*bildungsroman – the story of a man or a woman in their quest for maturity. Usually starting from childhood and ending in the main character’s eventual adult-hood.
Pip is an imaginative character who tries to picture what his dead family members would look like by the shape and letterings of their tombstones “Also Georgiana Wife of The Above, ‘I drew a childish conclusion that my mother was freckled and sickly.” The death of Pip’s five brothers tells the reader that there was a high infant mortality rate especially amongst the poor “To the five little stone lozenges, each about a foot and a half long...exceedingly early in that universal struggle- I am indebted for a belief I religiously entertain that they had all been born on their backs with their hands in their trousers-pockets, and never taken them out in this state of existence.” Due to Pips childish thoughts it seems almost comedic. However, the death of most of his family members demonstrates to the reader he had a bad start to life.
We feel concerned about Pip because he is in the church yard, a “bleak place overgrown with nettles.” The atmosphere is bleak; it was “a memorable raw afternoon towards evening.” The uncaring atmosphere and setting makes the reader feel even sorrier for Pip as he is all alone while it is getting dark and cold. The weather is also getting angrier “Savage lair from which the wind was, rushing...” The metaphor of the wind as a savage animal wanting to eat Pip, further creates greater sympathy towards Pip. This sympathy increase when Charles Dickens uses emotive language to build up the effect “The small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry was Pip.” This would make the reader feel depressed and when (the criminal) an unknown person jumps out on Pip, their heart would tighten.
Suddenly, we are introduced to a fearsome man. We later find out he is called Magwitch. He is dressed “all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg.” This is when we realise he is an escaped convict. He has “no hat,” “Broken shoes” and “an old rag tied round his head.” He looked like he had been “soaked in water, and smothered in mud” his walk was described as a limp, like he had been “lamed by stones and, cut by flint.” He must have been cold as he was “shivering.” The description of Magwitch makes the reader have some sympathy for him due to his hard life. “Hold your noise!” Magwitch’s opening line, which already suggests he is from a lower social class, due to the informal vocabulary and that he is aggressive as emphasised by the use of the exclamation mark. As he threatens Pip, an innocent child, our very first impression of Magwitch is that he is a dangerous person, a convict who has no limitation to his threats, “Keep still you little devil, or I’ll cut your throat!” “You young dog, what fat checks you ha’ got. Darn me if I couldn’t eat ‘em, and if I han’t half a mind to ‘t!” Dickens use this technique of depicting speech phonetically (as it would be said) to give a comic edge to Magwitch’s words. The relationship between Pip and the convict appears to be based on power and fear. Magwitch yells at Pip only to get what he wants, a file and some wittles (food). He also threatens Pip by lying about a horrible young man who is listening to their conversation and will kill and eat Pip if he does not get what the convict wants. Pip responds in fear of his life.
However we quickly realise that the convict is not as fearsome as he makes himself out to be. For instance, when he asks Pip where his mother is, Pip points besides him and Magwitch runs in despair, “He started, making a short run, and stopped and looked over his shoulder.” Although Pip does not know it, the reader presumes Magwitch is timid and is not as dangerous as we first thought he was. This creates a feeling of relief and also suspense for the reader as they would want to know what Magwitch will do to Pip if he does not obey him, but also what would happen if he does, for his family cannot afford much. This is a cliff- hanger. In chapter one, Magwitch’s identity and background remains unknown, which also leaves the reader in suspense.
As Pip and the convict were beginning to part, their relationship seems to warm. Magwitch talks to Pip as if he was a friend “I wish I was a frog. Or a eel!” It is humorous but also makes the reader feel sorry for him because it is so wet and he would cope better if he was a frog or an eel. As Magwitch leaves, the description hints to the reader that Magwitch is very close to death, “he hugged his shuddering body in both his arms- clasping himself, as if to hold himself together- and limped towards the low church wall.” The reader could imagine his pain as Magwitch is “picking his way among nettles, and among the brambles that bound the green mounds.” Dickens also uses imagery to create a picture that suggest Magwitch is near to death “he looked in my young eyes as if he were eluding the hands of the dead people, stretching up cautiously out of their graves, to get a twist upon his ankle and pull him down.” This suggest that death is drawing so close to Magwitch, he belongs to the ground and the dead are trying to pull him to where he should belong. Pip describes Magwitch setting over the low church wall “like a man whose legs were numbed and stiff” suggesting his legs could barely move because of the pain he had been through.
As Pip stops again to look for Magwitch, Pip sees the gibbet which had once held a pirate, and now also seeing Magwitch limping towards it makes Pip imagine that Magwitch was the pirate who had come to life, and going back to hook himself up again.
Charles Dickens uses pathetic fallacy and imagery to reflect Pip’s feelings. “The marches were just a long black horizontal line then...and the sky was just a row of long angry red lines and dense black lines intermixed.” ‘Red ‘and ‘black’ are associated with danger and death. It is no coincidence that these are the predominant colours in the landscape immediately after Pip’s encounter with the convict.
The opening Chapter of ‘Great Expectations’ ensures his readers will read on by creating suspense. The convict’s identity is unknown and the use of a cliff-hanger makes the reader think about what will happen in the next chapter as the opening chapter does not give this away. The character description is very detailed and the reader is kept personally interested in the characters.
The novel appeals to Victorian readers, as well as modern readers who also learn about what happened during Victorian times and what the criminal systems was like then- how prisoners were punished. There is archaic language which is not used now. Such as, “gibbets” or “Lord, strike you dead.”
The opening chapter contains a balanced sense of the frightening atmosphere. As Magwitch threatens to kill Pip, by lying about the ‘young man,’ he over exaggerates. For the reader, it seems humorous and, therefore it lightens up the tension and relieves the reader.
I feel that it is an effective opening for the novel and it would persuade me to read on because it contains an exciting use of the cliff-hanger – we do not know whether Pip will bring the needs of the convict or not, or whether the young man will hunt for young Pip and kill him. Dickens also uses very descriptive language to capture the scene and the feelings of the characters which makes the reader feel personally involved in the events of the novel.