These three opening paragraphs have a cumulative effect via the long sentences. They end with ‘ the small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry was Pip.’ The one small word at the end, Pip, helps create sympathy. It has a huge build up of long sentences but at the end of it all is tiny Pip.
The opening of Chapter 8 is similar to the opening of Chapter 1. Dickens uses the same ideas of the first chapter to create sympathy. When Pip first enters Miss Havisham’s room there was ‘No glimpse of daylight.’ This makes us feel sorry for Pip as like in the opening of chapter 1 he is in a dark and scary place. Children are usually afraid of the dark so we immediately feel sympathy for Pip. The setting of this chapter is in Miss Havisham’s dressing room. It is a place ‘quite unknown’ to him as he is from a lower social class. This was the way things were in Dickens’s time. He himself faced a lot of barriers because of social class. We feel sorry for Pip as he is in this strange new place which would be quite intimidating to a child, like the marshes he was in at the opening of chapter 1.
The opening then changes from the opening of Chapter 1. Dickens creates sympathy for Miss Havisham. We see Miss Havisham through Pips eyes and we see here surroundings. From this we learn her story. She was going to be married, and the room she is set in is her dressing room. ‘ She was dressed in rich materials – satins, lace, silk – all of white.’ A wedding dress is traditionally white therefore this gives us a clue of her marriage. Dickens uses keywords and phrases that create sympathy for Miss Havisham as we learn her story. Pip sees ‘half-packed trunks, scattered about,’ and he sees that ‘she had not quite finished dressing,’ and ‘her veil was but half arranged,’ and ‘all confusedly heaped about the looking glass.’ From this we come to the conclusion that something happened that interrupted the wedding. We feel sorry for Miss Havisham as her wedding was stopped. The sentences in this section are long and descriptive which makes you read it slowly. This creates a melancholy tone to it and that results in sympathy.
Pip also notices that ‘everything that ought to be white had been white Long ago, and had lost its lustre, and was faded and yellow.’ This gives us an idea of how long ago it was that this event took place. It also makes us feel sorry for Miss Havisham as all these beautiful white things of hers have lost their ‘lustre’ and are no good anymore like ‘the bride within the bridal dress, had withered with the dress.’ This is referring to Miss Havisham so we immediately feel sorry for her. The word withered gives us an image of somebody who is close to death and ill. It also tells us that she has been in this dress for along time, since the wedding! We begin to ask ourselves what happened at this wedding and why has Miss Havisham kept everything the same as it was on the wedding day for such a long time?
Dickens uses keywords like ‘Sunken eyes’ and ‘skin and bone.’ Sunken is a word that refers to a ship sinking. Skin and bone makes us fink of a dead body, or someone very week, ‘There just skin and bone.’ This creates a very negative image of Miss Havisham, creating more sympathy for her. Finally Pip compares Miss Havisham to ‘ Waxwork and skeleton’ that he had seen in previous experiences that he did not enjoy. We feel sympathy for Pip and Miss Havisham, as Pip is again frightened and Miss Havisham is being compared to death and other things that would be considered as disgusting. We ask ourselves another question. What could have happened to this woman that was so bad to make her the way she is? Both openings are similar to each other. The tone in both is very melancholy and they both leave us asking questions, left in suspense.
After the opening of Chapter 1 we see a dialogue. After Pip had begun to cry a ‘fearful’ man approaches him and says ‘Hold your noise! Keep still you little devil or I’ll cut your throat!’ This instantly creates sympathy for Pip as he is already frightened and now he has been suprised and Magwitch is threatening him. We can tell Pip is frightened as he describes Magwitch’s voice as ‘terrible’ and he calls Magwitch a ‘fearful man.’ However dickens plays down Pips fear as the story is written in 1st person narration meaning it is an adult Pip looking back on this situation. This adult Pip knows what’s going to happen so he writes it from his perspective now and not his perspective when he was a child (little Pip). Dickens then goes on to creating sympathy for Magwitch. Pip is looking back and seeing how Magwitch had ‘a great iron on his leg, broken shoes, lamed by stones, cut by flints and nettles, who limped and shivered.’ This creates juxtaposition as dickens was creating sympathy for Pip but has now made a contrast between the two by creating sympathy for Magwitch.
Magwitch then takes control of the situation. He turns Pip ‘upside down.’ That gives us a sense of Pips helplessness creating yet more sympathy for him. Magwitch shouts commands to Pip. He says ‘Tell us your name! Quick!’ This reinforces our sympathy for Pip and him being helpless. Now he is isolated and alone with a frightening character. As Magwitch eats Pips bread ‘ravenously’ he tells Pip ‘Wha fat cheeks you ha’ got.’ Pip thinks to himself ‘I was at that time undersized for my years and not strong.’ This makes us think whether this is the adult Pip looking back. Who is telling us this characterisation? The 1st person Narration shows us how Pip as an adult responds sympathetically to Magwitch.
Dickens creates irony and humour when Magwitch asks were Pips mother is. Pip replies rite there, referring to his mother’s gravestone, Magwitch immediately panics and runs off. Then he doubles back and realises what Pip is talking about. This also creates sympathy as Magwitch is obviously on the run and living in fear. Dickens then creates an Antithesis, balance of opposites, when he writes ‘his eyes looked most powerfully down into mine, and mine most helplessly up into his.’ This makes us feel sorry for Pip, as he is helpless. This Interrogation from Magwitch carries on and creates tension and urgency on behalf of Magwitch. Dickens uses repetition to reinforce Pips helplessness as it has a rhythmic effect. ‘He tilted me,’ ‘He tilted me again.’ Magwitch keeps giving these commands as Pip keeps on begging, which is again a balance of opposites.
As Magwitch is bullying Pip we feel sorry for him as it shows how desperate he is. He threatens Pip into doing what he wants. He says ‘a boy may lock his door, may tuck himself up, may think himself safe, but...’ This repetition of May creates a rhythmic effect and the sentence builds up to a but that turns into a threat and warning. Magwitch then reinforces his commands and leaves Pip frightened and stuttering ‘Goo-good night, sir.’ As he walks away he says ‘I wish I were a frog or a eel!’ This tells us that Magwitch would rather be an animal than a human being because of the situation he is in.
After Pips encounter with Miss Havisham he begins to interact with her. We already know Pip is afraid of Miss Havisham, and quite frightened of her surrounding decayed wedding. Dickens creates sympathy for Miss Havisham when she asks Pip what she is touching as she places her hands on her heart. She describes it, as ‘broken’ which reinforces are ideas of her being jilted at her wedding. As she does this Pip thinks of the ‘young man’ Magwitch had told him about. This could be the adult Pip looking back. We ask ourselves what is this young man’s part in the story? While Miss Havisham talks to Pip she says things that create a lot of sympathy for her. For example she ‘sometimes has sick fancies.’ We feel sorry for her as she is strange, and having her heart broken has turned her into a weird person.
Havisham’s sick fancy is to see Pip play. We feel sorry for Pip as she has put him on the spot, and he feels awkward. He says ‘she could hardly have directed an unfortunate boy to do anything in the wide world more difficult.’ We also feel more sympathy for Pip as Dickens creates a comparison between Pip and Miss Havisham. Havisham says ‘so new to him, so old to me, so strange to him, so familiar to me, so melancholy to the both of us.’ This also creates sympathy for Miss Havisham. We feel sorry for Pip as he is in this strange, melancholy place but we feel even more sorry for Miss Havisham as she is in this strange, melancholy place all the time. The sentence uses repetition then comes to a similarity between the two, a comparison.
When Pip calls for Estella he describes her as a star (Simile) and from this we realise that Pip likes Estella and has feelings for her. However Estella mocks Pip because of his social class, which was a common thing in Dickens time, and he uses it as a theme in many of his other novels. She says ‘Why he is a common Labouring boy!’ We feel sorry for Pip as he is again being bullied. Estella calls him ‘boy’ as an adult would even though she is of a similar age. This shows us that she looks down on poor Pip. Miss Havisham whispers to Estella ‘You can break his heart.’ This shows how she hates the male sex and we feel sorry for her and Pip. As they begin to play cards Pip makes another comparison of Miss Havisham to a ‘corpse.’ Which portrays an image of death and decay in the once white room now turned yellow. The tone is melancholy and there is a similar eerie feeling as in chapter 1. Miss Havisham is being compared to death and Magwitch is in a graveyard.
At the ending of Chapter 1 Pip watches Magwitch walk away as ‘hugged his shuddering body’ and we feel sorry for Magwitch being cold, helpless and hungry. We get the feeling that Magwitch could be caught at any time when Pip says ‘to get a twist on his ankle and pull him in’ and because they’re in a graveyard there is an eerie feeling. Magwitch is looking at a gibbet as he walks away and that emphasises that he does not want to be caught and hung like the other criminals on this gibbet. Pip watches Magwitch walk up2 this gibbet and sees him as a ‘Pirate come to life, going back to hook himself up again.’ Pip is relating Magwitch to another criminal. We feel more sympathy for the two characters as Pip runs home, frightened ‘without stopping’ and Magwitch walks through the desolate marshland in fear of capture.
The ending to chapter 8 is similar. Estella is humiliating Pip, he says ‘I was so humiliated, hurt, spurned, offended, angry, sorry.’ This makes us feel very sorry for Pip as Estella has made a fool of him and he is crying. Like Miss Havisham had asked, Estella broke his heart.
