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The First Chapter Of Great Expectations By Charles Dickens

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Dickens' Great Expectations

In the novel 'Great Expectations', Charles Dickens writes in first person narrative text, he does this so that the reader only gets the story for the eyes of at the beginning young Pip. This is a very clever way of writing and it lets the reader read the story through the eyes of a young boy and later on in the novel a man. This allows Dickens to exaggerate a lot at the beginning because the story is told by a young boy who will see every thing exaggerated, this is good when dickens is trying to set the mood at that precise moment and he uses this power through out the novel where he makes parts more frightening for the reader either though it would be frightening for …show more content…

This is only scary in Pips childish imagination. Charles Dickens is very good at describing the setting and does well at describing all the depressing and scary places at the beginning of the play. He uses very descriptive writing to create a gloomy atmosphere.

In the first chapter Dickens does well to set up the initial establishing of the scene, the grave yard, he first sets the scene by telling the reader some basic information,

'Ours was the marsh country, down by the river'

This tells us where is and some basic information but from that first quote it seams a barren and empty place which makes it feel inhospitable and forgiving. 'a memorable raw afternoon towards evening', Here Charles Dickens writes vividly from experience being from that area and knowing how it feels, the word 'raw' makes it feel very cold but 'chilling' as well which adds to the fear which would already be there because of the graveyard. This whole first establishing of the scene makes the area seam very unattractive and bland.

'distant savage lair from which the wind was rushing,…..that small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it'

These quotes make the landscape seam very bland because of the large

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