Charles Dickens' Great Expectations

Charles Dickens' Great Expectations Charles Dickens' novel Great expectations is set in the Victorian

period and is highly related to the state of poverty that Dickens

encountered on his rise to fame. It concerns the young boy Philip

Pirrip (known as 'Pip') and his development through life after an

early meeting with the escaped convict Abel Magwitch, who he treats

kindly despite his fear. His unpleasant sister and her humorous and

friendly blacksmith husband, Joe, bring him up. Crucial to his

development as an individual is his introduction to Miss Havisham, a

now aging woman who has given up on life after being left at the

altar. Cruelly, Havisham has brought up her daughter Estella to

revenge her own pain and so as Pip falls in love with her she is made

to torture him in romance. Aspiring to be a gentleman despite his

humble beginnings, Pip seems to achieve the impossible by receiving a

fund of wealth from an unknown source and being sent to London with

the lawyer Jaggers. In London he meets a number of different and

intriguing characters and although he is employed, he eventually loses

everything and Estella marries another. His backer turns out to have

been Magwitch and his future existence is based upon leaving the great

expectations and returning to Joe and his honest layout. Eventually he

is reunited with Estella. One of Dickens' main ideas is to try and

incorporate different themes into the story. Such themes as social

status are included in...

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...he whole, Chapter 1 has a pivotal roll to play through the whole

of the novel as it sets out everything for the reader and introduces a

number of key characters to be familiarised with the reader. The

setting of the chapter also build a lot of atmosphere as previously

explained and gets the reader to understand the general style of the

novel while other themes are introduced such as Family (Mr and Mrs

Gargery) and Crime (in the form of 'the convict') in chapter 1.

Another reason behind the importance of Chapter 1 is its plentiful

number of clues that are given to the references made to the last

chapter. However Charles Dickens's technique of cliff hangers has been

used to great effect throughout the novel. So in general Chapter 1

turns out to be one of the most important and vital parts of the novel

Great Expectations.