Great expectations-How dickens creates sympathy for his characters

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Solomon Kuti

Great Expectations

How does Dickens create sympathy for his characters?

This essay aims to analyse the book Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens. The task was how Dickens created sympathy for his characters in his novel. I will discuss how Dickens used different techniques to create sympathy for his characters.

One of Dickens’ shorter novels and also one of his most influential is Great Expectations. It appeared initially in serial form in All The Year Round between 1860 and 1861 and is now considered to be one of his finest novels. It concerns the young boy Philip Pirrip (known as ‘Pip’) and his development through life after an early meeting with the escaped convict Abel Magwitch, who he treats kindly despite his fear. His unpleasant sister and her humorous and friendly blacksmith husband, Joe, bring him up. Crucial to his development as an individual is his introduction to Miss Havisham, a now aging woman who has given up on life after being jilted at the altar. Cruelly, Havisham has brought up her daughter Estella to revenge her own pain and so as Pip falls in love with her she is made to torture him in romance. Aspiring to be a gentleman despite his humble beginnings, Pip seems to achieve the impossible by receiving a fund of wealth from an unknown source and being sent to London with the lawyer Jaggers. He is employed but eventually loses everything and Estella marries someone else. His benefactor turns out to have been Magwitch and his future existence is based upon outgrowing the great expectations and returning to Joe and honest laout. Eventually he is reunited with Estella.

A great expectation is a classical novel with a hint of drama. You could also call it a tragedy because of the roles that Mrs Havisham and Magwitch play in the story. Dickens used a technique called bildungsroman. Bildungsroman is when the writer shows how a young life developed over time. He used this technique with Pip and Estella.    

The novel opens in the  of England, land raw and wet, where young  stands alone in a churchyard before seven gravestones, under which are buried Pip's mother, father and five younger brothers. The sight of these stones starts Pip crying, and then, to make matters worse, out from between the graves hobbles a growling, mean and ragged looking man. He's got an iron shackle on one leg, but two good arms, which he uses to turn Pip upside-down, shaking loose a crust of bread from his pocket. The man sets Pip on a gravestone and wolfs down the bread, demanding to know where Pip is from and with whom he lives. Pip points to his village and explains that he lives with his sister, , and , a blacksmith. After one more tip upside down, the shackled man demands that Pip meet him at the Battery tomorrow morning, with a file and some . He warns Pip that he's not alone, that he has a henchman, a vicious young boy that's hiding among the stones, listening, who will be eager to tear Pip to pieces if he doesn't procure the whittles and file. That said, the old man hobbles off and Pip watches him head toward the river, a figure spooky enough to turn even the cow's heads.

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Because Pip is made seen very weak, we feel sorry for him especially when we are given the horrible description of the convict. Dickens emphasises Pips naivety in many ways. The major way is by showing how trustworthy and respectful Pip is. The evil convict threatens to kill him if he did not bring what he demanded, but instead of Pip to run home and hide, he comes back the next morning with the items. He comes back to the mashes, having stole food which belongs to his sister, delighted and ready to help a man who seems to want ...

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