‘river…black; and the sky was just a row of long angry red lines and dense black lines intermixed.’
Nature is also used to make the place intimidating for Pip. Dickens writes: ‘dark flat wilderness’, ‘bleak place overgrown with nettles’, ‘low leaden line beyond which was the river’.
When somewhere is ‘overgrown with nettles’ it suggests that not many people go there; the place is neglected and not taken care of, which makes it a more vulnerable place for Pip. Also the fact that Pip is there alone suggests he may not be allowed to go there.
The way Dickens describes Pip creates an effect on the reader. He is described as being a small, scared, insignificant boy, and the fact that his name is Pip makes him sound even smaller. Dickens writes: ‘“Pip. Pip Sir.” “O! Don’t cut my throat, sir, “I pleaded in terror. “Pray don’t do it sir”’
Pip is very scared of Magwitch, the criminal that appears, and it is easy to imagine Pip’s voice being quiet and high-pitched because of his name.
In chapter eight of Charles Dickens’ novel he writes about Miss Havisham and the big house that Pip visits. The exterior of the house id described as very foreboding, like a prison. Dickens writes: ‘…had a great many iron bars to it.’ Windows had to be paid for, in tax (because the bigger the house you had the more windows you had therefore more money), so they were boarded up, because there were so many. Everything is neglected and not used; it is all left in ruins and looks like no-one lives there.
Also, the wind seems to blow colder there, which adds mystery and suspense to the story. Dickens writes:’ overgrown with tangled weeds…the cold wind seemed to blow colder there … made a shrill noise howling in and out’
Furthermore, Dickens also adds effect in the way in which he describes Miss Havisham’s possessions. Dickens writes:, ‘ dresses, satins, and lace, and silks all of white…one shoe on, watch hand chain, not-put-on gloves and some flowers…some bright jewels spattered on her neck and on her hands.’
The dress seems very grand and pure, clean and white, but then Pip sees that it has decayed. All Miss Havisham’s personal objects (like her shoes are not put on properly), adds an air of suspense because you don’t know why she is like this. The way this has happened is like the way in which Pip receives money from a benefactor. He believes it is honest money, earned by Miss Havisham’s family, when in reality it is from a criminal, like the dress appears white, and turns out to be yellow and decayed.
Time is also very significant in this chapter. Dickens writes:’ her watch had stopped at twenty minutes to nine, and a clock in the room had stopped at twenty to nine…” There; there. I know nothing of days of the week; I know nothing of weeks of the year.’ Miss Havisham’s clock and watch have stopped at exactly the same time, which makes the reader wonder why. She has let herself slip into another world, where she doesn’t see any light and doesn’t care about the world outside; she has no contact with it.
The way Miss Havisham is described shows she is very old, and doesn’t care about her appearance. Dickens writes: ‘bride within the dress had withered like the dress…shrunk to skin and bone… now waxwork and skeleton’. Pip is wary of Miss Havisham because of her appearance. She wants Estella, her adopted daughter to make Pip fall in love with her, so that she can ‘break his heart’; that is what happened to Miss Havisham (she was abandoned on her wedding day at twenty minutes to nine). When Estella and Pip play cards Miss Havisham tells Estella to ‘beggar him’. The card game is called Beggar my Neighbour, Miss Havisham wants Estella to not only win the game but for her to make Pip fall in love with her as well as make him ready to beg for Estella’s attention.
Another example of how Dickens creates drama and suspense is the way he describes Estella. She is very disdainful and looks down on Pip. Dickens writes: ‘but he is a common labouring boy’. This is unusual because in the Victorian era women were seen as below men; rich women were expected to look pretty and not express opinions on important matters. Estella means star, and she is the one that controls the light in the dark passages. Dickens writes: ‘her light came along the dark passage like a star.’ Pip sees her as a star because she is very beautiful as well as being cold and unattainable, which makes it easier for Estella to do as Miss Havisham wishes.
In chapter twenty Pip goes to London, to live like a gentleman. Pip’s initial thought of London are that London is unpleasant: ‘I think I might have had some faint doubts about whether it was not rather ugly, crooked, narrow and dirty.’
Pip feels rather out of place in London; he isn’t used to their method of travelling in hackney coaches or the way in which the man in Mr Jagger’s office was treated. He isn’t sure of the manners or what to do upon arriving in London. Dickens writes: ‘I began to say that I hoped I was not interrupting- when the clerk shoved the gentleman out with as little ceremony as I ever saw used.’
Dickens makes London seem an awful place for Pip, when he describes Smithfield and the ‘drunken minister of justice outside Newgate Gaol.
Mr Jagger’s office is described in minute detail, and gives a negative impression for Pip. Dickens writes:’ …and the adjoining houses looking as if they had twisted themselves to peep down at me through it…’
There is a skylight in the office, and Dickens uses personification to create the effect of every house ‘looking’ down on Pip. It is patched over, and Dickens describes it as a ‘broken head’. There are many references to death such as a pistol, the ‘broken head’ of the skylight, the ‘coffin’ like chair which is described as ‘deadly’. There are also two casts which Pip wonders about: ‘casts of faces peculiarly swollen’ and the ‘odd litter around the room. Another strange thing is that ‘there were not many papers about’, which you wouldn’t expect because it is a solicitors office. All these things add up to the reader imagining Mr Jaggers as an unpleasant character, and wonder what secrets he has.
Eventually Pip is tired of waiting, so the clerk tells him to ‘go around h corner’. Pip arrives in Smithfield and concludes it is ‘a shameful place being asmear with filth and fat and blood and foam, seemed to stick to me. So I rubbed it off with all possible speed!’ Smithfield is the meat market and the reason it is ‘asmear’ with animal parts is because butchers used to cut fresh meat and throw the waste straight into the street. It would have smelt nauseating for Pip because he wouldn’t have been used to it. It makes the reader realize how awful it would have been with the smells and sights; it almost makes the reader fee unwell also.
Pip then turns another street and sees ‘a grim stone building which a bystander said was Newgate Prison.’ There is a sinister and uninviting atmosphere at Newgate Gaol, especially when Pip looks around where the gallows are, and is ‘sickened’ by London itself. He is shown the Debtors’ Door, and this I significant because Charles Dickens’ father was in prison for debt. Also people were publicly whipped there, and hanged. Crowds gather for the occasion which Pip thinks is ‘sickening’ and abominable. The man that shows Pip around has ‘mildewed clothes’ which he had evidently ‘bought cheap from the executioner.’ This shows how the executioners would sell the clothing of criminals he had executed.
Dickens also describes the moment Mr Jaggers comes out of court. Pip witnesses Mr Jaggers asking two men whether they have ‘paid Wemmick yet’. This shows that Mr Jaggers is accepting bribes, because he also says ‘If you say a word to me I’ll throw up the case.’ This makes Pip very suspicious of him. Another example of this is when Dickens describes the coachman at the beginning if the chapter: ‘A shilling unless you wish to make it more…I don’t want to get into any trouble. I know him! He darkly closed one eye at Mr Jaggers name and shook his head.’ The coachman obviously doesn’t like Mr Jaggers and gets fearful when he sees the name above the door, so consequently charges Pip less (or a fair price) because of where they are. Furthermore when Pip is in Mr Jagger’s office, he notices that ‘the clients seemed to have a habit of backing up against the wall: the wall, especially opposite Mr Jagger’s chair, being greasy with shoulders’. This proves that Mr Jaggers is not very pleasant to clients or other people he has dealings with.
In conclusion, Dickens’ use of setting makes the reader more able to imagine what life was like in the Victorian times, he describes everything, down to the way windows were boarded up and the time Miss Havisham’s watch had stopped. All throughout the novel; especially in chapters one, eight and twenty the setting adds drama and effect, it changes the mood of the characters and in particular the way the story unfolds into a happy ending.
Dickens has portrayed London, and what it was like in that time, very accurately and showed the horrors of Newgate Gaol without being too gruesome. I think that Dickens’ use of setting changes the whole story and makes it easier to read( with some of the language) for instance the first scene depicts a scene that is extremely frightening with black and anger, whereas in chapter twenty, Pip is grown up and excited to be in London.(even though he isn’t impressed with it). The story has a good moral, because it shows that things do not always end up like you expect, like Miss Havisham and Pip’s wealthy benefactor. In Dickens’ use of setting he adds mystery and suspense which keeps the reader engaged throughout all the chapters I have looked at and the whole book.
