Characters in Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens

Characters in Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Dickens has many ways of making his characters both striking and

memorable, he uses the dialogue and blends it with the setting and

social background as illustrated by ‘torn by briars; who limped’.

Dickens is very descriptive; this also helps making the character

real.

Dickens creates a creepy mood when we are told about the graveyard in

which we meet Magwitch as shown by ‘as if he were eluding the hands of

dead people’. He uses the graveyard and the gibbet in the distance to

help create this mood which adds to the edgy atmosphere. The tone of

this extract is dramatic and intimidating; Dickens achieves this by

using short, but descriptive sentences. Dickens makes us feel sorry

for Magwitch because of the way he speaks, ‘wittles’ and ‘pecoolier’

are examples of this. As Magwitch talks to Pip, we, as the reader

notice that Magwitch talks to Pip as a child and uses language that

would only scare a child : ‘you little devil, or I’ll cut your

throat!’.

When pip meets Miss Havisham, Dickens makes it seem like it is a nice,

rich room, however we soon find out it is a dull, lifeless room that

hasn’t seen light in years : ‘. Dickens uses long, descriptive

sentences here to introduce the setting and mood of the room. Dickens

slowly gives us information bit by bit so we build a picture of what

is going on. He slowly reveals that Miss Havisham has been jilted at

the alter.

Wemmick’s home reflects his personality in the way that he likes to be

secure and safe. Wemmick is one of the most memorable of Dickens’s

characters, as he is slightly out of the ordinary and has his own way

of doing things. Wemmick keeps his work and his home life very

separate, this is...

... middle of paper ...

...rrible places to be; they

carried lots of diseases and were extremely unhygienic. Miss Havisham

is from an upper class background. She is very wealthy, however

remains unmarried. Marriage for women in those days was more important

than it is today because it used to be the men making all the money

while the women looked after the house; however Miss Havisham has

plenty of money so her problem is that she is lonely. Wemmick is in

the working class and works in the prison as a clerk, the conditions

of prisons in those days was very bad, which may be the reason why he

keeps his home life and work life completely separate.

Dickens achieves making his characters both striking and memorable by

describing them in heavy detail, but not making it boring by having

too much. In my opinion Wemmick is the most memorable character as I

could imagine him being real.