HOW DOES CHARLES DICKENS ENGAGE THE READER IN GREAT EXPECTATIONS?
FOCUS ON CHAPTERS 1-8
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is considered to be the greatest
book he has ever sold. By the time Charles Dickens had started his
thirteenth novel, Great Expectations, he was a national hero. After
living as a shoe polisher, the upper class citizens of England started
to realise through his writing what was happening to their fellow
lower class citizens. Dickens’ excellence in this book is shown right
throughout. However, the way he engages the reader is even more
fascinating. He uses many techniques and devices to engage the reader.
Jus the title “Great Expectations” is a huge surprise and the reader
would like to know what the “Great Expectation” is.
The gothic genre, in the 1860’s was a very popular genre, because it
was still very new. The new tradition of the novel of suspense,
horror, fear, and superstition that began with Horace Walpole's The
Castle of Otranto (1764), was continued into the nineteenth-century by
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. This popular genre was then used by
Dickens in Great Expectations in the form of Magwitch, and the
sometimes suspenseful Pip. It is also shown right throughout the novel
in the form of the settings on the novel. For example, on page 1 “…and
that the dark flat wilderness beyond the churchyard, intersected with
dykes and mounds and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it, was
the marshes; and that the low leaden line beyond, was the river; and
that the distant savage lair from which the wind was rushing, was the
sea” and in chapter 8 “…and had a great many iron bars to it. Some of
the windows had been walled up; of those that remained, all the lower
were rustily ...
... middle of paper ...
...urth
chapter he ends it just as the guards have come to the door of Joe’s
house. Dickens deliberately does this to encourage the reader to read
on and find out what happens as the guards enter.” Are they here for
Pip? Have they caught Pip helping the convict? “These questions
encourage the reader to carry on reading.
Charles Dickens has used many techniques in his novel “Great
Expectations” to engage the reader from the outset of the novel. Many
techniques such as the use of gothic genre, the gothic settings and
the unusual characters in the novel really engage the reader to read
further on. He also cleverly formats the novel in many chapters with
cliffhangers to preserve the reader’s attention. Dickens cleverly
combines the above techniques to engage the reader. His elegant
writing allows the reader to understand the novel and to stay
contained in it.
The author uses a lot of description when setting the scene, or writing how someone looks. He also uses a lot of color imagery within the chapters and writes in 3rd person narrative.
The setting plays an important role to strengthen the themes and also makes the reader question the innocence and simplicity of what is related to him. Works Cited Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: Signet Classic, 1960 Kennedy, X.J. and Dan Gioia. Literature: an Introduction to Fiction, poetry, and Drama.
the chapter he goes to visit the mother of his dead friend, Kemmerich. While there he tells
The Range of Devices Charles Dickens Uses to Engage the Reader in the Opening Chapter of Great Expectations
notices that he is "a man with no hat", the sign of a lower class
warns him that if he does not get any food for him, he will be in
This might be linked to later on in the book where Joe thinks he’s being
Kerr, Calum A. “Literary Contexts in Novels: Ray Bradbury’s ‘Fahrenheit 451.’” (2008) Literary Reference Center. Web. 1 March 2011.
Originating in the Victorian Era, Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations continues to be a huge success. So much of a success, in fact, that it is being re-released as it originally was (in installments), but now in a digital format for reading on electronic devices.
Charles Dickens Pip’s character’s importance to the plot of the novel “Great Expectations” is paramount. Charles Dickens uses an ongoing theme over the course of this novel. Dickens creates Pip to be a possible prototype of his own and his father’s life. Pip’s qualities are kept under wraps because the changes in him are more important than his general personality. Dickens created Pip to be a normal everyday person that goes through many changes, which allows a normal reader to relate and feel sympathetic towards Pip.
doesn't see why she had to take him in and "bring him up by hand", she
time period when the novel was written, the word usage, punctuation and overall meaning of
There are billions of books in the world, all with different plots and styles. However, the one thing they all have in common is that they all have literary devices. A literary device is any technique a writer uses to help the reader understand and appreciate the meaning of the work. Due to the use of these devices, books that would otherwise have nothing in common can be compared. For instance, the books Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, and If I Stay by Gayle Forman have different plots and themes. But when both are examined closely, it is evident that they utilize many different and similar literary devices.
The visual description of a text is the perfect way to wrap the reader’s senses into the story.
"I must entreat you to pause for an instant, and go back to what you know of my childish days, and to ask yourself whether it is natural that something of the character formed in me then" - Charles Dickens