Chapter I 1. How does Dickens use setting to convey the mood right at the opening?
Charles Dickens uses the imagery of a bleak, unforgiving Nature in his exposition of "Great Expectations" to convey the mood of fear in Chapter 1. The weather is described as "raw" and the graveyard a "bleak" place. The "small bundle of shivers" is Pip himself, who is terrified by a "fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg." He is a desperate man, with broken shoes,as he grabs the orphan Pip. .
2. What does Dickens' description of the first convict tell us about him?
3. What is surprising about the narrative point-of- view Dickens has adopted? the narrator of Great Expectations is an adult who relates the narrative in his own voice, but he tells the story from his memory rather than as it happens.
4. How does Dickens contrast the convict and Pip?
Dickens, presents Pip as a "small bundle of shivers growing afraid...and beginning to cry", helpless, frightened, and innocent. The convict, in contrast, is "a fearful man" who "glare(s) and growl(s)"; he is rough, malevolent, and threatening.
5. But in what ways are these two characters similar?
Pip of "Great Expectations" is orphaned and is raised by his sister, Mrs. Gargery, who is not especially fond of him, beating him repeatedly with "Tickler." Consequently, Pip spends time alone and visits the graves of his parents in the lonely spot on the marshes. Although his has been a more oppressed life than that of Pip, the convict has grown up without real parents and has been knocked from one spot to another
6. What objects does the convict want brought to him?
The convict wants a file and food brought to him. He wants a file because he has a great iron on his leg.
7. What personal circumstance of Pip's is convenient for the convict?
It is convenient to the convict that Pip lives with Joe, the blacksmith, for Pip can bring him a file with which to