Dicken's Use of Setting in Opening of Great Expectations

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Great expectations is a novel concerned with like many of Dickens novels, class, social status and the readers own stereotypes.

Dickens was born in 1812 and, as a famous playwright and actor wrote hundreds of novels and plays including, a Christmas carol, no name, the old curiosity shop and pick wick papers. He often wrote about things such as: poor laws, being separated from your family, orphans, thieves, pick-pocketing and other sad, depressing things. He began life as the youngest child out of 7 and was very sickly, often refusing to go outside and play, preferring to choose to watch plays and reading a great many books.

The story follows young Pip from living in poverty with his sister, a Mrs. Joe Gargery, to becoming a gentleman, using the money of a secret beneficiary. It was written in 1860-61 and is based on many of the things that happened in and around London, which was the home of Dickens for most of his life.

Dickens used color, senses and feelings to describe the marsh, which is the setting of the beginning of the story. The colors he uses are dark and dismal shades like black, for example, he lingers on the dark, bleak, blackness of the marsh” the dark, flat wilderness behind the church" and " a row of angry, red lines and dense black lines intermixed".

He also uses senses to help create an atmosphere. Pip can see "20 miles of sea" and "a bleak place overgrown with nettles" which, because it is so descriptive makes the setting very effective. Also words like "raw, wilderness and savage" suggest this place is uncared for or in disrepair and that Pip is the only one who is there and knows it there. It also gives the impression that all the other people in the parish have forgotten about t...

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...d villains, where they see fit. It means the reader is hooked for the rest of the novel and also makes the reader ask questions about themselves in the process, whether they believe the convict is all bad and forces them to question their own preconceptions about the classes, as Dickens very effectively paints very contrasting pictures about what each class symbolizes and how they act. It plays with the readers expectations because the people in the book act out of character sometimes and readers do not expect this. Dickens is still relevant today because people still want to stereotype and label people. This probably stems from peoples desires to be wanted and included in a group, something which will always be around so they novels like Great expectations and others that are based upon class and social status in relation to stereotypes etc, will always be popular.

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