Dickens' Techniques of Characterisation in Great Expectations

Dickens' Techniques of Characterisation in Great Expectations

Many characters in Great Expectations are a rich and varied mix of

personalities, in particular Pip, Joe Gargery and Mrs. Joe.

The physical description of the characters is an example of the

techniques used by Charles Dickens. Other techniques include the

speech and habits of the characters, the characters' interaction with

others, the choice of the characters name and their surroundings.

The character who develops the most throughout the novel is Pip. In

the introduction, we are presented with Pip's depressing origins. He

is an orphan having never met his parents who allows the reader to

feel sympathetic towards him and understand why Pip might want great

expectations.

Pip had never seen anything to do with his parents -including

photographs- except for the tombstones of their graves. This gives a

very sorry and gloomy picture of his childhood - one of Dickens'

characterization techniques.

Pip is shown to be very imaginative as he creates a picture of what

his father and mother looked like simply by examining the writing and

the shape of the letters on the tombstones.

His 'family name being Pirrip,' and his 'Christian name Philip' and

due to his 'infant tongue' unable to 'make of both names nothing

longer or more explicit than Pip', he christened himself Pip.

Another one of the techniques of characterisation Dickens uses is the

specific choice of their names. Pip is chosen appropriately for this

novel, especially at the beginning when he is 'about seven' because

his name means a seed, and this engages the reader ...

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...iveness, but also the fact

that sometimes the pins and needles ended up in Joe and Pip's mouths,

shows that Mrs. Joe's aggression was always going to affect them, one

way or another.

Other techniques that Dickens uses to portray Mrs. Joe as very

aggressive and unkind is the phrase 'brought up by hand' and he

gestures such as "reaping" the dust from the floor when cleaning and

as already mentioned, the way she cuts the loaf of bread, and also her

instrument of punishment namely the Tickler (a cane) and her vicious

tongue.

Mrs. Joe displays same social pretension and wishes that she could

belong to a higher class when she says 'It's bad enough to be a

blacksmith's wife'.

The three characters I have chosen portray Dickens' many techniques of

characterisation to make his work such a rich mix of personalities.