Essay about Settings in Great Expectations - 928 Words

Show how Dickens uses settings in Great Expectations to enhance our understanding of character and the symbolic elements of the plot - Great expectations Show how Dickens uses settings in Great Expectations to enhance our understanding of character and the symbolic elements of the plot. As we notice in the novel Great Expectations, Charles Dickens uses many different narrative techniques other than the usual description. One of these techniques is that of describing character through a specific setting. There are a few of these very detailed descriptions in chapter eight (Satis House), chapter twenty (Mr. Jaggers office), chapter twenty-one (Barnards Inn), chapter twenty-five (Wemmicks castle) and chapter twenty-six†¦show more content†¦On the whole there is an atmosphere of death and decay, also thanks to the very grotesque description of Mr. Jaggers own high-backed chair of deadly black horse-hair, with rows of brass nails round it, like a coffin; (chapter 20 page 160). We deduce that Mr. Jaggers is quite an odd individual, not very human, and closer to death than to life. Barnards Inn is the place Pip is to be established in during his stay in London. He has some expectations to what it is to be like, but on his arrival there finds it the dingiest collection of shabby buildings ever squeezed together (chapter 21 page 168). It is a dismal place (Dickens repeats this word four times in one sentence), melancholic, rotten, dilapidated, crippled, cracked, collapsing, miserable and empty (chapter 21 page 168). In this setting, other than the element of ruin there is an element of death present, especially in the following two sentences: A frouzy mourning of soot and smoke (mourning is usually meant by the remembrance of the deceased) and I opened the staircase window and nearly beheaded myself it came down like the guillotine (chapter 21 page 169). Wemmicks castle is one of the most normal households in Great Expectations. It is situated in the district of Walworth, which already tells us something about it and its inhabitants: that they are worth something. It is a little wooden cottage in the midst of plots ofShow MoreRelatedThe Setting in Great Expectations Essay950 Words   |  4 PagesThe Setting in Great Expectations The settings of Great Expectations have an important bearing on the storyline; the settings also echo the characters in personality and circumstance. The theme of the book seems to run parallel with the settings in some respects, such as the plain but wholesome life-style of Rochester and the beckoning but ultimately shallow habitat of London. Throughout the book comparisons and relationships between story and setting are made,Read MoreDickens Use of Settings in Great Expectations2047 Words   |  9 PagesDickens Use of Settings in Great Expectations Great Expectations is the story of a young boy called Pips physical and emotional journey. 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