Exploring the Characters of Havisham and Magwich in Dickens' Great Expectations

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Dickens seems to develop characters who are so compelling that the reader needs to know what’s going to happen next...

When we first met Magwich he seems to be a nasty and manipulative convict, bullying a small, naive little boy called Pip for basic food of which he is lacking, shortly after Pip meets him again but your opinion of Magwich changes entirely he defends Pip of the stealing actions he bullied him into. Then he is unthought-of for some time in the book until he appears again after Pips transformation from young lower class boy to a gentleman. The fact he is the reason of Pips transformation shows him as the hero, but he is still wanted for crime.

Magwich from the first time we meet him is described in great detail by timid Pip who isn’t described in a lot of detail at all, almost as if his identity is left for the reader to decide. Magwich is described as ...“a fearful man, all in course gray, with a great iron on his leg. A man with no hat, and with broken shoes and with an old rag tied around his head”. The fact that he isn’t wearing a hat in the Victorian times was considered rude, however he is wearing an rag proving he is dignified and polite but “old rag” suggests he is poor and of the lower class. The setting when Magwich first appears is at the “graveyard” there seems to be an air of death, raw and gloomy setting. The setting seems too described in great depth as if it’s important to the story; the setting seems to mirror Magwich bleak and raw and lonely and isolated. This seems to represent his life and neglection.

Whereas the same setting for Pip is peaceful place to remember his late mother and father, seemingly now he is left with this elder sister who treats him and her blacksmith husband, Joe, terribly.

As well as this when we first meet Miss Havisham in chapter 8 she is described with a lengthy description also. Her appearance is described as skeleton like and decaying. She is trapped in a time warp due to her own accord, living in a neglected house in the same room at the exact same time as her soon to be husband competent left her, the misfortune of her neglection left her bitter and seemingly slightly twisted for example she wants Pip and Estella to “play”.

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