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How Does Dickens Present Pip In Chapter 1

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The reader is introduced to the main character from the first lines. His name is Pip. This name is used by the character himself when being an infant he joins his first name and his surname together after he tries to pronounce these correctly ‘infant tongue could make both names nothing or more explicit that Pip’.
As Pip remembers ‘most vivid and broad impression of identity of things, seem to me to have been gained on a memorable afternoon towards the evening’. Pips first memories are from the churchyard where his mother, father and siblings are buried. Here we are introduced to the lonely orphan Pip. On that afternoon Pip realises his loneliness both physically (as Pip thinks) and mentally. Mental loneliness of the Pip is presented …show more content…

This is shown when he tries to imagine how his parents would look like from their tombstones ‘my first fancies regarding what they were like, were unreasonably derived from their tombstones’. He imagines that his father was ‘square, stout, dark man’ and that his mother was ‘freckled and sickly’. Charles Dickens tries to lighten the mood in this scene and bring some comedy to attract the reader by including Pips thinking about his mothers name ‘Also Georgiana Wife of the Above’ and further when Pip imagines his brothers ‘been born on their backs with their hands in their trousers’. The writer portrays Pip as an innocent child who is alone and scared in his own words ‘the small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it …show more content…

Pip willingness to provided information about his family to the stranger shows his good personality and that Pip is a naturally giving person. Pip also feels sorry for the man as he walks towards the churchyard wall and ‘hugged his shuddering body’ which was cut and bruised. He then turns several times to look at the escaped, limping convict which might indicate compassion towards the convict and Pips kindness. The first chapter greatly succeeds in establishing the mood of the novel. It is gloomy and somewhat scary environment for the Pip.
The second chapter describes Pips guardians and also the terrible predicament Pip has within his own

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