Satis house has been described as the

Satis house has been described as the “perfect reflection of Miss Havisham’s living death: the once luxurious house has been allowed to decay around her”.

Consider the importance of place in Great Expectations. How does Dickens use place to set the scene for events and characters?

“He was the author of novels that had shapes the literature of age and the creator of characters that had became proverbial”, (Dr John Bowen).

Charles Dickens wrote Great Expectations in 1860-61and was one of his later novels. It is about a young boy called Philip Pirrip (Pip) whose parents and five brothers were dead, so he lived with his big sister (Mrs Joe) who “raised him by hand”. Born in the lifeless marshes of Kent, and destined to become a blacksmith’s apprentice to his big sister’s husband (Joe), Pip’s existence was as lifeless as his homeland. He goes through a traumatic experience with a convict called Magwitch, who bullies Pip into getting him nourishment and a file for the iron on his leg. Pip helps him and doesn’t tell anyone about it. But after being invited to the lady Miss Havisham’s Satis House, he is shown a new world. He meets Miss Havisham's ward, the young, pretty yet cruel girl Estella there and he spends many a time in his childhood at the Satis house playing with her. He becomes strongly attracted to her, but he feels he could never win her heart because of his poor background. When Pip becomes a young man, a man (Mr Jaggers), funded by an unknown benefactor comes to him with the instructions of taking Pip to London to become a gentleman of great expectations. Pip moves to London where he becomes a snob. He becomes a close friend with Estella but through his carelessness, he spends most of his money. He is visited in his home by Abel Magwitch, who had escaped from Australia illegally. Pip finds out that Magwitch was the benefactor for his great expectations. Magwitch becomes like a father to Pip and he tries to smuggle Magwitch out of London. Magwitch is caught and sentenced to death, although he dies first, and Pip is arrested for debt. Joe comes to London, pays his debt and brings him back to health. Pip meets Estella again years later, and the book finishes with the impression that they will be together forever.

Unlike most novels, the places in Great Expectations play an exceptionally crucial part in the story. They often reflect the character’s circumstance and personality to make each location’s atmosphere suited to the character involved with it.

The story begins in the “bleak” marshes of where Pip had lived his whole life up to now. They not only add a perfect reflection to Pip’s life, but they also add a dark and mysterious place to set the scene for Pip’s petrifying encounter with the convict, Magwitch. Even though Dickens barely uses any adjectives to describe the marshes on the first page, the effect of solitary wilderness is brought upon us quite strongly, because of Pip’s description of his dead parents and miserable life, and because of Dickens’ technique of using long sentences. “And that the small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry, was Pip” The use of long sentences gives the effect of lifeless space upon the reader, though they probably don’t realise it. This gives a first and lasting impression of Pip’s youth being painful, wasted and empty. Even before Pip experiences any danger, he is still under tension from the “melancholy” winds and “dismal” marshland. The thought of sharp, painful cruelty is brought upon the reader about the marshes, “overgrown with nettles”. This could also show connection with Pip’s life as a reflection; (he is often cruelly beaten with a stinging cane “the tickler” by his sister). But it even proves to show a reflection of Magwitch as well, which is realised when Dickens writes, “picking his way among the nettles, and among the brambles”. This gives the effect that Magwitch is part of the marshes, as well as him being badly injured (“limped towards the low church wall”), which is clear, even though Dickens actually never writes; “he was injured”. Because both Pip and Magwitch are bound to the marshes and them living quite a similar life (they are both trapped in a cruel prison trying to escape), it could show that they both have a connection deep in their characters which would later bring them closer together.

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However, it is clear that Dickens’ aim was not just to emphasise the darker sides of the marshes, as he uses humorous phrases for Pip to speak such as, “as I saw the cattle lifting their heads to gaze after him, I wondered whether they thought so too”. Dickens could have done this to add a different form of entertainment to the paragraph so that it would appeal to a wider audience. Or it could have been to add a great contrast in mood and atmosphere, causing the reader to feel joyfully content, yet still aware of the dilemma Pip is going through. This use of comedy also helps to bring out Pip’s character as a child. It gives us the feeling that he is imaginative, lively, and yet also sad. This shows us Pip’s character without Dickens writing down what he was like. This makes the reader have to think more to find out Pip’s character, although they don’t have to if they don’t want to, making the book available to and more popular with a wide audience of readers, yet making it more entertaining for the more inquisitive ones.

The contrast between the cold, dark marshes and the warm comforting house at Joe’s is obvious. When Pip travels between these two places, it creates a “heaven and hell” effect, increasing the intensity of the atmosphere in both places, and influencing our point of view on Magwitch and Joe along with the places. However Joe’s house is far from heaven because of Mrs Joe’s savage disciplines, and the marshes in the end help to bring out the better side of Pip, which is ironically entertaining.

Dickens knew much about the marshes of Kent because he lived there once. They were in the Hoo peninsula, between the Thames estuary and the River Medway. Living there would have shown him the sights, smells and sounds needed to make the marshes in the novel more true to reality yet more as Dickens sore them from his point of view.

The “dismal” Satis House is a home and prison to the “strange” Miss Havisham. It is a clear reflection of her, mentally, physically and metaphorically. The once glorious house has decayed around her, and the once glorious Miss Havisham has decayed inside it. The symbolism of decay is shown in the rotting feast, particularly the wedding cake that she wishes her dead body to be placed and her relatives to feast upon her own flesh. The cake was once part of the feast for her wedding, but when Compeyson broke her heart, the marriage was destroyed, as was Miss Havisham's life. The cake symbolises her state of mind and position in life.

The courtyard outside of the house is described as “paved and clean, but grass was growing in every crevice”. This could show that barely anyone had walked on it, and that it had been left without care to cause the grass to grow wildly. The same could be said about Miss Havisham, she wears clear white and elegant clothes and jewellery that have been undisturbed for years, yet her mind has been forgotten about without care, to grow wild and bizarre. The image of wild overgrown garden could add quite a contrasting effect upon the reader. At first when little description of the house had been made apart from the previous quote, we would think of it kind of like a jungle with no animals, yet at the same time like an abandoned village. “All the brewery beyond stood open, away to the high enclosing wall; and all was empty and disused”. This would add a feel of mystery and desolation to the atmosphere. However when Pip enters the house excluded of all light, the completely different feeling of confinement and solitude is brought upon the reader. Overall, all of these contrasting atmospheres and feelings would create an effect of perplexing madness upon the house and it’s role model, Miss Havisham. Dickens probably used this technique of contrasting moods to help bring about this feeling of abnormality to Miss Havisham, without having to use a simple, easy to understand sentence. However when reading these paragraphs, no thought is required to work out the abnormality of the house and Miss Havisham. Therefore it requires less thought on her character than if Dickens wrote, “Miss Havisham was a crazed sad woman”. It is clear after analysing phrases like this, that it would have taken most normal writers hundreds of pages more to fit in all the information Dickens provides, because of the many layers of meaning in the writing.

Estella tells Pip about the houses name, at what it means, “It’s other name was Satis; which is Greek, or Latin, or Hebrew, or all three – or all one to me – for enough”. She says it meant, “that whoever had this house could want nothing else”, but the fact that she shows a lack of knowledge, (she doesn’t really know what language it is), would show the reader that the true meaning could be otherwise. This could leave the reader thinking for ages what the true meaning could be (It’s certainly made me think for a while). It could mean, “had enough”, to show that whoever owned the house was tired of sadness, love or even life. Using this meaning for the present situation in the book would show that Miss Havisham had had enough of men and love. It could mean, “was enough”, to show that the house was once “enough” but is now the opposite. Miss Havisham has nothing in life but once did. Contemplating thoughts like these are prime examples of Dickens using sentences to entertain the reader long after they have actually been read.

The idea Dickens got for Satis house was originally based on a real house called Restoration house. The fact that restoration can mean, “to repair”, or “to restore”, is quite ironic since Satis house in the book does exactly the opposite. It is being left to slowly crumble apart, with Miss Havisham doing exactly the same.

London is a place of nose cringing stench, skin staining filth and life destroying disease, far from the grand metropolis that Pip imagined it to be like. “I think I may have had some faint doubts whether it was not rather ugly, crooked, narrow, and dirty”. Pip tells us this, right at the beginning of the chapter. The previous page is Pip, Joe and Biddy saying their emotional farewells, and it finishes with, “and the mists had all solemnly risen now, and the world lay spread before me”. This gives us the feeling that everything will change for the better now for Pip, but instantly on the next page everything turns around. The large contrast helps add the extra feeling and atmosphere of a stinking dump to the reader. Dickens probably purposely never described the 5-hour journey from Pip’s town to London, to emphasise the change and contrast.

“All asmear with filth and fat and blood and foam, seemed to stick to me”. This thought of blood and fat all over the streets shows us strongly just how Dickens wanted us to feel about London. It makes us think of rotting corpses lying in front of Pip surrounding him with death and decay, even though Dickens never actually describes about where the filth, fat, blood and foam is coming from, so it is left to our imagination what Pip is seeing. It is like London itself is creating it all. The quote says, “seemed to stick to me”. This could give us the impression that London is trying to get Pip and stain him physically, but also mentally, like he is an unwanted foreigner.

However it is not just the mood and atmosphere that changes. When Pip physically moves from his home in the Kent marshes to London, he goes through the dramatic change mentally as well. Pip becomes a snob in London, and we get a good impression of this transformation having taken place when Pip is talking to Mr Jaggers about buying furniture to retain his bedroom. Mr Jaggers is asking how much money he wants, “five pounds?” Pip replies with, “Oh! More than that”. This is quite a change from what the polite young man Pip would have said not so long ago, which would shock the reader and eventually cause the reader to detest Pip, which would make us respect and admire Pip even more when he redeems himself late in the book. London reflects Pip’s character at this stage, because he is thoughtless and careless. But when he leaves London with Magwitch, all these qualities are lost and he becomes caring, kind and more aware more of his actions.

Dickens’ ability to observe and express was used in London as well as the marshes. He spent most of his life here, and he would often walk the city streets, 10-20 miles at a time, giving him the extra power to be able to build the smells, sights and sounds into his own masterpiece.

My conclusion is that Dickens uses place to set the scene for characters and events with more than just the writing on the paper. He fashioned the places into the book as part of his self and soul, to create characters and situations of immense realism yet with a twist of comedy, tragedy and fulfilling happiness. “They had all been born on their backs with their hands in their trousers-pockets”. This creates the amusing picture of Pip’s brothers with their hands in their pockets, even though they are dead, adding a sense of humour, yet at the same time making the reader aware that his family is tragically dead. Dickens used places like the marshes, Satis House and London to create unique images of character’s personality, appearance and position in life. Like the crumbling Satis House, which reflects Miss Havisham to show her life is likewise, rotting away with nothing to save it. Through his own personal experiences, he has added an extra power to his writing that cannot simply be recognised word from word, but must be experienced through the pleasures and entertainment of the little thing called reading. It is now truly clear after reading the novel, that Great Expectations is “one of the best organised and most well constructed of all novels, with scarcely a wasted gesture, character or event”, (Dr John Bowen).