Points to consider when assessing Chapter One of “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens.
Some ideas to get you started…
- What makes this opening chapter a good read? It might be useful to colour code your sheets with a highlighter pen!
- Narrative technique – first person narrative. What effect does this have on you, the reader? What does first person have that third person misses and vice versa?
- Setting (Where is the story set?)
The setting is very important in Great Expectations in a number of key scenes. The varied settings establish a tone to accompany the tale’s dramatic action and characters. The opening chapter, set on the misty Kent marshes around Pip’s childhood home, is one of the most evocative of the novel’s settings,
Which other settings in the novel are vivid? Compare and contrast them with the marshes.
The marshes are used a number of times to signify danger and uncertainty. Early on, the terrified Pip meets and later brings Magwitch a file and food in these mists.
Later on in the novel, the narrator is kidnapped by Orlick and almost killed. We soon see that if Pip enters into these shrouding mists, something perilous is likely to ensue. The setting is thus very atmospheric and almost like a character in its own right. Furthermore, Pip must even travel through the mists when he goes to London upon hearing...
