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Identify and explain the irony in great expectations
Analyse the text The Great Expectations
Analyse the text The Great Expectations
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Recommended: Identify and explain the irony in great expectations
Great Expectations - sympathy for Magwitch.
We sympathise for Magwitch a great deal in this book even though he is
intimidating at first. As we see his softer side we begin to like him
and are touched by the gratitude he shows to Pip later on in the book
and the strong friendship they form with each other. The way Magwitch
is exploited by the legal system upsets us a great deal and increases
the pity we have for him. Dickens' methods of satirizing the legal
system and contradicting the stereotypes of convicts in the nineteenth
century are very affective in making the reader feel pathos for
Magwitch.
In chapter 3 we begin to overlook Magwitch's appearance and
threatening manner in the earlier scene because we see he is a human
being with a sense of humour and real feelings like everyone else and
not the tough menace he made himself out to be.
When Pip first catches sight of Magwitch again he appears to be in a
terrible state and looks very weak:
" I half expected to see him drop down before my face and die of deadly cold"
Dickens has changed Magwitch from an intimidating criminal to a
helpless and fragile man. This is the first time that one starts to
pity Magwitch, and to see his softer and more human side.
We also see how desperate Magwitch is for food:
"His eyes looked so awfully hungry, too, that
when I handed him the file and laid it down on
the grass, it occurred to me he would have
tried to eat it, if he had not seen my bundle."
His need for food makes us sympathise for him even more and the choice
of, "awfully hungry" makes his situation even more awful. Pip's vivid
imagination as a child is a very effective tool in stirring sympathy
because it is so unprecedented, "it occurred to...
... middle of paper ...
...s for much longer and that they will
be separated. It also makes Magwitch seem like a helpless child who is
being comforted, rather than a terrible convict.
Dickens did not only satirizes the judicial system to make the reader
feel sorry for Magwitch but he also does it in hope that he would make
people reading the book at the time question the judicial system. He
uses Magwitch to make them feel as if they have a connection with the
convicts who are victims in the system. He hoped that he would affect
the public opinion and possibly help to make some changes in the legal
system. Not long after "Great Expectations" was written the legal
system in Britain changed, so it seems that Dickens' views of the
legal system were shared with others and he must have been an
influential writer in the nineteenth century if "Great Expectations"
made such a huge impact.
Throughout Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, the convict under the alias “Magwitch” contains multiple characteristics that split him between two diverse classes. This duality of character and his frequent detainment cause him to desire a change to reinvent himself and leave the convict lower class. By succumbing to a corrupt class system, Magwitch demonstrates the duality of a man wronged by injustice and blinded by vengeance.
Many people strive for things that are out of their reach. In the novel Great Expectations, Charles Dickens shows the themes of personal ambition and discontent with present conditions. The main character, Pip, shows early on in the story that he is unhappy with his current situation. Throughout the story he strives for the things that are beyond his reach, and is apathetic to the things that he can obtain. Pip demonstrates this by striving for Estella when he could have Biddy, and yearning to be a gentleman when he could be a blacksmith.
In Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens, the author begins the tale by revealing Pip's arrogance towards previous companions. By the end of the story, we learn of Pip's love and compassion for everyone.
Throughout the novel Great Expectations, Pip's character and personality goes through some transformations. He is somewhat similar at the beginning and end, but very different while growing up. He is influenced by many characters, but two in particular:Estella and Magwitch, the convict from the marshes. Some things that cause strength or growth in a person are responsibility, discipline, and surrounding oneself around people who are challenging and inspiring. He goes through many changes some good and some bad
Wemmick provides a complicated, yet interesting separation of his home life and work life. His home and work lives are as different in physical appearances as they are in personality differences. Many of his home habits allow him to express his care and decency, which contrasts with his mechanical work which lacks good value. Wemmick dedicates himself to separating the two so that he may keep his virtues intact while he works in the filth of Newgate. Wemmick is alone in his success of separation when compared to others such as Jaggers and Pip. Such dedication to keeping good values alive gives Wemmick so much integrity that he immediately becomes a favorite character.
Mr Wopsle provides the most comedic relief throughout the grim setting of Great Expectations. When Mr. Wopsle is first introduced in the novel, he is delineated as a brazen and supercilious person. His physical description makes him seem like a punchinello, with clown-like characteristics such as a large nose, bald head, particularly perceptible voice, and silly, outgoing personality. Even his name was made to be eccentric and ludicrous, like the sound of something falling over. Although Mr Wopsle is a minor character, his humorous traits offset the somber story.
soon become almost unnoticeable and Pip eventually realises that truly
"A warmint, dear boy" is the answer that Magwitch gives Pip when asked what he was brought up to be (305; ch. 40). This is what any person would expect from a man who has lived a life of crime. With further exploration, however, one will see that it is deeper than petty theft and prison. By using a character such as Magwitch, Dickens suggests the implications of using the Australian penal colonies as a way of rehabilitation for criminals. It is quite possible that Dickens has portrayed a view of penal colonies in a very positive way. After all, Magwitch is a successful, even famous, ex-convict who is responsible for Pip's wealth. By exploring the character Magwitch, one will have a better understanding of Dickens' views on Australian penal colonies.
I have chosen to look at how the relationship of Pip and Magwitch develops during the novel. I have chosen 3 key scenes in which Magwitch and pip meet and I will look at how each is portrayed in terms of character, development, setting and the messages or morals that dickens is trying to convey.
know them, and the reader assumes that Pip spends a lot of time in the
In the opening chapter, we feel sorry for Pip as we find out that his
think that he was his servant. Pip on the other hand is more like the
...rity, and the ending of his story he has sealed with pain and hardships of life. From losing his parents and sister, his best friend, being treated cold hearted by the love of his life Pip still manages to make it out in an okay way with the little hope with Estella and his close one's child who looks just like him in a scary way. It is not the best ending but it could've been worst for the young man. Pip's idea of life is truly suffering from the worst and getting only a little bit of resemblance from it.
When Pip was a child, he was a contented young boy. He wanted to grow
In the beginning, Pip, an orphan, considers himself to be a common laboring boy, but he has a