Preview

Why Does Dickens Create Sympathy For Pip

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
769 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Why Does Dickens Create Sympathy For Pip
Great Expectations Essay
How does Dickens create sympathy for Pip in the opening chapters of Great Expectations?
Charles Dickens was born during the Victorian times, he wrote ‘great expectations’ in a weekly instalment, every week he sold one part to maintain the reader’s interest. He wanted people to understand the mass divide of the rich and poor. He wished the people would realise how badly the poor were treated at that time. He used Pip to grab the reader’s attention in the opening chapters by making him a likeable character. Dickens did this as he made the readers sympathise for Pip.
In this essay I am going to explore the language which dickens uses to create sympathy for Pip. Firstly, Pip is an unloved orphan who has no purpose in life. In the opening chapter, we are brought into light that Pip had never seen his parents as ‘’I never saw likeness of either of them’’. Dickens uses the word ‘’never’’ to emphasise the sympathy built for Pip at the start of the novel. Moreover, we are informed that he has too lost all 5 of his
…show more content…
‘’That this bleak place overgrown with nettles was the churchyard’’ this setting reflects Pips feelings and life, dark, cold and lonely. The graveyard’s dim setting could also make Pip frightened as there is nobody else there beside himself. Sympathy is built for the orphan due to the fact that if something dreadful occurs, no one is there to help him. This would also attract the reader to carry on reading as they have strong interest in Pip and worry if anything will happen to him.
Furthermore, when the convict is brought into the story for the first time the readers would have had extreme worry for the child. As Magwich first says in an urgent tone ‘’keep still you little devil or I’ll cut your throat!’’ which immediately informs the readers that this man is dangerous and could harm Pip. Sympathy increases due to this as Pip is in clear danger of being

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    In Charles Dicken’s Great Expectations Pip, the boy who gets rich and then lost it all in the end, everybody can relate too in some way. The first way is Pip like everyone else was a kid, at the beginning of the story Pip is a kid that is somewhere around 7-9 years old and gets older as the book continues. The second way is that Pip desires to better himself like everyone does. The final way is Pip desires to win the heart of someone he loves, but this someone hates…

    • 93 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pip Dialectical Journal

    • 691 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Shane Sukhlal Joanna Trim English 9 September 18, 2014 Journal on Great Expectations Chapters 1-3 1.Book started by introduction of the narrator,using the first person words such as “I” in the sentence “My father’s family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip. ”(Dickens,1). 2.Pip reveals most of his family members,who he lives with, and his orphancy. Pip’s mother and father are dead,and he lives with his sister and her husband who’s profession is a blacksmith.…

    • 691 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Were as Pip is quite a well manored young boy and very innocent he does not seem at all disturbed by the fact that his mother and father and 6 brothers are dead yet he conveys a young innocence,…

    • 816 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Miss Havisham Analysis

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages

    These points show that Dickens is trying to show, through the characters in his book, that money can make a person do terrible things. He uses Pip as an example that even friendships that have have lasted since birth can be ruined by money changing who people are. He uses Miss Havisham to show that people can take advantage of you in relationships just to get all your money, and not to be completely blinded by love. These…

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Havisham's hatred of men and it is through her that Miss Havisham is able to…

    • 2499 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, Pip is a young orphan who lives with his sister and brother in law. They lead an impoverished lifestyle off of bits of bread so when Pip is introduced to the lavish lifestyles of Miss Havisham and her adopted daughter Estella, Pip is intrigued. Soon after, Pip falls in love with Estella and decided to abandon his old lifestyle in order to become educated in London. After many years old hard work and dedication,Pip not only leans how to read and write, but he has also gained respect and honor from his peers and fellow friends. Pip is no longer a pauper begging to scraps of food on the streets but an honorable and highly educated man who is now worthy of the beautiful Estella Havisham. Until Pip was able to endure years of hard work did he earn the respect that was withheld from him from the rest of the world.…

    • 409 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    As Pip grows up her realizes that life is full of pain and struggle. Pip learns that, “Miss Havisham’s intentions towards me, all a mere dream; Estella not designed for me; I only suffered in Satis House as a convenience, a string for the greedy relations, a model with a mechanical heart to practise on when no other practice was at hand...”…

    • 449 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    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.…

    • 2325 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    belonging

    • 1177 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The novel ‘Great Expectations’ is entirely about a boy named Phillip Pirrip who is also known as Pip. It is based on the events that Pip undertakes to gain acceptance and fidelity from Estella.…

    • 1177 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    “I had never thought of being ashamed of my hands before; but I began to consider them a very indifferent pair. Her contempt for me was so strong, that it became infectious, and I caught it." (Dickens 64) A child’s journey through adolescence can be affected easily by the words and views of others. At the beginning of the novel Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, we are introduced to a Victorian London era, and more specifically Pip as a child, who eventually experiences a similar situation as he ages. For instance, as a child he has a low social status, is easily convinced, and is ignorant of the meaning of social status in that time period. Additionally, Pip has traits of being caring, humble, and…

    • 1320 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    paper

    • 421 Words
    • 1 Page

    wgtqegfawefHaving Great Expectations and actually reaching them are two very different things in regard to Pip. Great Expectations is all about Pip’s expectations of becoming a gentleman. He is constantly expecting, or wishing things to happen, only to be let down over and over. Pip would just assume things, without getting affirmation from anybody, and because of that would then just be let down. Charles Dickens was trying to show what men and women want and work for, and what they get, often end up being extreme opposites. All of the great expectations in this book end up unfulfilled. The title Great Expectations is paradoxical to what events actually play out in Pip’s life, because everything he desires or dreams will be wonderful, only ends up disappointing him. As soon as Pip met Estella, at a young age of seven, he knew that he loved her, and thought she was so beautiful. . Estella however, was terribly “Now, I return to this young fellow. And the communication I have got to make is, that he has Great Expectations.”(153) Having Great Expectations and actually reaching them are two very different things in regard to Pip. During Pip’s lifetime, if you were not a gentleman or a lady, you would not amount to anything. Great Expectations is all about Pip’s expectations of becoming a gentleman. He is constantly expecting, or wishing things to happen, only to be let down over and over. Pip was his own worst enemy. He would just assume things, without getting affirmation from anybody, and because of that would then just be let down. Charles Dickens was trying to show what men and women want and work for, and what they get, often end up being extreme opposites. All of the great expectations in this book end up unfulfilled. The title Great expectations is paradoxical to what events actually play out in Pip’s life, because everything he desires or dreams will be wonderful, only ends up disappointing him.…

    • 421 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    food for him as well as a file to get rid of the ‘irons’ on his legs.…

    • 1111 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It seems Dickens was aiming to convey a sense of poverty in Pip. He is apparently…

    • 767 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Our first impressions of Pip are that he is a timid but remorseful boy. We can see this from where he is first found, by his parent’s gravestone. Dickens has us sympathising for Pip as we discover he is an orphan and the fact that he is exposed to death and tragedy from a young age. Pip’s reaction to his surroundings merely perpetuates his faint-hearted approach “the small bundle of fears growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry was pip”. This enhances Dickens main aim of initiating sympathy for Pip, and this, consequently, lasts for the novels entirety.…

    • 1211 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The first chapters of Great Expectations set the plot in motion while introducing Pip and his world. As both narrator and protagonist, Pip is naturally the most important character in Great Expectations: the novel is his story, told in his words, and his perceptions utterly define the events and characters of the book. As a result, Dickens’s most important task as a writer in Great Expectations is the creation of Pip’s character. Because Pip’s is the voice with which he tells his story, Dickens must make his voice believably human while also ensuring that it conveys all the information necessary to the plot. In this first section, Pip is a young child, and Dickens masterfully uses Pip’s narration to evoke the feelings and problems of childhood. At the beginning of the novel, for instance, Pip is looking at his parents’ gravestones, a solemn scene which Dickens renders comical by having Pip ponder the exact inscriptions on the tombstones. When the convict questions him about his parents’ names, Pip recites them exactly as they appear on the tombstones, indicating his youthful innocence while simultaneously allowing Dickens to lessen the dramatic tension of the novel’s opening.…

    • 427 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays