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Chapter 39 Great Expectations Essay

Decent Essays

Chapter 39 is a Pivotal One, Why? How does Dickens communicate the importance of the drama of the chapter to the reader? In chapter 39, Pip's benefactor is revealed. It is around this person that the mystery of Pip's expectations is built. It is a pivotal chapter in the way the plot develops. In this chapter Pip finally accepts that the way he acted in London was wrong and that chasing Estella was very pointless. The importance and drama of this chapter can be seen from the beginning. Dickens shows this to the reader in many ways, such as the build-up of atmosphere between certain people, the drama and the mystery behind Magwitch's behaviour and the way he acts, and Pip's often fluttering state of emotion. The first couple of …show more content…

The following two paragraphs are full of surprise and images, metaphors and similes - "the wind rushing up the river shook the house that night, like discharges of cannon, or breakings of a sea"; "I might have fancied myself in a storm-beaten lighthouse" - as well as very long and specific meaningful sentences. Dickens' dramatic images and his attention to detail keep's the drama flowing and the atmosphere dead, but the mood of the chapter is now also more deep and violent. However, it is then, quite suddenly, that amongst all of the noise and darkness that Pip says: "I heard a footstep on the stair". This statement lets the reader know that Pip is not alone therefore making the reader more intrigued, intrigued to know who it is that is there with Pip. Dickens's now has the readers' attention therefore still creating drama. The drama is created because as the reader we immediately want to find out who is on the stairs. The books says, 'tenderness' of a man "looking up at me with an incomprehensible air of being touched and pleased by the sight of me" is a contrast to the past mood and atmosphere, and has a calming effect upon the novel's mood, in the way that the person on the steps is not likely to ham Pip. With the 'storm' now gone, the plot

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