Analyse the Opening Chapter of Great Expectations

Analyse the opening chapter of Great Expectations

The author Charles Dickens wrote ‘Great Expectations’ as a series of

instalments, which then put together and turned into a novel. It has

been written in first person narrative, which is good because you get

to know pip very well. My expectations of the opening chapter of

‘Great Expectations’ Where far from what I experienced when we

actually read the book. It was also set in the olden days. By the end

of the story I found it quite entertaining. In the first paragraph we

expect to be introduced to the plot, characters and the setting.

In this first chapter Pip meets the convict up on the graveyard, which

is the highlight of the chapter. The convict scars pip into bringing

him ‘whittles’ which means necessary like food and drinks. The convict

also gets pip to bring him a file because pip mentions that his

brother in law is a blacksmith. Pip is scared of the convict because

of the language he uses ‘keep still you little devil or ill cut you’re

throat. When a ‘fearful man, all in course grey, with an iron on his

leg. A man with no hat, and with broken shoes and with an old rag tied

round his head. A man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in

mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and

torn by briars; who limped, and shivered and he glared and growled;

and whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me by the chin’

says that to a young child we believe to be about 11 – 14 years old

Pip is going to do everything he is asked to do and exactly when he

says it.

The first character to be introduced was Pip. In the first paragraph

he introduces himself and tells us that his fathers name was ‘Pirrip’

and his Christian name is ‘Philip’ so he mixed the two names together

and came up with ‘Pip’. His mother and father died before he can

remember them and there was no such thing as photos in those days so

they do not know what they look like or what they are like to talk to

and get on with. Pip got introduced first because he is the main

character. The other character we meet in this chapter is the convict.

The author gives the convict an animal imagery when he 'ate the bread

ravenously'. Pips character is polite and he speaks to the convict who

is threatening his life using words like 'kindly please to let me keep