Dickens’s other novels Essay

This passage shows how Joe is willing to inconvenience himself, and make himself look stupid, to protect what he has with Pip. The fact that the hat will never stay where Joe puts it highlights the precariousness of the relationship, and shows that try as he might, there are other forces, namely Pip’s expectations, working against him to ruin the relationship. â€Å"†¦ finally splashing it into the slop-basin, where I took the liberty of laying hands upon it. † (p183) The hat ending up in the slop basin is symbolic of how the relationship has broken down. And Pip finally picking it up and taking it away from Joe, is symbolic of Pip not wanting Joe to keep trying to save it. This incident is an example of how humour is combined with symbolism in Great Expectations to convey a serious message to the reader in a light-hearted, unsentimental manner. The effect of this is entertaining the reader whilst at the same time giving them deeper insight into the important relationships in the story. Dickens uses understatement to create humour in the opening of the book. When the convict says ‘Darn me if I couldn’t eat (Pip’s cheeks), Pip ‘earnestly expressed (his) hope that he wouldn’t. This creates humour because obviously Pip would be more adamant about not being eaten alive. This light-hearted portrayal of the situation diffuses the tension of a potentially terrifying moment, allowing the reader to feel less concerned for Pip, and therefore less afraid of the convict. This prepares us to like the convict later in the story. Wemmick, the dry lawyers clerk who leads a double life as the whimsical architect and smallholder at Walworth, provides a lot of the humour in the novel though his eccentric behaviour. He refers to his profoundly deaf father, as ‘the Aged’ there are several comic scenes in which Pip and Wemmick nod exaggeratedly at him as a means of communication. Wemmick, his Walworth home and his humorous ways are used to diffuse tension. For example, Wemmick’s rushed marriage to Miss Siffkins is sandwiched between the Magwitch’s capture and his trial. Dickens also uses irony to entertain and engage the reader, and point to some of themes of the novel. The first obvious example of irony is about Mrs Joe Gargery. She has taken her husbands names, and this is usually a symbol that a wife is her husband’s property. However, their relationship is completely the opposite, and he treats Joe as no more than a child. This reverts the typically stereotype that women are more weak-willed than men are. Satis house is also ironically named. It means enough, and is the root of the word satisfaction. However there can be no satisfaction there for Miss Havisham, Estella or Pip. Dickens uses the mists as a metaphor for Pip’s mind. When he is about to leave for London, he says, â€Å"the mists had all solemnly risen now and the world lay spread before me† (p152), it shows that in Pip’s mind, everything has been resolved, and he is on his way to where he belongs. There are many themes interlaced with the story. Firstly that of class and what makes a true ‘gentleman’. Pip associates being a ‘gentleman’ with having money. However through the characters in the story, Dickens shows that this is not true. Bentley Drummle is rich, yet has many undesirable characteristics. He is Pip’s nemesis. Herbert Pocket on the other hand is poor, but Pip admires and loves him. Miss Havisham also represents a paradox in Pip’s world of money = happiness. She is extremely rich; however, her money is the worst thing that happened to her. It is the reason Compeyson started a relationship with her and then broke her heart. Through the story, Pip learns that money is not the most important thing in the world, when he accepts the convict as his benefactor and friend. Another theme central to the novel is that of justice. Justice is always done. Joe behaves admirably throughout the novel, and Pip does not. In the end Joe is rewarded by winning Biddy. Estella mocks Pip for being common and breaks his heart. However, she marries Drummle who treats her badly, and in the end it is she, with a convict as a father, who is of the lowest class. Compeyson and Magwitch are both criminals, but Compeyson is by far the worse of the two. They both die, as penance for their crimes, but Compeyson’s death is horrific and painful, whereas Magwitch’s is a more dignified affair. Another theme is that pride and revenge are destructive. Miss Havisham sets out to destroy the male sex, but in the end only ruins the lives of two females, her and Estella. The historical context is another reason why Great Expectations is a great novel. Britain had just undergone an industrial revolution, which had widened the gap between the rich and urban dwelling poor. A similar situation in France had led to a political revolution. The British authorities were mindful of this and thus imposed a harsh regime – executions and transportations were commonplace. Dickens felt that this was wrong, so one of the ‘good’ characters in the story was executed to highlight this and the law that transported convicts were not allowed to return is one of the obstacles in the story. Dickens own family situation is also shown in the novel, which makes it not only entertaining, but also informative and reliable. His father was a criminal and Dickens spent some of his childhood living in a debtor’s prison. This gave him an unfavourable impression of the British justice system and this is shown in the novel when Pip first comes to London, and sees the gallows and the prison. Also, Jaggers is the main exponent of the law and he is cold and unforgiving. So in conclusion, Dickens combines complex characters, a wide range of underlying themes and many literary techniques with other things to create a successful novel. These wide ranges of techniques and devices help the play to engage the audience on many different levels, by stimulating them verbally, emotionally and intellectually. The novel also entertains and informs at the same time. Although, for analytical purposes, I have divided these things up, the reader responds to them as a whole and they all work together to make an impact. However, literature, by definition is an art. So although great Expectations is technically a good novel, due to the subjective nature of the literature, it is up the individual whether they enjoy it or not, and whether they prefer it to any of Dickens’s other novels.