How Does Charles Dickens Create Sympathy In Great Expectations? Essay

Dickens uses many ways to create sympathy for his characters in great expectations this is very useful in a successful novel as it will help to sell and not only that more people will want to buy it. Charles Dickens uses many ways to achieve sympathy for his characters such as the use of vivid descriptions with powerful adjectives, the setting is also used very well to great effect as it is a great way to create sympathy â€Å"The small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry was Pip† this is just one way that Dickens uses to create sympathy for his characters in Great Expectations. Dickens also uses many other ways to create sympathy for his characters such as the use of adjectives. The adjective ‘overgrown’ shows an unloved place of which no one cares how it looks, also it could be full of weeds and plants this adds to the impression created by the mind. Dickens also uses the setting to enhance the feeling of sympathy ‘bleak place overgrown with nettles was the church yard’ in this the adjective ‘bleak’ gives on impression of an exposed barren also cold and damp place. The whole sentence creates an impression of a dismal place. This enhances the sense of sympathy. For his characters I am going to focus on three main characters theses are; Pip, Magwitch and Miss Havisham. I am going to use some character of less importance these are; Estella, Joe and Pip’s sister. In addition, I am going to use two main texts and these are; pip in the churchyard and the meeting of Miss Havisham also, I am going to add elements of the novel I think there are other points that creates sympathy for pip than these two texts. When we first meet Pip, he is sitting in an isolated village churchyard staring at his parents’ tombstones. The village churchyard is described as a â€Å"†¦ Bleak place overgrown with nettles† giving the setting an image of dismal place unloved and uncared for. The adjective â€Å"bleak† aids the description as it means bare or desolated and also it often means wind swept this helps aid the description of the church yard as this describe it well because a church yard is often very sombre or a very upsetting place . Pip was in the churchyard where his parents were buried, along with his five brothers instantly we feel sorry for him as he has no living relatives except for his older sister . â€Å"†¦ Five little stone lozenges each about a foot and a half long† from this we know his brothers have died and have been buried in a row. Pip’s brothers would have most probably have died or stop trying to earn a living. Pips younger brothers would not have gone to school, as there was no education for those who could not afford it. At this time, many people were poor and could not afford it. Additionally, there was no NHS service but also there was some medical service but you would have to be rich enough to afford it. From the text we know both his parents had died by;† I never saw my father or mother† this gives us a sense of sympathy and loneliness also â€Å"†¦ I never saw any likeliness of them†. Pip never saw his parents or what they look like later on in the text we realise that the only impression of his parents are derived from there grave stones and more so from the lettering . Pip probably saw no reference to what his parent looked like as at this time there were no camera’s to take a photo of the times they spent together as this is why he saw no likeness of them also his parents probably died because the were mo medicine or you had to be rich to get some. Also later on in the novel his only living relative beats pip up.