Pip tells his story from the time when he is seven, and is an innocent boy from a poor background, until he is twenty-three. One theme of the book is about the realisation of class and how Pip became ashamed of his background and strove, through a mysterious donation of income, to improve himself. In doing this he denied his origins and the people who helped him and loved him. He became arrogant and patronizing and mistreated those he should have valued. Through this process Pip becomes lonely and corrupted. The irony of the story is that the very ones who he had looked upon as being far too inferior of him were the ones who had cared for him the most – Joe Gargery and the convict Magwitch. The realisation that Pip came to from his experiences were that the status and class he had strived for and admired were in fact full of corruption. He goes on to realise th

Magwitch makes his appearance after Pip has started crying over the realisation of his loneliness. He tells Pip to ‘keep still, you little devil, or I’ll cut your throat!’. Pip is instantly terrified and is almost beside himself at the sight of this man who is – ‘A fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg’. Dickens at this point injects some humour in his description of the convict by writing – ‘ A man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed in stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars; who limped, and shivered, and glared and growled; whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me by the chin’.

Dickens goes on to describe the marsh land where Pip lived and he describes an image of a lonely, bleak, wild area which is dark and gloomy. This scene sets the theme for the book where it could be said that Pip is the victim of circumstances in his life. He is an orphan in a cemetery which is in a lonely, wild place. Pip comments that one particular afternoon his impression of things altered –

The first chapter is quite significant as it establishes the themes of the novel. The sadness of Pip’s beginnings and the fact he is a victim of circumstances, the convict who is being pursued and is mysterious, the darkness and gloom of the marshes which is similar to the darkness of Pip’s life. All these things set the scene for the novel to unfold and tell the story of Pip and how he changed from the innocent boy into the man he became.

‘My first most vivid and broad impression of the identity of things, seems to be to have been gained on a memorable raw afternoon towards evening.’

The convict has escaped and is desperate for food and for something that can free him from the iron on his leg. He has stumbled upon Pip and needs Pip to help him. A symbolic conversation that they have is when the convict asks Pip where his mother is and Pip points out the tombstones of his parents and brothers. ‘There, sir! I timidly explained. Also Georgiana. That’s my mother’

The convict finds out who Pip lives with, which is Pip’s older sister and her husband who is the blacksmith. From this knowledge the convict threatens Pip that if he does not come back with file, wittles and food he will cause Pip to suffer. In this scene Pip is on a tombstone and as the convict is threatening him to make him help him he is tipping him further and further back to make him feel more and more afraid. This scene could be seen as a description of how the convict changes Pip’s life by the donation of the money. The tipping up of Pip could be the simile for the t

Some topics in this essay:
Pip Pip, Pirrip Christian, Pip’ Dickens, Georgiana That’s, Charles Dickens, Joe Gargery, pip’s life, , pip pip, parents brothers, theme book, orphan cemetery, leaves cemetery, free iron, innocent boy, written viewpoint, cause reader, pip’s life seen,