Morbid place Essay

Pip thinks that Magwitch looks as though he is ‘eluding the hands of the dead people, stretching up cautiously out of their graves, to get a twist upon his ankle and pull him in. ‘ There is a gibbet where a pirate had once been buried in the marshes and Pip looks at Magwitch ‘†¦ as if he were the pirate come to life, and come down, and going back to hook himself up again. ‘ Dickens makes the reader wonder if that is how Magwitch is going to meet his end. The descriptions from Pip are very eloquent and show us that he has a wonderful imagination. In Dickens’s time, criminals (and a person could be called this just for stealing a loaf of bread for his/her family, or committing some sort of petty crime) were thrown into prison or put in hulks. Hulks were old naval ships that had been converted into prisons; the convicts were shackled so that there was less chance of escaping. If a person escaped from a hulk s/he was transported to Australian on a ship that had atrocious living conditions, many people dies from disease or malnutrition before they arrive din Australia. People were thrown into the debtor’s prison when they got into any debt, even if they only owed a little bit of money. The person in debt was imprisoned indefinitely until the person who they owed the money was satisfied. Many debtors died in these prisons because of the terrible living conditions. This is extremely different to how it is now, and so the modern reader doesn’t understand the situation. Today almost everyone is in some sort of debt; mortgages, loans, overdrafts, and yet no one is thrown into prison for it. Magwitch speaks as though he’s not very educated. He says â€Å"wittles† when he means ‘victuals’, â€Å"partickler† instead of ‘particular’ and â€Å"percooliar† when he should say ‘peculiar’. Dickens uses phonetics to show his dialect and colloquialisms. This makes Magwitch seem not very sophisticated. The ‘younger’ Pip’s dialogue shows that he has had some sort of education as it’s a lot more educated than Magwitch’s: â€Å"If you would kindly please to let me keep upright, sir, perhaps I shouldn’t be sick†. But when compared to the ‘older’ Pip’s dialogue, we can see that he became more educated: â€Å"It was a dressing-room†¦ and prominent in it was a draped table with a gilded looking-glass. † Miss Havisham and Estella seem to speak ‘posh’ and rather snobby. When they are playing cards Estella says: â€Å"He calls the knaves Jacks! † She obviously thinks that her way of talking is proper. Dickens shows the reader how the different classes spoke in Victorian times; from the poor and uneducated (Magwitch) to the wealthy and refined (Miss Havisham). We don’t see much of Estella and Dickens leaves the reader asking questions; who is the young and pretty girl and what is she doing in such a morbid place? But what we do see isn’t very nice. Although she is a beautiful girl she is very vindictive. â€Å"†¦ what coarse hands he has. And what thick boots! † She makes Pip feel ashamed of himself and doesn’t even say his name; she talks as if she is speaking about him to someone else, as if she could never lower her standards enough to talk to such a common ‘thing’. ‘She put the mug down and on the stones of the yard, and gave me the bread and meat without looking at me, as insolently as if I were a dog in disgrace. ‘ She isn’t satisfied until she makes Pip ‘lean against the wall and cry’ and watched him twist his hair with bitter frustrations. Miss Havisham is unusual because although aged, she is not married. In Dickens’s England a woman was expected to get married and then look after her husband and children for the rest of her life. This was necessary because women relied on their fathers, then their husbands. Without a husband how would a woman survive if her father died? Or ran into debt? This is another situation were that the modern reader finds unusual. These days, women have equal rights and do not need to get married. Dickens makes us feel some kind of consideration for Miss Havisham during our first meeting with her: ‘†¦ The bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress, and like the flowers†¦ ‘ She seems like an injured soul and we comprehend why when she says her heart is â€Å"broken! † The reader wonders how come Miss Havisham is in her unmarried state and this makes us feel sorry for her. She lives in the dark, keeping all the light out as if she can’t bear to face the world. Then the reader’s attitude towards her changes when we realise that Miss Havisham just wants Pip for a plaything and we begin to feel less kind towards her. When she goes as far as telling Estella to â€Å"beggar him† and â€Å"break his heart† we definitely we definitely start to dislike her. The reader doesn’t feel that Pip is safe with her. The differences between the happenings now and in ‘Great Expectations’ make the modern reader surprised and mystified, but still able to relate to Pip’s story. ‘Great Expectations’ is can still be related to today because at some point, everyone goes through the struggles that Pip must battle. It shows that assets and wealth do not change who people are inside, and that finding one’s self can be a long tedious process until finally everything becomes clear. Dickens wrote ‘Great Expectations’ as a way for him to introduce himself into his writing; many aspects of his life can be found in the book, making it very autobiographical. It was also a way of making his feelings known about the social issues in England in his time. He tells the reader not to judge people, as appearances are very deceptive. The ‘moral’ of the story seems to be that no matter how you change your outward appearance and how much you educate yourself, you can’t change who you really are.