Great Expectations Literary Devices

Charles Dickens’s novel, Great Expectations, centers around the personal growth and development of a young orphan named Pip. When the novel begins, Pip encounters a convict named Magwitch while visiting the graves of his family. Magwitch scares Pip into giving him some food and a file to release himself from the shackles on his leg. Dickens uses several literary devices such as imagery, style, and point of view to recreate this scene in the readers mind. One important aspect of how Dickens develops and portrays his characters is imagery. From the passage, the reader can infer that Magwitch is an escaped convict. “A fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg.” When Pip first encounters Magwitch, Magwitch is soaked and covered with mud, which means that he …show more content…
The point of view throughout this passage is first person; the reader is given Pip’s thoughts and his interactions with the other characters. Through this point of view, we can imagine the terror that Pip is feeling when Magwitch threatens him to slit his throat. “I was dreadfully frightened, and so giddy that I clung to him with both hands, and said, ‘If you would kindly please to let me keep upright, sir, perhaps I shouldn’t be sick, and perhaps I could attend more.’” The conversation between Pip and Magwitch bring embodies the full characterization of their characters. Through the use of imagery, style and point of view, Charles Dickens effectively portrays the two characters in this scene. Even though the passage is short and contains little action, Dickens uses these specific literary devices to expertly craft the two main characters. These devices also allow the reader to make inferences as to who the characters are and some background information about them. As a whole, Dickens’ use of colorful images and aspects of mid-1800’s Victorian England fortify the characteristics of both Pip and Magwitch