The first extract to be discussed is on pages 55-57 which describes Pip first meeting with an escaped convict, Abel Magwitch, who becomes an important influence on his life.
Abel Magwitch is one of Dickens greatest inventions in this novel-he leaps out at the reader at the start, haunts Pip as he grows up, and returns to explode his illusions. He is immediately
Linked with other characters in the novel, and does not realise himself. Dickens uses Magwitch and his daughter, Estella, to show that social class is an artificial creation of man, and that we are all equal in truth and in the sight of God.
I think Dickens chooses to begin the novel with this scene in order to establish an understanding of Pip’s background, the setting for the first part of the story and, most importantly, to establish the readers’ sympathy for Pip, the central character.
The extract begins with Pip visiting his parents and brothers’ graves up on the marshes. “As I never saw my father or my mother.” This immediately sets a sad tone.
Pip is standing in the graveyard next to his mothers and 5 brothers’ graves.
“Ours was the marsh country.”
“And that then small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry, was Pip.”
Pip is standing in a bleak place surrounded by bleak countryside, cold and miserable and bursts into tears. To add to this Pip is now confronted by the terrifying figure of an escaped convict.
“Hold your noise!”
“Keep still, you little devil, or I’ll cut your throat!”
The convict is then described in detail.
“A fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg. A man with no hat, and with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied round his head. A man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars; who limped, and shivered, and glared and growled; and whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me by the chin.”
The convict is really dirty and scruffy when he grabs Pip. His teeth are chattering and he is cut from his head to toe. This is why Pip is so scared of the convict. The reason the convict grabs Pip is to tell him to go and get some food for him and to go and get a file so he can get his iron of his leg. Pip does this and although he doesn’t know it yet it was a very good thing to do. When Pip brings the file and food the next day there is another escaped convict in the marshes called Compeyson who is a traitor to Magwitch. Compeyson was responsible for leading Magwitch into major crime. Compeyson, a “gentleman” (in terms of social class) befriends Miss Havishams brother, Arthur, and later takes on Magwitch as his helper. When the Havishams disinherit Arthur, Compeyson helps him be revenged – although married; he poses as a suitor, and jilts Miss Havisham on her wedding day. Soon after, he is arrested for his various frauds, along with Magwitch, whom he blames for allegedly leading him into crime. The reverse is the truth, but Compeyson is believed because of his smooth manners Pip doesn’t realise that it is a different convict till he gets up close because it is a foggy night. This sets the tone of what to come. Pip sharply realises that it isn’t Magwitch and goes to find him. He then finds Magwitch and gives him the food and file. Magwitch starts to scoff the food, as he hasn’t had any food for a day or two.
After a few days the police found out where Magwitch and Compeyson were and they send people to catch them. When Magwitch sees the police he starts running but on his way through the marshes he sees Compeyson running so Magwitch jumps on Compeyson and gives up himself up so that Compeyson won’t get away again.
When you first see the convict he seems really violent and dangerous. “Keep still, you little devil, or I’ll cut your throat!” When the convict is sent back to prison he appeared less violent and mean because he confesses to the police about taking some food which he really forced Pip to take.
Charles Dickens at any time in a novel likes to write in a lot of detail about characters just like above. Dickens’s descriptive mastery can also be observed in his settings. The landscape in this novel changes as Pip moves from the misty marshes and village if his childhood, up river to London, the capital city. Pip waits for his expectations to flower in settings, which are generally depressing. Note how his fortunes seem to follow the ebb and flow of the River Thames: the river brings Magwitch to Pip, drowns Compeyson and sees the source of Magwitch’s death. The descriptive powers of Dickens are seen at their best as he recreates the marshes, river and city landscape which so much set the atmosphere which surrounds the slowly changing and maturing Pip. The marsh, with its mist and uncertainties reflects the mood of Pip’s early childhood. It is only when Pip has come to terms with himself that he can finally return to the misty wastes of his childhood and come to terms with the marsh.
This is what makes him a great writer. He writes in so much detail because back when this book was written which was 1860 there were no TV’s or cinemas so they had to read from a newspaper so people would have to visualise it rather than seeing it.
The second extract to be discussed is on page 63. In the extract on page 63, Pip visits Miss Havisham, a wealthy lady whom he has never met before and who lives a very strange life with only her ward, Estella, for company. We find out later on in the novel that Estella is Magwitch’s daughter. Fantastic and eccentric, Miss Havisham presides in isolation over her macabre house. The images of decay and death that surround her give the clues to the effects she has on both pip and Estella. Estella is imbued with an attitude towards men that will cause her great unhappiness, and Pip’s belief that Miss Havisham is responsible for his expectations is cruelly fired by her. She does her best to ruin both lives before she finally realizes the enormity of the selfishness of her actions. She no longer lives in the real world; the stopped clocks, the wedding feast still on the table, and the clothes she wears all bear witness to this. Her melodramatic death is appropriate to the life she led. Her whole life has been composed of behavioural extremes, thus her repentance is convincing because it represents yet another extreme of behaviour. She becomes obsessed with the desire to be forgiven, as she once was the desire to avenge herself on all men through Estella. Her money brought her nothing but unhappiness, greedy relatives, and power; but even the power it gave her over Pip and Estella, eventually came to nothing. Miss Havisham pretends to be Pips benefactor, and lures him into loving Estella so much that he will for sure be completely damaged when he becomes rejected by her. Miss Havisham’s plan is inconsiderate of both Pip and Estella’s feelings, but she does not stop to consider this until the end of the novel, when it is too late for her start anew. Miss Havisham is not a completely evil woman though. She has been hurt by a loved one, and constantly reminds herself by keeping memories in her mansion, where she stays all day and night without seeing light. She treats Pip with some kindness and recognizes that he is a good boy.
Although Pip’s invitation to the house is considered a great honour for him, he is nevertheless, anxious about meeting the old lady and keen on not disgracing himself or his family. After Compeyson left her she never recovered. She kept herself in her wedding dress and has never taken it off. She has kept all the food out on the table for the wedding and she has locked herself in her house with all the windows blacked out and gates locked.
“Miss Havisham’s house, which was old brick, and dismal, and had a great many iron bars to it. Some of the windows have been walled up; of those that remained, all the lower were rustily barred. There was a courtyard in front, and that was barred.”
This tells us that she had locked herself away from the outside world because her husband to be stud her up at the last minute. The whole description of the house shows that it is old and rundown. It describes it as old bri ck and dismal. This shows that it is not looked after properly.
As she never takes her wedding dress off it is all yellow and dirty. It also must smell horrid.
“She was dressed in rich materials-satins, and lace, and skills-all of white. Her shoes were white. And she had a long white veil dependent from her hair, and she had bridal flowers in her hair, but her hair was white. Some bright jewels sparkled on her neck and on her hands.”
This tells us that she can’t get over her wedding day and she doesn’t want to take her wedding dress off or her flowers off from her hair. We get the impression that she hasn’t washed her hair or body from that day.
She was that upset about her wedding day that she even stopped her clock at the very moment she found out about him leaving.
“…. And saw that her watch had stopped at twenty minutes to nine and that a clock in the room had stopped at twenty minutes to nine.”
This was the time that she was going to get married, and she has stopped the clock so she can’t forget her wedding day. She has left everything the way it was on her wedding day. All the food has stayed on the table where it was going to be eaten. There is cobwebs everywhere, which shows she doesn’t clean and everywhere is yellow, as it hasn’t been cleaned for many years.
This is another perfect example of Dickens writing in a lot of detail about a character.
From reading these two extracts we have learnt that Dickens in his time wrote in a lot of detail especially about setting and characters. This is mainly because there were no TVs to visualise his writing. Nowadays people don’t write in a lot of detail about the setting or characters but this was what, made him such a good writer and made Charles Dickens famous and his books famous.
