Pips changing character Essay

Explore how dickens builds atmosphere and reveals aspects of Pips changing character in three scenes of your choice. A Great Expectation is considered by many to be Charles Dickens greatest novel. Dickens wrote the book from the first person perspective so when reading the book Pip is telling the story after it actually happened. The story is about the life of Phillip Pirrip (Pip). We follow the growth of Pip. The story follows Pips formation from childhood to adulthood. The story shows us how events in his life change his attitudes. Unfortunately instead of growing up to be a gentleman he turns out a snob. The story is based on how the older generation uses the younger generation to get back at society. We see this when Miss havisham says to Estella ‘Well, you can break his heart’. She said this when Estella was complaining about having to play cards with Pip. Miss Havisham wants Estella to break Pips heart because once she had her heart broken . Pip was also being used by Magwitch. Magwitch uses Pip by bringing him to London and bringing him up to be a gentleman. This is getting back at society because society looked down at Magwitch. When Pip visits Miss Havisham for the first time Dickens gives us lots of clues to what she will be like before he actually meets her. Firstly her house is called Satis house which Estella says ‘Its other name was Satis which is Greek or Latin or Hebrew or all 3 or one to me – for enough’. This is a warning that Miss Havisham is fed up and had enough of life. Also upon arriving at Miss Havisham’s house Dickens builds up the atmosphere by writing ‘The cold wind seemed to blow colder there than outside the gate and it made a shrill noise in howling in and out at the open sides of the brewery. Like the noise of wind in the rigging of a ship at sea’. This creates a gloomy atmosphere and makes the reader think something bad is inside. Once Pip enters Miss Havisham’s room Dickens writes a paragraph describing Miss Havisham. HE writes about how she is dressed. ‘She was dressed in rich materials – satins and lace and silks all of white. ‘ ‘Some bright jewels sparkled on her neck and on her hands†¦. ‘ This gives us a good impression of her but then Dickens writes ‘but I saw that everything within my view which ought to be white had been white long ago and had lost its lustre, and was faded and yellow’. These represents that she was once happy but mow her life has gone sour and she is bitter. The room in which Miss Havisham was had no source of daylight it was lit by the odd candle. This shows us that there is no light left in her life.