How Does Dickens Create A Mood Of The Novel

In “Great Expectations” Charles Dickens carefully mixes elements of the comic, the tragic, and the grotesque to create a dynamic story. Dickens blends these aspects together within scenes in order to accomplish this. He fuses them together to produce a story that is humorous, melancholy, and sentimental, all at the same time. Within the story, Dickens uses the comic to create humor, the tragic to create melancholy, and the grotesque to create sentimentality. He creates his humor through the use of irony. An example of irony would be how the boy Pip fights at Miss Havisham’s house later becomes his best friend. With the use of irony, Dickens is able to lighten the mood of the novel and bring in the humorous aspects. Then Dickens uses tragedy to create the melancholy feeling. The tragic events in the story leave the reader with the feeling of sadness for the characters. When Pip learns that Estella is marrying someone else, is an example of tragedy. The reader is left feeling melancholy and sad for Pip because he will never be with the woman of her dreams. Then Finally Dickens uses the grotesque to create a sentimental feeling. In the story Dickens writes, “I found it painfully difficult, I might say impossible, to get rid of the impression of the glare of flames, their hurry and noise, and the fierce …show more content…
Miss Havisham says to Estella, “You stock and stone! You cold, cold heart!” (Dickens, 238) Estella also says cruel statements to Miss Havisham, such as, “learning your lessons and looking up into your face, when your face was strange and frightened me!” (Dickens, 239) Through the exchange of grotesque dialogue, Dickens is able to sympathize and relate with the argument. This creates the sentimental aspect of the scene. With all the aspects together, Dickens is able to create a tale that is humorous, melancholy, and sentimental, all at the same