Dickens uses a technique where he uses the first person point of view to make the story more personal and to help draw the attention of the readers. This helps us to radiant compassion towards Pip as we feel what he feels, and think what he thinks. Pip is looking back at his childhood in the novel. This helps to create a s sense of humour because Pip is able to use a nostalgic way of looking at his childhood. However this does not stop him from using a matter of fact tone, he does use a posh, proper English in the opening chapters which creates a feeling that even someone who had nothing made something of himself and become something great, so this a message to the poor that there is hope for them. This shows that Dickens expresses a great deal of sympathy for those who are disadvantaged and have a poor quality of life. The narrative voice contributed to the success and effect of the story because it was Pip who told the story and this in its self adds emotion's like sympathy to the novel and furthermore Pip is able to add extra details and thoughts to display sympathy. The narrative voice of Pip helps to make up the story and shape the readers ideas of the novel. However Dickens carefully separates the narrating Pip and the Pip acting it out. This creates a sense of maturity and a sense of childish feelings which create sympathy for the Pip. Pip has a variety of childish fantasy such as “The shape of the letters on my father’s grave, gave me an odd idea that he was a square, stout, dark man, with curly black hair.... ‘also Georgiana wife of the above... mother was freckled and sickly”. These descriptions portray a source of empathy for Pip because he doesn’t even know what his parents look like and the narrative voice creates humour here when in actual fact there isn’t anything to laugh about. Pip the narrator generates sympathy for young Pip because he observes and points faults in Pip childhood.
Pips family and early childhood form consideration towards Pip because he had a tough childhood and had to survive without any real love of happiness expect for his brother in law Joe. He doesn’t really have any friends to play with and by the looks of it does not have any toys or any playing facilities. Pip the narrator creates sympathy because he tells his childhood in a matter of fact, blunt tone that makes it sound harsher than it is. Pips early childhood is surrounded in darkness and grief because he has no family love, no where to play, hardly any food to eat and has to deal which nasty treatment he receives from his sister. “Bought up by hand” creates sympathy for Pip because there are really two meanings to this phrase, one is that it means to be bought up and cared for by someone, and the other meaning is to be beaten up. For Pip the second of the two meanings is more relevant and this creates sympathy for him. Pips family is very small consisting of his sister Mrs Joe Gargery and her husband Joe. This is because the rest of his family are dead. He has no memory of who they and doesn’t even have a picture of them so has no idea what they were like, or what they looked like. He cans only imagine what his parents were like based on what there gravestones looked like and inscriptions of their graves. “Square, stout man... sickly”. These are the descriptions of what he thinks his father and mother look like. He also had “five little bothers...who gave up trying to live exceedingly early in that universal struggle.” This shows that he doesn’t know any of them he only has a number and names from the grave. This also portrays the belief that dickens believed that in those times people used to have big families because in most cases most of the children would die. So this renders Pip a mostly family less type orphan and dickens would normally make his hero a poor unfortunate boy that made something of his life.
Dickens characterisation of Pips family was clearly done to add more consideration for Pip. Especially the character of his sister Mrs Joe Gargery, who is described as “prevailing redness of skin... tall and bony” This descriptions give us the impression that she looked like a long, hard, stick like figure who was ugly, unkind and a person to be feared of. The description of her clothes “a square impregnable big in front that was stuck full of pins and needles” shows that she isn’t huggable and makes you think of it as a sort of armour that she uses to protect herself and not let anyone get close to her. This may be due to a number of reasons such as she lost most of her family early on in life and has to learn to deal with and to bring up a child that isn’t hers as well as that she feels she is being bought down by the fact that she is “ the wife of a blacksmith”. This generates sympathy for Pip because his last blood related relative is a nasty, unkind lady who he can’t compare himself to because she is a lot older than he is and can’t defend himself against the “Tickler” which is a “wax-ended piece of cane” that he gets beaten up with and by the description “worn smooth by collision with my tickled frame” he gets beaten up often. The guilt that his sister creates in him asking too many questions or being a burden to bring up are all things that create sympathy for Pip. The other characterisation that displays sympathy for Pip is the convict who he meets in the churchyard. Just the place he meets him is dark place that is shadowed in grief and anguish. The convict is described as “a fearful man, all in coarse grey, with an great iron on his leg. This gives the reader a picture of a scary, ugly man who is to be avoided. The description of his clothes of lack of clothes is “no hat... broken shoes...old rag tied around his head” This gives you an impression that he is someone who has lived the hard way and is rough and ruthless. The description of his skin “soaked in water... smothered in mud... lamed by stones... and cut by flints” shows that he is dangerous and the thought of being cut gives an impression of a knife cutting his body. This portrays Dickens belief that convicts, even though they have done bad things do not deserve to be beaten and torched so badly. Also the place he has come from “hulks” is a scary place to be so it is understood why he has become this bad. The actions that this man does are scary and nasty to a small child because he says things like “you little Devil or I’ll cut your throat” are scary things to say to someone. The “Devil” part shows that in this time religion meant a lot to these people even people who are thought of as low. The section where the convict “turned me upside down and emptied out my pockets” is something very scary to happen to a child that is small, and it is something that doesn’t normally happen, you don’t just go and turn someone upside down for no reason. But what was sadder was the fact that when he did this all that came out of Pips pocket was “a piece of bread” which emphasise how poor Pip actually is. Or the way he calls Pip a “Dog” just shows his rudeness and displays Pip as a small, low, vulnerable person. On the other hand a thing that displays a sense of hope is the way that Dickens describes Pips brother-in-law Joe as “fair man, with curls of flaxen hair...smooth face...eyes of a very undecided blue” This description makes Joe look like some sort of knight in shining armour to Pip because he is the only person who shows any sort of love towards Pip. The description of Joe’s eyes being a blue makes them sound like a beautiful sea colour that is smooth and cool. But description of them being “undecided” makes him sound like a small, lost child, sort of like Pip. The part about Joe being “also bought up by hand” makes him sound like a poor, torched boy, when in actual fact in Victorian times the man where supposed to be the stronger, more demanding person but here the roles seem to be reversed. This part bought a lot of controversy to Dickens novel because to a certain extent it mocked the Victorian people. Dickens cleverly made a contrast between Pips sister and her husband to make Pips sound a lot worse because she is being compared to her kind hearted husband.
His relationship with his sister is cold and loveless. It is unlike normal family relationships because in normal families the sister would really care for her brother and husband, instead of beating them up. Pip doesn’t feel he can share anything with his sister such as the incident with the convict. Pip’s sister isn’t someone you can hug and depend on. Instead for Pip she is someone to be feared and to be crossed. He has to do everything she tells him to he will get beaten up. The guilt that she imbeds in his mind about the burden he has caused her “bought you up” makes him feel as if he shouldn’t be there. She also makes it sound like everything is his fault which of course it isn’t. Dickens has cleverly compared Pips relationship with his sister which is unkind, cold against Pips relationship with her husband Joe which is kind and loving to give it more affect to make it sound spiteful and nasty.
Pips’ meeting with the convict emits sympathy for him because it shows us the type of people he met with in his childhood and how this may affect him in the future. The convict is one of the main people to change Pip because the convict shows real fear to Pip and creates all these thoughts and emotions in Pip. They meet in a church where Pips family are buried; the church is a rotting, with a nettle covered church yard. The convict demands him to do things, he threatens him and creates dread in Pip. The way he turns Pip upside down and empty’s his pockets just shows that he is crazy and absolutely ruthless. The way he demands Pip to get him “wittles...file”. This creates sympathy for Pip because this man is asking him for food when he doesn’t have much himself. But in his fear and the threat that “your heart and your liver...roasted and ate” will come true. This also portrays a childish fantasy of this man who is with the convict who he compares himself to as an “angel” which makes the other sound like a beast, a ugly thing that will hunt Pip at any time. Of course Pip doesn’t understand that this man doesn’t exist. The thought of him being haunted in his “bed” also makes Pip want to help the convict.
The worst part of the two opening chapters is it was Christmas Eve when these events occur which is supposed to be a time of happiness and festive, but for Pip it isn’t, instead it is a time of fear, anguish and a time to be afraid of what his sister is going to do to him and what the man with the convict would do to him if he did not get what he wants to.
The evidence of the hard times they live is the types of house they live in that are “wooden houses as many dwellings in our country” This shows that the wooden houses that aren’t very compatible and could break or be torn apart by any natural disaster are very common where he lives. The view on society about classes mattered because it showed he was extremely poor and was looked down on by others. There was also a sense that nobody really cares what happens to Pip. There was also evidence showed that convicts are looked down on and are treated badly, but what surprised the convict most was Pips kindness towards the convict. The chapters are left on cliff-hangers because Dickens used to have the chapters put in local papers for people to read about. The books are about normal people who are normally poor or at a disadvantage and also the books are very controversial which is why the books where very different and had a great effect to society.
The opening is the main pivotal chapters of Pips life because Pip decides that he must now improve himself and overcome his bad fortunes. He does later on meet up with the convict so should be grateful to what he did when he was a kid because if he hadn’t he would not have become a gentlemen. But the narrative voice only focuses on the bad things that Pip does as a child because he feels that when he did those things for the convict he destined himself to become a snob. This is one thing that Dickens does to convey sympathy for Pip because he is so innocent and small that he makes careless mistakes.
In conclusion Dickens creates sympathy for Pip a in a number of ways such as the settings and surroundings that are conveyed in the first two chapters. He also creates sympathy for Pip through Pip family and early childhood and the childish fantasy’s that Pip creates in his mind. Dickens characterisation was I think the best of all the ways to create sympathy for Pip because he made one of the only blood related family relatives a unkind, nasty, evil person. The way he introduces the convict that later on impacts Pips life greatly conveys sympathy because he threatens pip and says nasty things to pip. The part about it being Christmas eve was a sad and tormenting thing because the connotations of Christmas eve is happiness which it was not for him.
