Most of Charles Dickens’ novels are inextricably linked to the setting which is utilized to portray themes, reflect on character personalities, situations and emotions. London and Kent are places that become the haven for his characters and their development. Great Expectations is set in
Victorian England during the nineteenth century, a time when social changes were occurring at a fast pace throughout the nation. The Industrial Revolution of the late eighteenth century had transformed the social and economic landscape, enabling capitalists and industrialists alike to amass huge fortunes. Although one’s birth no longer determined one’s social class, the divisions between the rich and poor class remained nearly as wide as ever. London became …show more content…
The story is told in first-person narrative. The setting starts off in the countryside in Kent(Dickens’ childhood home) where Pip was born and raised and then moves on to London where he pursues his goal to become a gentleman above his humble origins. Both the places facilitate and are symbolic of his journey and values he gains and forgoes. The distinctions between the city life, the town, and the country are the most apparent shifts in Pip's story. All of them are endowed with forces of good as well as of destruction.
The ‘misty’ marshes in the beginning set a sinister tone and portents to some sort of unforeseeable danger. The countryside is portrayed as a dark and confusing place in which an individual would feel isolated and alienated rather than comforted. The countryside is characterised by age-old values and customs which keeps the characters bound to it and simultaneously trying to break away from it.
Pip grew up in two places, the ‘forge’, where his sister and husband lived and Satis House, …show more content…
Pip’s London is a caricature of the place Dickens once knew, before the arrival of the railway and the sewer system – the London still referred to as ‘Dickensian’, exemplified by
Pip’s lodgings in Barnard’s Inn.
Dickens makes the city the prime scene for his protagonist learning the difference between appearance and reality. The seemingly chaotic city has a lesson to teach Pip – a lesson in realism. London is on the one hand meeting his “great expectations”, it is where he sets out to be a gentleman; on the other it is the city of decline and fall, of busy lifestyle and of death, in other words, the dismantling of those illusions, including his great expectations. When he is given a tour of the gallows of Newgate prison, it gives him a sickening picture of London, which he tries to get rid of by buying his way out for a shilling. Pip’s belief in the power of money as a means to a better life as well as a way of getting rid of the “dirt” of the past, were shattered in the course of his London years. London is a life lesson in the nature of corruption, and life in the city precipitates debts, events and sudden encounters which eventually leads him to renounce
Victorian England during the nineteenth century, a time when social changes were occurring at a fast pace throughout the nation. The Industrial Revolution of the late eighteenth century had transformed the social and economic landscape, enabling capitalists and industrialists alike to amass huge fortunes. Although one’s birth no longer determined one’s social class, the divisions between the rich and poor class remained nearly as wide as ever. London became …show more content…
The story is told in first-person narrative. The setting starts off in the countryside in Kent(Dickens’ childhood home) where Pip was born and raised and then moves on to London where he pursues his goal to become a gentleman above his humble origins. Both the places facilitate and are symbolic of his journey and values he gains and forgoes. The distinctions between the city life, the town, and the country are the most apparent shifts in Pip's story. All of them are endowed with forces of good as well as of destruction.
The ‘misty’ marshes in the beginning set a sinister tone and portents to some sort of unforeseeable danger. The countryside is portrayed as a dark and confusing place in which an individual would feel isolated and alienated rather than comforted. The countryside is characterised by age-old values and customs which keeps the characters bound to it and simultaneously trying to break away from it.
Pip grew up in two places, the ‘forge’, where his sister and husband lived and Satis House, …show more content…
Pip’s London is a caricature of the place Dickens once knew, before the arrival of the railway and the sewer system – the London still referred to as ‘Dickensian’, exemplified by
Pip’s lodgings in Barnard’s Inn.
Dickens makes the city the prime scene for his protagonist learning the difference between appearance and reality. The seemingly chaotic city has a lesson to teach Pip – a lesson in realism. London is on the one hand meeting his “great expectations”, it is where he sets out to be a gentleman; on the other it is the city of decline and fall, of busy lifestyle and of death, in other words, the dismantling of those illusions, including his great expectations. When he is given a tour of the gallows of Newgate prison, it gives him a sickening picture of London, which he tries to get rid of by buying his way out for a shilling. Pip’s belief in the power of money as a means to a better life as well as a way of getting rid of the “dirt” of the past, were shattered in the course of his London years. London is a life lesson in the nature of corruption, and life in the city precipitates debts, events and sudden encounters which eventually leads him to renounce