The author of great expectations is Charles Dickens. He was born at Landport, in Portsea, on February 7, 1812. His father was a clerk in the Navy Pay-Office, and was temporarily on duty in the neighbourhood when Charles was born. He spent time in prison for debts. But, even when he was free he lacked the money to support his family. Then, when Charles was two they moved to London. Which relates to great expectations because Pip was in poverty at the beginning of his life as Charles Dickens was. Also there are similarities in Dickens and Pips life, because they both move to London. Dickens family had also lived in Kent, which is where that Pip grew up. The 19th century was a time of public health reform and there was a focus of the filth and decay of London. In great expectations it focuses on the filth and decay which Pip Notices in London, and is wrote about many times in the novel. In the 19th century Imprisonment could be easily done for minor infringements of the law, and as Dickens dad was sent to prison for debt, dickens thought that it was an injustice. The theme of crime, guilt, and innocence is explored throughout the novel largely through the characters of the convicts and the criminal lawyer Jaggers.
His work of Great Expectation is very related with his life. It deals with the same problems he faced when he lost Catherine and how his life was before he became rich and famous. He also created scenes and descriptions of places that have longed delighted readers. Dickens was a keen observer of life and had a great understanding of humanity, especially of young people. The warmth and humour of his personality appeared in all of his works.
Perhaps in no other large body of fiction does the reader receive so strong and agreeable impression of the person behind the story.
There are two main setting in the novel; these settings are the Kent marshes and London. Both of these are the main and important features to the novel and give out information to the feeling that Dickens is trying to portray and from the description show the atmosphere and time.
The first setting we encounter when reading great expectations is the Kent marshes. The setting almost always symbolizes a theme in Great Expectations and always sets a tone that is perfectly matched to the novel's dramatic action. The misty marshes near Pip's childhood home in Kent, one of the most evocative of the book's settings, are used several times to symbolize danger and uncertainty.
The setting from the start of the book is very important, from the bleak and stereotypical graveyard that give the book a starting tense and exiting mood. The graveyard at the start of the book is typical example of how the setting contributes so well to the story and the atmosphere, this is just one of the more obvious examples. Starting the book in a graveyard quickly informs the reader of a lot of information about Pips history that under different circumstances would have taken a lot longer to explain; things like Pips parents and family were quickly and briefly explained to the readers via the gravestones and Magwhich’s asking "Where's your mother?" and Pip's response being "There sir" as he points to his Mother, Father and five sibling's gravestones.
We are given the impression that the Kent marshes are a desolate place with marshes stretching as far as the eye can see, and a huge river. The marshes are described as “that this bleak place overgrown with nettles was the churchyard” showing that it is a place not tended too, and unpleasant to be around. We are reminded on Pip being an orphan, and about his loneliness and being small and venerable, which makes us dislike the marshes for making Pip feel like that and us feel upset.
There seems to be nothing that would be of any interest, with no stimulus for someone living in Kent, this could be how Dickens felt of Kent when he was a child growing up there. Also showing that life in the Kent Marshes is a life of nothing changing that it is a “bleak place”. The word bleak is repeated many times by Dickens in this novel showing that it is very important for dickens that the reader understands the significance of the word. I think Dickens is trying to say that it is a place of no variety and no colour, a place that you would not like to live in.
It is later written “The marshes were just a long black horizontal line then, as I stopped to look after him; and the river was just another horizontal line, not nearly so broad nor yet so black, and the sky was just a row of long angry red lines and dense black lines intermixed.” This dreariness of the marshes with a continues line of Pips life in Kent of nothing just black. The colour is a very boring colour and it shows the life that Pip is living in Kent is very boring.
The second important setting in great expectation is Satis house; this is where Miss Havisham and Estella lived. Her house is a very has very bizarre surroundings, in particular the rotting wedding cake on the table. She seems insane and says things which make the area unsettling such as when she says, “Are you not afraid of a woman who has not seen the light of day since before you where born?” The house is described as covered in cobwebs and the windows are boarded so no natural light can enter Havishams chamber. The picture created in are minds by how Dickens describes the setting seems quite stereotypical of how the dwellings of an evil or mentally ill person may live and this adds to the effectiveness of the description of the setting Miss Havishams house.
