How Dickens Engages the Reader in Great Expectations
The text is created in an intelligent way so that it interests the
reader from the beginning.
The title itself stimulates the inquisitiveness of the reader. We are
led to think that the novel promises a certain amount of drama or
action. The text from the novel 'Great Expectations' is structured in
a deliberate fashion to encourage the reader to read on.
Great Expectations is a gothic novel. It explores various gothic
genres which are mysterious and gloomy. The settings are dim and
dismal and the gothic genre is created so that it would be familiar to
a Victorian audience. The outlook of the genre would engage the reader
from the beginning.
The setting contains imagery so that the audience can have a clear
picture of the scene.
Chapter one begins in the graveyard 'from the tombstones' which gives
the reader a gothic and intense feeling as they imagine 'a bleak place
overgrown with nettles'. The reader's curiosity is aroused because we
are wondering why Pip is there. The surrounding landscape in the
beginning is described as a 'distant savage lair from which the wind
was rushing'. This makes the reader feel apprehensive about what is
going to take place in this setting. Pip is described as an orphan; he
has never seen his parents and he lives with his sister (Mrs. Joe
Gargery) and her husband. The description of the deprived looking boy
alone in the graveyard adds to the sense of inquisitive drama. The
expectation that we have anticipated comes to our attention when a
menacing looking house is shown in chapter eight. This is shown when
Pip describes the outside of the house 'which was of old brick and
dismal'. The inside of the house is quite creepy 'and still it was all
dark' which makes the reader wonder of who might own and live in that
house.
The novel begins with Pip as a narrator. Due to this it makes the
reader involved in the action immediately.
Written in 1818, the latter stages of the Gothic literature movement, at face value this novel embodies all the key characteristics of the Gothic genre. It features the supernatural, ghosts and an atmosphere of horror and mystery. However a closer reading of the novel presents a multifaceted tale that explores
In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens uses diction and imagery to illustrate how if one bases their dreams and aspirations on the values of a society that prizes materialism over character, they will face a life of devoid unhappiness through the character of Pip. In the novel, Pip finds it impossible to change social classes when Joe declares, “That ain't the way to get out of being common. . . as to being common . . . You are uncommon in some things. You're uncommon small . . .
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
Every detail of the setting, devices, language and characterisation and some further aspect of narrative voice are necessary for the full apprehension of the reader. At the start of chapter one, we meet the narrator Pip in a churchyard. Dickens creates a sinister and menacing atmosphere in his description of setting. He starts the novel off in a churchyard which describes as a ‘bleak place overgrown with nettles’ with a young child, Pip, staring at the graves of his parents and brothers. Pip is about seven years old when the novel opens (Dickens mentions his age on page 409).
The first couple of lines from the chapter read: "I was three and twenty years of age. Not another word I had heard to enlighten me on the subject of my expectations, and my twenty-third birthday was a week gone. " It also makes the reader think about where Pip's wealth comes from. This makes the reader very curious, and also possibly provides a clue. something relating to the mystery about wealth may soon be answered.
In the opening of the novel, Pip encounters the convict who was in dire need of help. Pip, innocent and unexposed at the time, did the right thing and helped the dangerous stranger. As he scales the steep cliffs towards gentility, however, his innocence and rectitude fades. The hustle and bustle of London transforms Pip into conceited, shameful, snob. "Let me confess exactly with what feelings I looked forward to Joe’s coming.
Dickens' Use of Settings in Great Expectations Great Expectations is the story of a young boy called Pip's physical and emotional journey. The story starts when Pip meets an escaped convict in a churchyard near his home and gives him food and drink.
shoes, and with an old rag tied round his head. A man who had been
desire to improve his station in life. He is raised by his sister, and her husband, Joe Gargery. Then Pip
Their venture into the dark and mysterious tomb exemplifies a prime example of gothic writing through the eerie setting. Along the way, skeletons of the narrator’s dead family are seen.
Charles Dickens is well known for his distinctive writing style. Few authors before or since are as adept at bringing a character to life for the reader as he was. His novels are populated with characters who seem real to his readers, perhaps even reminding them of someone they know. What readers may not know, however, is that Dickens often based some of his most famous characters, those both beloved or reviled, on people in his own life. It is possible to see the important people, places, and events of Dickens' life thinly disguised in his fiction. Stylistically, evidence of this can be seen in Great Expectations. For instance, semblances of his mother, father, past loves, and even Dickens himself are visible in the novel. However, Dickens' past influenced not only character and plot devices in Great Expectations, but also the very syntax he used to create his fiction. Parallels can be seen between his musings on his personal life and his portrayal of people and places in Great Expectations.
find out he was a orphan when he was young as he said, "I never saw my
Great Expectations is essentially a novel of the education of a young man in the lesson of life. Pip is analyzing himself through his memories and from the point of view of maturity (“Charles Dickens” 1).
Expectations for Pip are fortune and the desire to become a gentleman as he discusses with Biddy, his private tutor: “I want to be a gentleman on her account” (Dickens, 117). Estella, albeit her bitter attitude towards Pip, changes his view that results in him longing to become a gentleman. His approach in becoming a gentleman is becoming apprenticed to his brother-in-law, the blacksmith. His initial stage of expectations is from Mr. Jaggers, Miss Havisham’s lawyer. The lawyer’s deliberately informs Pip “that he will come into a handsome property…be brought up as a young gentleman” (Dickens, 125). On hearing Mr. Jaggers, Pip was both astonished and excited because he yearned for such status. When Mr. Jaggers explained of Pip’s great amount fortune and significance, he automatically assumed his benefactor to be Miss Havisham. In his first expectation, Pip is to be professionally educated by Mr. Pocket,...