How is chapter 1 an effective opening to the novel Great Expectations?

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How is chapter 1 an effective opening to the novel ‘Great Expectations’?

In the opening chapters of any novel, the reader expects to be entertained in order for him to keep reading. The reader should expect to find good and interesting language.

Charles Dickens gives the reader a title to hint at what the story might be about. The title ‘Great Expectations’ is exactly what the novel is about. It’s about a young man called Pip, he wants to get out of his state of poverty and get rich, as the title suggests he expects great things in the future. We know that that there are two voices in the novel, so we might wonder how the adult Pip has become educated.

The genre of this novel is historical fictional autobiography or Pseudo autobiography which means that Pip is a character created by Dickens. Dickens shows this by explaining Pips life in chronological order, for example,

“My father’s family name being Pirrip and my Christian name Phillip…I drew a childish conclusion.”

Pip tells his life story starting from the beginning, he explains in 1st person narration by using ‘my and I’. Also, Pip is talking about his ‘childish conclusion’, it tells us that he is still a young and uneducated child. He doesn’t have any maturity or any sense to tell from right to wrong.

Dickens has used this genre to explain Pips life. To find out information about someone’s life, you read an autobiography. So this is exactly what Dickens is doing. He is telling us Pips life story from the beginning by using this genre of fictional autobiography. Dickens tells the story using narrative voice, he used 1st person narration. You can tell that his novel is 1st person narration because of the uses of ‘I and my’.

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“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 ...

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