meeting with Magwitch, where the language used creates a picture for the reader so that we can believe that we are there.
Magwitch’s appearance mirrors the cold, grey lonely marsh so we can also remember characters because we associate them with places. This is shown with Miss Havisham, as her surroundings mirror the she way looks, acts, and are quite unusual so are memorable. I think that the most important factor for making a character striking is the first description of them. Dickens makes the reader remember the character by using very powerful descriptions when we very first meet them in the book. It immediately grabs the readers attention and makes them want to investigate and find out more about the character.