This essay will be describing how dickens uses description of setting to create atmosphere and build tension.
The story has been written in a first person narrative. This allows us to understand the emotions Pip is feeling better and as a result feel more empathy for him. The book is written in an almost autobiographical style; Pip is the narrator recalling on past events. This autobiographical writing style gives the story a more realistic feel this in turn allows the reader to suspend their disbelief. The autobiographical style maximizes the sympathy we feel for pip as we the events of the novel seem more realistic. Another method dickens uses to extend the readers suspension of disbelief is the fact that he bases on themes that where actually occurring at the time.
As I have stated before Charles Dickens published great expectations over one year through his own magazine. Therefore Great Expectations is written in a serialized format with each chapter finishing on a cliff hanger; which would originally be used to keep the readers interested in the story. Dickens has written Great Expectations in a prolix style of writing. This is a style of writing which uses a wide range of complex and varying vocabulary. Writing in a prolix style was though of as the norm at the time.
Dickens begins Great Expectations by trying to create a sense of sympathy for pip. The following extract from Great Expectations is used to create sympathy: “my infant tongue”. The quote is used to emphasize pips vulnerability as he is described as an “infant” the reader well think of pip as a small helpless “infant” and will therefore care for him more. Dickens description of the setting reinforces the effect of sympathy felt by the reader for Pip. Dickens describes the setting as “cold” and “overgrown with nettles” this paints an unmaintained, derelict and mysterious image of the graveyard and as we have previously learned that Pip is an infant, the reader will feel sympathy for him. Dickens also writes: ‘the distant savage lair from which the wind was rushing, was the sea’. This gives the wind animalistic features and makes it seem as if Pip is being attacked by the wind. This increases the amount of sympathy we feel for Pip as we picture this “small bundle of shivers” which is the young Pip, being attacked helplessly by the wind. The description of Pip as a vulnerable “infant”
As Pip has been described to us as a vulnerable ‘infant’ and the fact that the wind is being described as a violent attacker the reader will feel sympathy for Pip.
Dickens was trying to put across his views on the life of the working classes. The first chapter is set in a graveyard near the graves of buried infants this could be allegory representing the high levels of child mortality of the time. Dickens has created a sense of sympathy for Pip who is a young low class boy. Dickens aim was for his audience, which would mostly comprise of middle class people, to begin to understand the hardships of the lower classes and to in turn work towards a future of equality between the classes. These middle class readers would read about little vulnerable Pip being attacked by the wind and it would cause them to feel sympathy towards him
Dickens creates tension by using phrases such as ‘overgrown with nettles” this gives the graveyard an unmaintained, derelict and mysterious aura. As I have previously stated Dickens has used description to emphasize Pips vulnerability this adds the feeling of tension as this vulnerable child is all alone in a derelict graveyard. This unmaintained graveyard could symbolise the situation Pip was in as a child; nearly all his family has died and he is living a poor, low class and unmaintained lifestyle.
When Magwitch arrives the reader has already built up an image of violence and aggression because of the description Dickens uses. Dickens has used descriptions such as ‘the distant savage lair’ and ‘overgrown with nettles’. The weather is described in an animalistic, vicious way and nettles can also cause pain. Even before Magwitch has arrived dickens has created an atmosphere of violence.
Dickens describes Magwitch in a way which makes him out to be a vicious, cruel and ruthless. Magwitch is described in such a negative way so that when he is seen in a different way in the later chapters it will add to the surprise of the reader.
Pip is seen as low class when he travels to the house of Miss Havisham this creates within Pip an urge to become a gentleman who will be of high enough status to marry Miss Havisham’s beautiful adopted daughter Estella. Pips visit to Miss Havisham’s house is an indication of the social segregation that occurred at the time because of the way he is treated.
Chapter 39 begins with the arrival of Magwitch (the convict who had threatened Pip as a child). Magwitch explains to Pip that he is the person who has being paying, through his wages, for Pip to live a life as a gentleman. Pip has grown apart from Joe and Biddy as he has become arrogant and feels embarrassed about Joe.
Description of setting in chapter 39 forebodes the events of the chapter. Dickens describes the weather as “wretched weather; stormy and wet, stormy and wet; and mud, mud, mud, deep in all the streets” in chapter one we felt sympathy for Pip as he was a vulnerable infant who could not do anything to fix his problems however in chapter 39 we don’t feel sympathy for Pip as he just seems to be complaining and feeling sorry for himself. In chapter one Pip’s problem was the fact that his parents where deceased we had sympathy for him and the fact that he couldn’t do anything about it allowed us to feel an increases sensation of sympathy. In chapter 39 he is a young, wealthy man who seems to be complaining about loneliness yet he has the means to resolve these problems and also it is partly his fault that he is lonely because of his snobbish behaviour towards people of the lower classes such as Joe. The repetition of “mud” makes pip seems as if he is complaining about his life in a mundane and monotonous way. The repetition of mud could also symbolize the way in which Pip has become enclosed and stuck emotionally because of his snobbery this could be seen when Pip became embarrassed when Joe came to visit him.
Dickens describes the weather in a violent way. The weather is described as “So furious had been the gusts, that high buildings in town had had the lead
stripped off their roofs; and in the country, trees had been torn
up, and sails of windmills carried away; and gloomy accounts had
come in from the coast, of shipwreck and death”. The weather is described in this violent way to build tension in the readers mind. The reader will subconsciously anticipate violence in the coming events of the novel. When the reader reads about Magwitch visiting Pip the idea of violence will still be locked inside their head this will make the discovery of Magwitch as the benefactor more surprising to the reader would have though that Magwitch had come to cause violence.
Dickens when describing fires on coal barges states “The coal fires in barges on the river were being carried away before the wind like red-hot splashes in the rain” I think this symbolises how Pip had originally feared Magwitch and he had been seen as a cruel and rough individual, this is symbolised by the “fires” and the description of the rain as “red-hot” however I think the rain symbolises the fact that this image Pip had of Magwitch will in essence be washed away.
In chapter one Magwitch is given a negative image and is described as “ 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” this negative image is imprinted in the readers mind throughout the novel. Dickens uses this for the purpose of the creating a more dramatic effect of shock when the reader finds out that Magwitch was Pips benefactor and begins to see Magwitch in a different light. The setting is described in a violent and negative way before the arrival of Magwitch the purpose of this is to reinforce the negative violent image the reader has of Magwitch and therefore create a more shocking effect when the reader discovers that Magwitch was the one who had paid for Pip to live a life of luxury. In chapter 39 we learn that Magwitch was Pips benefactor and seems to love Pip as a son (in a way Pip is a child of Magwitch as Magwitch has paid for Pip to become what he has become). Magwitch is described in chapter 39 as an older more tired man who cares enough about Pip to make a life risking journey to see him. Throughout the novel Magwitch would be remembered as a cruel vicious and low class convict however after so many chapters he returns and the reader is informed that it was Magwitch who had been paying for Pip to live his life. Dickens was trying to convey, to his generally middle class audience, the message that people should not be stereotypical about people. This is shown in the way that Magwitch who has been seen as a villain had turned out to be a caring, generous man.
Pips initial response is one of shock and he recalls of the physical shock he was in after finding out: “I grasped at the chair, the room began to surge and turn”. Pip is shocked because he has built his entire life around the theory that Miss Havisham was his benefactor who was preparing him for marriage to Estella. Pip is in love with Estella and the news that he wasn’t brought up to marry her hurts him. Pip also remembers how he has seen Magwitch “down in the ditch tearing and fighting like a wild beast” and decides to lock the door of Magwhitch’s room on his way out.
