Charles Dickens Great Expectations Essay -- Charles Dickens Great Exp

Charles Dickens' Great Expectations Chapter one of the novel Great Expectations opens in a bleak and overgrown churchyard on the eerie marsh country. Here we are introduced to Pip, as a young and naà ¯ve boy, and we discover he is also an orphan, who lives with sister and her husband the blacksmith, in a small village a mile or more from the church. Whilst Pip is in the churchyard, he meets an escaped convict, Magwitch, whom Pip gives food to, and this encounter remains poignant in both their lives, as Pip goes on to receive the opportunity to become a gentleman, from a mysterious benefactor, and he abandons his friends and family for his â€Å"Great Expectations† and his London lifestyle. The desolate choice of setting and location for the start of the novel are relevant to Pip’s unhappy childhood. Dickens uses negative descriptions such as â€Å"bleak place overgrown with nettles† to create a vivid and miserable image in the readers mind. At once it becomes obvious that Pip’s tale is not going to be a joyful or pleasant one- more the reverse, as his surroundings are described with more depressing phrases including â€Å"dark flat wilderness†, to describe the marshes and land beyond the churchyard, and â€Å"distant savage lair†, to emphasise the fierceness of the sea. We get the impression of an isolated, wild and barren marshland, and feel sorry for the poor young boy let out with nobody with him. We are told that Pip never saw his father or his mother, and told also that he childishly derived what they may have looked like from the appearance of their tombstones. Pip evidently felt alone and deserted at this time, as we see him in the churchyard visiting his parent's graves, and looking at the â€Å"five little stone... ...gers that finish off each chapter. The fact that Magwitch is introduced to Pip in the first chapter is appealing for the reader, as this creates curiosity in wanting to know what is going to happen to Pip, and what is to become of Magwitch. The reader is persuaded to read on to find out also whether Pip obeys Magwitch, and how Pip completes his task. Also, because we feel sorry for the poor boy, we are curious to find out the outcome of his life and whether it gets any better. Overall, Chapter one of the novel Great Expectations provides us with sufficient information about Pip to know that he is not going to grow up in a loving and caring environment, as we find out that he is an orphan, who lives with his sister and her husband, in a strict and unloving household, and is let out alone in a deserted churchyard visiting his parents graves one evening.