Novelist Charles Dickens Essay

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Novelist Charles Dickens Essay

What impression does Dickens give of Miss Havisham and Estella in Chapter 8 of “Great Expectation” and how does he achieve this? The story is set in the Victorian times. It is written by a novelist called Charles Dickens. It is about an orphan called “Pip”, who is reminiscing on his past. The novel is written in a 1st person narrative perspective. Chapter 8 fits into the rest of the novel because it is about how Pip learns the way of life and the road to being a gentleman. Pip gets into debt and receives money from a childhood acquaintance – Magwitch, an escaped convict.During the novel we not only see Pip’s life we also follow the life of his love, Estella. After falling into debt and running away from the consequences of his reckless actions, Pip realizes that he can no longer be a real gentleman. The first meeting Pip has with Miss Havisham and Estella has a big impact on Pip because it changes his life by showing him exactly how much of a lower class person he is compared to Miss Havisham and Estella. Dickens makes Miss Havisham seem rich, but poor, and scary by the way he describes the outside of her house.He uses irony to describe Miss Havisham’s house, saying that the house “was of old bricks, dismal and had a great many iron bars to it. ” This makes Miss Havisham look scary and the house look broken because the phrase “had a great many iron bars to it” suggests that whatever is in there, has been locked up and is not allowed out of there. The use of “old bricks” suggests that the house it tatty and hasn’t been refurbished in a long time. It also suggests that Miss Havisham is poor because if she were rich, she would have gotten the houses bricks fixed.The word “Dismal” suggests that the house is gloomy and of poor quality. The phrase “had a great many iron bars to it” could also mean that Miss Havisham doesn’t want to be disturbed and doesn’t want to be involved with the outside world. Dickens also uses Miss Havisham’s room to show the reader that Miss Havisham is of a higher class citizen than Pip. He does this by using phrases like “all clocks and watches stopped at twenty to nine” and “dresses lying around” and also “no glimpse of daylight could be seen”.The phrase “all clocks and watches stopped at twenty to nine” shows the reader that Miss Havisham might be mentally disturbed because normally people would make sure at least one clock works, but in this case none of the clocks work and all of them happen to have stopped exactly twenty minutes to nine. However, the phrase “dresses lying around” could suggest that Miss Havisham doesn’t know how to clean and could also suggest that there was once a lot of people there but not anymore.“No glimpse of daylight could be seen” indicates to the reader that the house is very dark inside and it is abandoned. It could also mean that whatever lives there has been trapped. This is a perfect use of irony because normally a rich person would have a house that didn’t have iron bars on the front and also they would have a tidy, clean and under control house, but although Miss Havisham is rich her house is nothing like what you would expect from a rich and upper class person. Dickens uses the characters to give an impression of Miss Havisham and Estella.He uses sentences like “Dressed in rich materials” and “satins, and lace and silks – all of white”, “Bright jewels sparkled on her neck and on her hands” and “I had been taken to see some ghastly waxwork”. The phase “rich materials” implies to the reader Miss Havisham is rich and she can afford the materials that are in her dresses. Also the use of “satins, and lace and silks – all of white” suggests to the reader that Miss Havisham is a ghostly and spiritless character with no human emotions.The phrase “Bright jewels sparkled on her neck and on her hands” could also suggest that Miss Havisham is rich because they “sparkle” and she likes to show off by wearing the jewels on her neck and her hands. However, “ghastly waxwork” shows the reader that Miss Havisham’s body has not moved for ages and therefore is rotting and therefore it has turned into a waxwork. The word ghastly implies to the reader that Miss Havisham body is informal and unpleasant. The irony is that you wouldn’t expect someone as rich as Miss Havisham to look informal or unpleasant when they have guests.On the other hand the word ghastly could mean that Miss Havisham is ill and can’t afford medical care. One way Dickens makes Miss Havisham look rich but poor at the same time is by the things he says she does. He says she sits in the dark “corpse like” and that she “watches Pip and Estella play”. The use of corpse indicates that Miss Havisham is dead. The phrase “watches Pip and Estella play” suggests that Miss Havisham enjoys watching the children play and that even though she is rich, and therefore should have a nanny for the children, she still doesn’t mind watching the children even if it might affect her social status.However the phrase corpse like could suggest that Miss Havisham isn’t dead but wants to be dead. Dickens also shows the reader that Miss Havisham is of a higher social status than Pip by the way she says things. For example instead of calling him Pip, Miss Havisham calls him “boy” Also, she says “Who is it… Pip? ” as if she didn’t know it was him that came even though she asked for him to come. The use of “boy” suggests to the reader that Miss Havisham is of a higher social status than Pip because in the Victorian times a person who is of a higher social status usually didn’t call a person who is of a lower social status by their name.Also, the way Miss Havisham doesn’t recognize Pip even though she asked for him suggests that she doesn’t remember much. However, the use of “boy” could also suggest that Miss Havisham doesn’t have the decency to call Pip by his name because he is a guest at her house and guests should be treated with respect. Dickens gives the impression that Estella is a good-looking girl and that Pip likes her. He does this by using phrases like “young lady, who was very pretty” and “her light came along the dark passage like a star”.“Young lady, who was very pretty” emphasizes the point that Estella is an attractive girl because the word “pretty” means pleasing to look at and that is exactly what Pip thinks when he looks at her for the first time. However the use of “her light came along the dark passage like a star” could suggest that Estella is attractive to look at but is also blinding in a bad way because a star is pretty but if you were close to it or stared at it for a long time it could make you go blind.Dickens gives us the impression that Estella is evil because she “stands in the dark passageway until called repeatedly” and she “chucked food at me as if I were a dog” The phrase “stands in the dark passageway until called repeatedly” indicates that she likes the dark because she is evil and she doesn’t come as soon as she is called, she comes after being called “repeatedly”. Also, the phrase “chucked food at me as if I were a dog” suggests that Estella is evil because you would expect a normal person to give food to another person with respect and into their hands but Estella “chucks” the food at Pip as if he were a “dog”.Dickens shows us how the upper class liked to insult or find the fault in everything a lower class person does. Estella insults and intimidates Pip as shown by “I misdealt, as way only natural when I knew she way lying in wait for me to do wrong” and “she denounced me for a stupid, clumsy labouringly boy”. This shows the reader how Estella had been trained to look for the fault in people and to be cruel.However the use of “I misdealt, as way only natural when I knew she was lying in wait for me to do wrong” could suggest to the reader that Estella is impatient and can’t be bothered to play with someone who is of a lower social status than her. Dickens describes many feelings of Pip’s which change throughout the visit. This is shown by “I think she is very pretty” and “I think she is very insulting”. This is what Pip whispers into Miss Havisham’s ear about Estella. This also shows that he has mixed feelings for Estella. Dickens further describes Pip’s feelings about the visit “as if I were a dog in disgrace.I was so humiliated, hurt, spurned, offended, angry, sorry – I cannot hit upon the right name for the smart – God knows what its name was – that the tears started to my eyes” and “as I cried, I kicked the wall, and took a name, that needed counteraction”. This clearly highlights Pip’s feeling to the reader. He feels a huge amount of rage that he cannot even describe it himself. He has never felt in such a way before as he has been insulted and offended about it his natural social state and at the same time has mixed feelings about what he feels for Estella.