Magwitch is used to reinforce Dickens’ opinion of law and punishment in Victorian times. In the first chapter Pip sees Magwitch walking towards the gibbet which is a strong image, ‘the other a gibbet, with some chains hanging to it which had once held a pirate.’ showing how Magwitch defied the establishment. Although he seems to be very evil and sinister in the first chapter it could actually be since we are seeing it through Pips eyes so there is fear mixed in with the true image of Magwitch, also since it turns out Magwitch is Pips benefactor it shows that most people were judged because of the way they looked. Dickens had very strong views about law and punishment because his father was sent to prison for being unable to pay his taxes so in a way Magwitch could be based on what happened to dickens’ father. Throughout the first chapter Magwitch is described with quite sinister language. Dickens reinforces the stereotype by manipulating Magwitchs dialect.
The appeal of the opening chapter for a Victorian reader is mainly the suspense and the darkness of the setting. Dickens used Pip to show the Victorian reader how poor children were treated, with no respect and no care. There was also a message being conveyed through Magwitch, which was the stereotyping of all poor people, and people who went to prison could be nice people. The setting and atmosphere appeal to a lot of Dickens’ target audience because it’s very gloomy and also quite lifelike for that time period. Dickens and a lot of Victorian people were going into a dark period of their lives because a lot of the streets and families were surrounded by death and disease.
Great Expectations and Oliver Twist are representatives of the works produced by Charles Dickens over his lifetime. These novels exhibit many similarities - perhaps because they both reflect painful experiences that occurred in Dickens' past.
During his childhood, Charles Dickens suffered much abuse from his parents. This abuse is often expressed in his novels. Pip, in Great Expectations, talked often about the abuse he received at the hands of his sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery. On one occasion he remarked, "I soon found myself getting heavily bumped from behind in the nape of the neck and the small of the back, and having my face ignominously shoved against the wall, because I did not answer those questions at sufficient length." While at the orphanage, Oliver from Oliver Twist also experienced a great amount of abuse. For example, while suffering from starvation and malnutrition for a long period of time, Oliver was chosen by the other boys at the orphanage to request more gruel at dinner one night. After making this simple request, "the master (at the orphanage) aimed a blow at Oliver's head with the ladle; pinioned him in his arms; and shrieked aloud for the beadle." This again reflects how dickens thought children shouldn’t be treated.
Estella is a character that tends to be a snob although she is absolutely gorgeous. Estella’s level of compassion is inhumanly low for she tells Pip not to love her because; all she will do is break his heart seeing as she does not know how to love. Estella has no ability to love and is a monster. She is still looking out for Pip, trying not to break his heart but she has been raised to break his heart so she really has no choice. Second, Estella’s view on a person’s rank is society is a crucial point to the relationship they will have with her since, when Pip becomes a gentleman; Estella calls Pip, Pip instead of boy. This is a form of respect for Pip to call him by his proper name. Because this was the treatment while he was a gentleman and not while he is a blacksmith, she is showing that she has more respect for Pip with a higher rank in society. Further, Estella’s relationship with Pip is equivalent to a cat and a mouse for she is a tease to him such as when he gets her tea and she says, “‘we are not free to follow our own devices, you and I’”. Thus giving him false hope. Dickens leaves it a mystery what really happened to Pip and Estella.
Along with being Pip's brother in-law, Joe is also a father figure to Pip. He tries to protect Pip from his wife's angry outbursts but sometimes finds that she would hit him and Pip even harder when he tried to protect Pip. However, in spite of that, Joe seems to genuinely love Pip and is one of Pip's only true friends. Joe is delighted to have Pip for an apprentice but doesn't want to stand in Pip's way. When Pip lies about having the way he spent his first day at Miss Havisham's, he confesses his lie to Joe. Joe lectures Pip on lying and Pip wants Joe to see him as 'good'.
Over the course of the novel, you can see a clear change and development in the relationship between Pip and Magwitch. Initially, Magwitch is introduced to Pip and the reader as a particularly cruel escaped convict; the descriptions of Magwitch are initially met with a sense of fear, from the reader and from Pip. However, later in the novel, Magwitch is re-introduced as Pip's mysterious benefactor and this time, the ambiguity of the situation and our sympathy for Pip make us feel a sense of admiration and content with the actions of this new benefactor; Magwitch.
The ending of this book is quite different to most of his other books because he changed it and made it happier. The first ending was more realistic and connected to his life but when he changed it and made it happier although he never said what truly happened it could be said that this was the ending he wanted for his own life.
It begins with a mournful impression–the foggy marshes spreading drearily by the seaward Thames–and throughout recurs this effect of cold and damp and dreariness; in that kind Dickens never did anything so good." All the isolation of childhood is there in the first chapter. The first chapter immediately involves the reader because of Pip's terrifying encounter with the convict and the humor with which the chapter is infused. Dickens skillfully introduces several major themes in it. Pip is alone, physically alone in the cemetery and solitary in being an orphan; his aloneness prefigures the isolation he will experience later in the novel. His illusions about his family's tombstones are comic and convincing as the sort of misreading that a child might make; they also introduce the theme of failure to communicate.
