Explore How Dickens Creates a Memorable Opening for ‘Great Expectations’, Considering Also How He Introduces Some of His Concerns About Victorian England.
Explore how Dickens creates a memorable opening for ‘Great Expectations’, considering also how he introduces some of his concerns about Victorian England.
‘Great Expectations’ is a novel that captures its audience right from the very beginning and due to the genius introduction of characters and the wonderfully detailed references to Victorian England the opening of the novel is very memorable.
In the opening scenes the reader’s attention is immediately caught by making the readers feel sorry for Pip, and Dickens also introduces several major themes, creates an eerie and creepy setting and gets the plot of the story moving immediately. The first chapter immediately involves the reader because of Pip’s terrifying encounter with the convict but this also mixed in with the humour of the chapter. Pip is physically alone in the cemetery and alone because he is an orphan. Even though we are enclosed in this ominous location, the readers still sense Pips childish imagination when he imagines his Dads physical figure from the letters that are on his gravestone. Readers also cherish the comical moment when Pip believes his mother is called ‘also Georgiana’ because he simply reads the name of the gravestone. This expresses Dickens’ first concern about the lack of communication to the poor orphans in the Victorian times. Another concern becomes clear when Pip lists the names of his 5 dead little baby brothers ‘who gave up trying to get a living exceedingly early in the universal struggle’, this shows the high level of infant mortality in the Victorian times and Pip also explains how hard he thinks life is as he calls it a ‘universal struggle’.
The adult Pip is remembering a milestone in his life, a moment when he had his ‘first vivid and broad impression of the identity of things’. Pip as a narrator is another memorable way of introducing Dickens’ issues and narrating the story. The terror and the helplessness of childhood are captured in Pip's identifying himself
‘Great Expectations’ is a novel that captures its audience right from the very beginning and due to the genius introduction of characters and the wonderfully detailed references to Victorian England the opening of the novel is very memorable.
In the opening scenes the reader’s attention is immediately caught by making the readers feel sorry for Pip, and Dickens also introduces several major themes, creates an eerie and creepy setting and gets the plot of the story moving immediately. The first chapter immediately involves the reader because of Pip’s terrifying encounter with the convict but this also mixed in with the humour of the chapter. Pip is physically alone in the cemetery and alone because he is an orphan. Even though we are enclosed in this ominous location, the readers still sense Pips childish imagination when he imagines his Dads physical figure from the letters that are on his gravestone. Readers also cherish the comical moment when Pip believes his mother is called ‘also Georgiana’ because he simply reads the name of the gravestone. This expresses Dickens’ first concern about the lack of communication to the poor orphans in the Victorian times. Another concern becomes clear when Pip lists the names of his 5 dead little baby brothers ‘who gave up trying to get a living exceedingly early in the universal struggle’, this shows the high level of infant mortality in the Victorian times and Pip also explains how hard he thinks life is as he calls it a ‘universal struggle’.
The adult Pip is remembering a milestone in his life, a moment when he had his ‘first vivid and broad impression of the identity of things’. Pip as a narrator is another memorable way of introducing Dickens’ issues and narrating the story. The terror and the helplessness of childhood are captured in Pip's identifying himself