gcse english
Jessica Jemma Coster
Candidate Number: 2050
Centre Number: 36325
How does Charles Dickens create mystery and tension in the opening of Great Expectations?
Charles Dickens, the author of ‘Great Expectations’ uses many different ways and methods of building up tension and mystery in the setting. He uses a variety of techniques to give the graveyard, the marshes and Miss Havisham’s house mysterious feelings with a sense of darkness and Gothic horror.
Dickens uses a semantic field to bring the effect of one specific subject, which in this case is revolving around death. Many phrases that Dickens uses are to do with death and skeletons. In the graveyard, where Pip meets the convict, Charles describes the convict escaping as dead hands reaching up at him, ‘eluding the hands of the dead people, stretching up cautiously out of their graves’. This adds tension because it adds more effect to the fact that he is actually a convict, and it’s meaning is that he’s escaping death, which is shown through him escaping the hands of the dead people. The phrase also holds horrific imagery because it’s like you’re seeing dead people’s hands which adds to the ‘Gothic horror’ part of the story. Dickens also builds the semantic field up more using phrases such as the word ‘tombstone’ and ‘five little stone lozenges’. ‘Five little stone lozenges’ adds tension to the fact that Pip is the only one still alive out of his brothers. This builds the tension up because the reader will begin to wonder why he out of his brothers is still alive, and whether something is going to happen to him or not. This technique gives the reader a great fear for Pip, and will make them feel sorry for him. ‘Tombstone’ is used in the opening scene to introduce the reader to the graveyard and also helps give an idea about what the graveyard is like.
Personification is used while describing the graveyard to create the mood of the setting and can connect to what may happen in the story. Phrases used for
Candidate Number: 2050
Centre Number: 36325
How does Charles Dickens create mystery and tension in the opening of Great Expectations?
Charles Dickens, the author of ‘Great Expectations’ uses many different ways and methods of building up tension and mystery in the setting. He uses a variety of techniques to give the graveyard, the marshes and Miss Havisham’s house mysterious feelings with a sense of darkness and Gothic horror.
Dickens uses a semantic field to bring the effect of one specific subject, which in this case is revolving around death. Many phrases that Dickens uses are to do with death and skeletons. In the graveyard, where Pip meets the convict, Charles describes the convict escaping as dead hands reaching up at him, ‘eluding the hands of the dead people, stretching up cautiously out of their graves’. This adds tension because it adds more effect to the fact that he is actually a convict, and it’s meaning is that he’s escaping death, which is shown through him escaping the hands of the dead people. The phrase also holds horrific imagery because it’s like you’re seeing dead people’s hands which adds to the ‘Gothic horror’ part of the story. Dickens also builds the semantic field up more using phrases such as the word ‘tombstone’ and ‘five little stone lozenges’. ‘Five little stone lozenges’ adds tension to the fact that Pip is the only one still alive out of his brothers. This builds the tension up because the reader will begin to wonder why he out of his brothers is still alive, and whether something is going to happen to him or not. This technique gives the reader a great fear for Pip, and will make them feel sorry for him. ‘Tombstone’ is used in the opening scene to introduce the reader to the graveyard and also helps give an idea about what the graveyard is like.
Personification is used while describing the graveyard to create the mood of the setting and can connect to what may happen in the story. Phrases used for