Great Expectations so successful Essay

Pip almost breaks down in relief when Magwitch allows him to go, â€Å"I faltered†, he is relieved but still shaken. His childish imagination shows, when Magwitch is picking his way through the graves, â€Å"as if he were eluding the hands of the dead people†, he imagines very fearful images, that he will always relate to Magwitch and the events that have just taken place. Pip has more childish thoughts, and his imagination runs wild, and he imagines the convict â€Å"were the Pirate come to life†. His imagination makes the convict even more frightening to him. â€Å"It gave me a terrible turn when I thought so†, Pip is terrified by his own visions of the convict. Pip is very nai ve, â€Å"I looked all around for the horrible young man, and could see no signs of him†. Pip believes Magwitch’s story and his invented character, and is genuinely scared of the young man, which intimidates Pip even more, as this threat will stay with him long after Magwitch is out of sight. The setting almost always symbolizes a theme in Great Expectations, and throughout the book sets a tone matched to the dramatic actions. The misty marshes are used to symbolize danger and uncertainty. Throughout the chapter Dickens uses Pathetic Fallacy to give human traits to nature. At the beginning of the chapter the day is portrayed as â€Å"raw†, which gives the impression of it being a painful and isolated place. Dickens then gives you strong images of the churchyard, â€Å"bleak place overgrown with nettles†, this portrays the churchyard as uncared for, and that not many people venture there. Pip’s life outside of the churchyard, â€Å"dark flat wilderness beyond the churchyard†, is lonely and isolated, the â€Å"wilderness† is like Pips life which is lonely, and which does not have many people in it, he is uncared for, just like the churchyard. The sense of bleak isolation is reinforced by the low leaden line† of the river and the description of the sea which follows. The place is dark, bleak, and heavy. The â€Å"sea† is there almost as a lair, and a den. â€Å"Savage lair†, this is like a brutal animal attacking. Magwitch will come from such a lair, were other things are hiding, and waiting to attack to Pip, not only now, but in the future as well. Pip is isolated in the graveyard, â€Å"a mile or more from the church†, Pip is along way from home and safety, there is nobody around to hear or help him. Even though there is the terror of Magwitch turning Pip over, a short way away is the church, which shows the contrast of holiness and serenity to the evilness of Magwitch. The marshes are depressing and dark, â€Å"cold wet flat†, the marshes are welcoming for no one but animals. The scratching and stinging plants, â€Å"brambles that bound the green mounds†, shows that it is pain and misery that hold this place together. â€Å"When the rains were heavy, or the tide was in†, the marshes can be dangerous and life threatening. The marshes that were â€Å"just a long black horizontal line† are bleak and dark, and full of uncertainty and danger. Dickens uses Pathetic Fallacy to describe the sky, â€Å"just a row of long angry red lines†; he gives the sky the image of being angry and dangerous. â€Å"Red lines and dense black lines intermixed†, this a mix of red which represents danger, and black which represents death. Only two things on the marshes are tall and noticeable, â€Å"the only two black things in all the prospect that seemed to be standing upright†, everything else is flat and eerie like death. â€Å"The beacon by which the sailors steered†, this is a signal to help prevent danger, which shows there could be some safety mixed up in all of the danger. Dickens shows signs of barbarity of the contempory penal system everywhere. A gallows looms over Pip, â€Å"a gibbet, with some chains hanging to it†; this is a clear symbol of death and evilness. Everywhere Pip looks there are signs of death. In the whole of the novel as well as in this chapter, whenever Pip goes into the mists of the marshes, something dangerous is likely to happen. In the essay I have found that the convict is mainly portrayed by Dickens, as a frightening though believable character, who inflicts terror, anguish, pain, and distress. Despite these points though, at the end of the chapter, when Magwitch is ‘limping’ away, the reader feels some compassion for him. Magwitch is a very guarded person, and intrigues the reader, and makes them guess a lot of things about Magwitch’s character. Pip is a small defenseless little boy, who is exposed and vulnerable to the dangers of the world. The reader automatically feels concern, and sympathy for him. As soon as the action starts between Pip and Magwitch, Magwitch is portrayed as the bad person, and Pip as the good, the reader automatically sides with Pip, and you follow his feelings and emotions right through the chapter. The setting helps create the dismal, eerie, and bleak atmosphere. The overgrown churchyard helps to create the perfect setting for what is going on in the chapter, as it represents Pip’s feelings and emotions. Pathetic fallacy is found quite a lot in the chapter; it is used to give human traits to nature, e. g. ‘savage lair’. Pip’s life and world is the microcosm of the chapter, and contains in miniature all the features of the larger structure (macrocosm). Dickens chose the themes of the convict and crime, as these represent dishonesty, law breaking, and wrongdoing. He chose these images of the unacceptable and violent behavior, as the readers of the time would have had very strong vies on these. He also uses symbols such as the gallows, which people also associate with badness and law breaking. The theme of darkness and violence draws in the reader, and they become involved in everything that is going on in the chapter. Throughout the chapter Dickens uses different techniques such as the setting corresponding with feelings and emotions, and the great aspect of violence, to draw in the reader, and make them become more involved with the characters, and almost feel what they feel. Dickens skillfully leaves the chapter as a cliffhanger, making me (the reader) want to read more. Zara Smalley Page 1 Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Great Expectations section.