Everything in the house is covered in dust and all the clocks have stopped. Miss Havisham, the upper class lady of the house is dressed in ‘satins, and lace, and silks - all of white’. Everything in this house was once white a long, long time ago but ‘had lost its lustre, and was faded and yellow’. This image of Miss Havisham being dressed in her once white wedding dress also creates sympathy towards her because she has been lost in her own world where time has stood still and where she was left standing; a moment in time.
The dialogue also persuades us to empathise with Pip because Miss Havisham uses imperative verbs and repetition. When she says ‘Play, play, play’, she is telling Pip to do something in a very serious tone of voice.
Another situation where Pip is frightened by Miss Havisham is when she tells Pip to ‘Call Estella’, she is telling him to take a direct order in a stern way. She only treats him like this because he is a boy. She wants to have her revenge on men because of the previous mishap on her wedding day.
When Estella and Pip are playing cards, Pip is addressed by Estella in a rude manner by the term ‘a common labouring boy’; this places the readers in a position where they are likely to feel sympathy towards Pip. Estella continues this array of insults which serves to diminish Pip’s self esteem.
Pip as narrator comments “I felt myself so unequal to the performance that I stood looking at Mrs Havisham in what I suppose she took for a dogged manner”. Pip suggests that he feels like he is being treated almost ‘animal like’ within this lady’s presence.
.Just as Pip starts to feel afraid and left out in losing in cards Dickens once again creates a sense of darkness within the room which at Pip’s age would relate to evil; “Standing still of all the pale decayed objects”; “not even the withered bridal dress on the collapsed form could have looked so like grave clothes”.
After losing the game of cards Pip clearly feels low about himself; “she won the game and I dealt. I misdealt, as was only natural, when I knew she was lying in wait for me to do wrong; and she denounced me for a stupid clumsy labouring boy” Pip comments as narrator. This causes the reader to feel sorry for Pip because Estella is being so offensive that Pip even starts to think badly of himself. This also adds to the sympathy felt for Pip by Dickens.
Pip’s bitter and humiliated feelings at the end of the extract inspire us to feel sympathetic towards him; “I was so humiliated, hurt, spurned, offended, angry and sorry: the tears started to roll down my eyes; I looked about for a place to hide in”
In conclusion I believe Dickens creates sympathy using dialogue, imagery and his narrative choice. These key features are pieced together nicely to create sympathy for Pip. Dickens wrote to reveal how the lower class felt and why there was a social struggle in the 19th century. I have learnt from what I have read there was a big difference between being rich and poor then.
