In the opening chapter, Dickens furthermore introduces another character; an escaped convict named Magwitch. Before anything is learned about this character, the reader is immediately alerted to Magwitch’s personality, as he gives the reader an idea that he is a very threatening and violent person. ‘A terrible voice.’ This is an effective technique as the use of the word ‘terrible’ is a form of emotive language, so it can create a brief idea of what Magwitch is like. Additionally, the connotations of this word ‘terrible’ are generally associated with a frightening and unpleasant character. ‘Keep still you little devil, or I’ll cut your throat!’ From this quote, Magwitch creates very threatening and violent imagery. He uses an imperative verb to show an instruction and emphasise his point, the reader then quickly identifies more information about Magwitch through this quote; that he is very demanding. As a reader, we show sympathy towards Pip and we want to help him and keep him away from this aggressive character. If Dickens causes the reader to react in this way, it shows that he is looking to create tension and suspense as we want to know what happens to Pip. A further significant quote for Magwitch is a description given by Dickens ‘A man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints.’ This is a revelation to the reader who realises why Magwitch is so aggressive. This quote shows the reader that Magwitch had lived a harsh life and got very poor and injured from it, it shows his vulnerability and his aggression is in reality, his own insecurity; he is a very obscure character. This quote in addition is written like a list with a repetition of the word ‘and’, these just highlight the amount of hardships Magwitch has had in his life; every single one is an obstacle put in place for him to get over, which has left him in an insecure state. Dickens also uses the alliteration of the hard ‘g’ sound to describe Magwitch’s appearance. ‘Glared and growled.’ This is an effective use of animal imagery, which links back to the ‘savage lair’ which was the description of the setting which is also like home to an animal. At this point, Pip is outside the marshes, which means he is out of his comfort zone, which has thus led him to meet this outspoken man who is like an animal. This shows that Magwitch’s appearance is animalistic; Dickens links the setting to this character, showing animalistic nature. Furthermore, the hard ‘g’ sound shows the harshness in Magwitch’s tone of voice, thus emphasising how much of a danger could be to Pip with this animalistic nature and appearance and aggressive tone of voice. Dickens juxtaposes these two personalities of Pip and Magwitch. Pip is a very polite, shy and reserved character, whereas Magwitch is very outspoken, aggressive and violent.
At the start of Chapter 8, Dickens introduces the reader to Miss Havisham’s house, ironically named Satis House. This is an ironic metaphor that Dickens has placed here to make the reader think of the word ‘satisfied’, which suggest that this house has everything to keep an individual satisfied for eternity. This then gives the reader the expectation that this house is beautiful and affluent for Pip to go to and be satisfied. Ironically, the woman who is living there is very dissatisfied and Dickens describes the character from the description of the house she lives in; the house is a metaphor for her current state. She was jilted at the altar as she was about to married, which had left her in a bad mental state for the rest of her life; she is very lonely and has secluded herself from the outside world. The house is described by Dickens as ‘old, brick and dismal.’ This then indicates the house is not cared for, which is additionally a metaphor for the woman living there, as it seems she is not cared for; she’s falling apart and doesn’t care or look after herself. ‘Old brick’ can be taken as a metaphor for Miss Havisham’s life as it crumbled away like an old brick would do. Another way Dickens links the house to the character of Miss Havisham is shown through ‘the cold wind seemed to blow colder there...it made a shrill noise.’ This technique Dickens uses is pathetic fallacy as he describes the house and the mood at that time. Dickens creates tension and a sense of foreboding here, as if something abnormal is going to happen and there is something not right about the house. ‘Cold wind’ reflects the character Miss Havisham, how she is very cold hearted and the word ‘shrill’ makes her sound bitter and sharp. However, there is still some good in her as reflected in the quote ‘the passages were all dark, and that she had left a candle burning there.’ The candle suggests that out of all this darkness, there is a flicker of hope for Miss Havisham. Dickens uses foreboding here, as there is a possibility that something significant could happen to Miss Havisham to make her happy again. This also links to the title of the novel which can show further into the novel, there is a great expectation that many significant things are going to happen to everyone including Miss Havisham. However, this quote can further indicate about how she lives in darkness as the darkness of the room represents the darkness of her life, as she was humiliated at the altar; in the 1800’s this was seen to be very potent as being left by a man is seen as a disgrace.
After being introduced to her house, we are fully introduced to Miss Havisham through Dickens thorough description of her. ‘She was dressed in rich materials, satins, and lace, and silks, all of white.’ This demonstrates that she’s very affluent as she is upper class, unlike Pip and Magwitch who are working class. The repetition of the word ‘and’ emphasises that this woman has everything she wants as she has a nice house and clothes, but her soul is empty. The word ‘white’ makes the reader think of purity and innocence, something that Miss Havisham used to have until she got jilted at the altar and is now left in this state now. Dickens further goes on to describe how she has ‘lost its lustre, and was fooled and yellow.’ This gives the reader the grotesque image of her started to decay, along with her ambitions and hopes; she will never be the same again. The repetition of the word ‘and’ emphasises she has had a lot of stress and shows she hasn’t had the most simple life. Dickens uses a descriptive metaphor to describe the state of Miss Havisham. ‘Skeleton in the ashes of a rich dress.’ Her appearance is effectively described here as the reader gets the image of a very thin and pale woman who is withdrawn from society and secluded from the rest of the world. Dickens also uses death imagery here with the word ‘ashes.’ It shows that Miss Havisham has been burned and extinguished like her dreams which have withered away; it is evident that she will never love again.
Miss Havisham is not a stereotypical woman of the 1800’s; women in that time period were expected to be chaste, silent and obedient as females were seen as the inferior sex. Also, unlike any other woman in those times, she did not have to marry to get into a high social class as she was already there. Miss Havisham despises men, as she always voices her negativity about them ever since she was jilted at the altar; she was in love once with a man, who genuinely broke her heart, so she has lost faith in all men. This is what had made her so bitter towards Pip. Miss Havisham is an example of someone who was upper class because she is very wealthy; on the contrary, Pip is working class because we’re told that his brother-in-law is a blacksmith, which is seen to be a very menial job. We know that Miss Havisham speaks in a formal, commanding tone using Standard English when she says ‘play.’ This is a very direct, commanding imperative verb. She uses this tone as she has no regard for anyone below her on the social class ladder. She demonstrates that she is very self centred as she always uses ‘I.’ This then shows she’s been so used to being alone, she has never had to worry about other people’s feelings. Miss Havisham is very cruel and manipulative, because of her high position in society, she feels she can treat people of a poorer class with less respect and dignity, ‘you can break his heart.’ This quote is said to Estella about Pip, this is said because Pip is not very important because he isn’t rich. Miss Havisham clearly feels she is superior to working class Pip. Dickens shows that the higher classes controlled society in the 1800’s. Through the character of Miss Havisham, it shows that the way society was controlled was unfair; the rich dominated the poor. This then demonstrates the injustice and the divide between the rigid social class systems; as movement between the classes was rare. Dickens illustrates that the family you’re born into, determines what social class you are in. On the other hand, Dickens disagrees with how society was like. Estella, Miss Havisham’s niece, is also upper class due to the fact that she has been brought up by Miss Havisham; the language she uses is also formal and she uses many imperative verbs, ‘boy.’ This is a very derogatory term, which is very offensive towards Pip; Estella, like Miss Havisham is also a commanding person. Estella is aware that she is in a higher social class than Pip; therefore she thinks she is superior with no regard for other people’s feelings. ‘Come here boy.’ This shows the reader that Estella doesn’t even want to get to know this boy just because of his social class. She again, is very brutal and insulting towards Pip. ‘You’re a common working, labouring boy.’ We know that Pip has taken offence because of this comment as he says ‘she’s very insulting.’ Instead of getting angry at this comment, he’s very reserved and collected when Miss Havisham asks him how we feels of Estella to which Pip replies ‘I shouldn’t like to say.’ he is expected that he would be quite rude and immature, but Dickens shows that our preconceptions of the working class boy were not correct. From this quote it shows he is deeply respectful and he manages to retain his dignity. Pip is always respectful and well-mannered throughout even though he is of working class.
The author of ‘Great Expectations’, Charles Dickens is widely renowned for his flamboyant descriptions of characters and settings. He was in born in 1812 which is approximately the time when this novel was set. Dickens suffered a bad childhood as his father suffered imprisonment for bad debt, so Dickens was sent to a workhouse, where he once again suffered as he had to work in bad conditions and for long hours; this left him upset and lonely. Dickens is similar to the character of Pip in the novel as Pip also had a troubled childhood with no real parental guidance. This then means that the thoughts, feeling s and experiences of Pip are very vivid because these are based around Dickens own personal experiences. The moral of ‘Great Expectations’ then is that even through thick and thin, like the harsh conditions and bad childhood of both Dickens and Pip, through hard work and dedication you could become successful, like Dickens did who established himself as a very famous writer. Dickens moral through Miss Havisham tell us that money cannot buy you happiness or love. Dickens message in the story particularly was that it doesn’t matter of your social class; each individual is responsible for their own actions.
In conclusion, I think that Dickens uses his flamboyant language techniques to create effective descriptions of the characters and setting by making the characters contrast with each other to successfully show how times were like back in the 1800’s. Through his description of the setting, he manages to make a clear image in the head of the reader on what the setting is like, and this setting usually reflects the mood in the scene at the time, so he helps to create tension and suspense successfully. The novel suggests to me that in future, great things are to come for Pip as the novel is named ‘Great Expectations’ which means that there is a high possibility of something significant happening to Pip as he has the opportunity to grow.
