“My father’s family name...I give Pirrip”
It is very important to use 1st person narration due to the fact that Pip is telling information about himself. We learn things about him, for example, that he’s family name is Pirrip and his Christian name is Pirrip. So he has to use ‘I and my’ to explain.
Dickens uses a dual perspective in the novel which is the small, childish Pip and the older, more mature Pip to tell Pip’s story.
“Don’t cut my throat, sir, I pleaded in terror...I give Pirrip as my father’s family name.”
Dickens uses dual perspective by showing the small, frightened Pip and then the more mature, older Pip. By using this technique it shows the readers the two different sides of Pip and explains about himself, his styles and what has happened with him. We learn a lot by this technique because we can see two different sides of Pip and see how he changed and was in the past. There is a big difference is style of speech of the small Pip and the older Pip. The small Pip is a frightened and a polite young man.
"O! Don't cut my throat, sir," I pleaded in terror. "Pray don't do it, sir."
This shows that Pip is a well mannered and shy person, whereas, the older one is more mature and more classy type of character.
“As I never saw my father or my mother, and never saw any likeness of either of them (for their days were long before the days of photographs), my first fancies regarding what they were like, were unreasonably derived from their tombstones. The shape of the letters on my father's, gave me an odd idea that he was a square, stout, dark man, with curly black hair.”
This shows that the older Pip is well educated and has a good style of speech, he uses words like ‘derived’ and ‘stout’. The reader notices that Pips language has changed and this might be due to Pip being taught how to become a true gentleman, which meant he had to change his style of dressing, talking and Behaviour. His tone also changed as he was being taught how to become a gentleman. The action takes place in a marsh country where it was deserted and under populated. Beyond The marshes was a church and behind that church was a graveyard where Pips parents lay. This was the centre of which the action took place. In the story you get clues telling you that this is not a modern story because the story was made long before pictures where invented and another clue would be that a young boy aged 8-14 would not be in a graveyard all on his own but he would be in his house playing with toys and watching television. This makes the atmosphere of this story seem dull and gloomy and at the same time it makes us feel sorry for Pip because all he had lost where the most valuable to him (e.g. his family).
Charles Dickens uses Pathetic Fallacy to reflect Pip’s emotions. Pathetic Fallacy is when a characters are reflected and emphasised by the weather. Pathetic Fallacy is used in the first chapter in descriptions such as the “windy cold gloomy” marshes in which Pip first encounters the convict. Pip is really scared,
“Wind was rushing... I was dreadfully frightened”.
This shows that Pip was really scared, Pip is all alone in the dark, windy marshes confronting a stranger. Dickens uses the ‘windy and dark’ weather to reflect Pips emotions. The weather is frightening and so is Pip. That’s how Dickens uses the weather to link it with Pip’s emotions.
In the first chapter, Pip is described to be a quite boy, a boy who has lost his family. Pip is described to be a boy who is always visited the graveyards and he is also described to be a gentle boy who is nothing more than a lower class person and a blacksmiths son. Pip is also described to be kind person who kept his words. My impressions about Pip at the end of chapter one are that Pips life views have been changed by one man and this man is the convict. In the opening paragraph I think that the significant part is about Pip being in the graveyard and meeting with the convict because I believe that if the two did not meet them the story would not be able to progress.
As Pip grows up his speech becomes sophisticated as he is being taught to become a gentleman. We start to notice this when we get to the part of the story where Pip meets a young women named Estella.
The significance of the convict’s speech is that when Pip gets older and much sophisticated we can compare the two from when Pip used to talk like the convict to when his speech has been improved. We can then have an idea of how far Pips education has improved from when he was young. Our impression of the convict is that he was not well educated; you can tell this because of the way the convict speaks.
The other way you can tell that the two characters are in contrast with each other is that; Pip uses good manners on the other hand the convict is disrespecting Pip.
“He looked up into my young eyes as if he were eluding the hands of the dead people”
Dickens uses the quote above to show us that that the convict has more power over Pip by the convict looking down at Pip.
When Pip and the convict meet, the convict’s behaviour is presented to be poor compared to Pips. Pip behaves politely to the convict. The convict might behave like this because he is under educated and he also could be like this because he has come out of prison and he is used to that type of language/speech. The effect that this might have on Pip is that Pip now might have a different view on things.
The expectations that we have for the rest of the story are for the convicted to be captured and for Pip to end up like the convict, poor, uneducated etc…
The events that we expect to happen in the first paragraph are for the main character Pip, to have a family and to be a happy child like all the other books. We also expect to be given information about the plot, setting, and information on the characters.
In chapter one we are given a rough sketch of where Pip lived and we are given information on his family but hardly any information on Pip.
Charles Dickens has chosen to capture the reader’s interest by making the first paragraph sad so that the readers would feel sympathetic and for Pip and see how Pip grows up and what he gets up to. I believe that this is what would make readers want to read want to know what happens in the rest of the story.
To conclude, I think that the great expectation opening is so effective because it gives us information about Pips family background. I think that the opening chapter will get the readers interest and make him/her want to read more.
I think that dickens has entertained the reader because of the layout and plot of the story.
From this type of novel and because this is an fictional novel I would expect to know the main characters life story e.g. where he lived, age, gender etc
I think that we are drawn into the story of the character Pip because the story is all about him and because Dickens writes it in a way that would want people to read more. We can relate the title to rest of the story because at the end of chapter 1 we expect something to happen to him.